‘Ill-treatment of tigers in South Africa unacceptable’

The 1 500 tigers held in captivity in South Africa are poorly managed, according to Dereck Milburn, regional director of the Aspinall Foundation.

This followed an emergency rescue operation to translocate two Siberian tigers from Seaview Predator Park in Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth) to the Lionsrock Big Cat Sanctuary in the Free State by the Aspinall Foundation and the Four Paws animal welfare organisation.

The tigers had to be translocated after an incident earlier in June in which a worker was attacked and killed.

Milburn told Farmer’s Weekly that the vast majority of tigers in South Africa were held in inadequate facilities that served no conservation purpose.

“These tigers should not be bred at all. They need to have access to large areas in which to roam, and in South Africa we simply don’t have space to keep tigers in areas that resemble their natural habitat,” he said.

According to the Aspinall Foundation and Four Paws, an eight-year-old tiger called Jasper had breached the fence of his enclosure and killed an employee of the Seaview park. Jasper had then breached the fence of a neighbouring enclosure, where he killed another tiger to get to a tigress in oestrus.

“This should not have happened. The female should have been spayed and not allowed to come into heat. In his quest to get to the female, [Jasper] breached the electric fence, which was out of order. I reiterate that this should not have been allowed to happen,” Milburn added.

According to him, the tigers were adapting well to their new home. The translocation had been a complex operation to complete within a restricted period in order to prevent further risk to staff or animals. The tigers were healthy and had a second chance at life.

“In many captive facilities, animals are seen merely as objects, while they are, in fact, sentient beings and should be treated as such,” Milburn said in a statement.

Fiona Miles, director of Four Paws South Africa, said in statement that tigers were not a native species to South Africa, and while they might be afforded protection under the Animals Protection Act, their exploitation in private keeping, intensive breeding programmes for commercial purposes, and the tourism industry was not protected by legislation. – Annelie Coleman

FW ARCHIVE There are concerns about the well- being of tigers being held in captivity in South Africa.