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Rhino atrocities - March 2011, Kariega Game Reserve, Eastern Cape, footage by Dr William Fowlds.

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 00:59:48 -0800

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Video from Langeberg Mountains, Western Cape, Research cameras

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 00:30:33 -0800

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Soft traps...

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 00:17:36 -0800

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New leopard find - Riversdale, Western Cape, downloaded on 15 December 2011

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 23:53:28 -0800

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NEWSLETTER: Add Your Voice - Stop Legislation that will Lead to the Slaughter of Our Biodiversity 10 Dec 2010

Sat, 26 Mar 2011 06:34:42 -0800

This leopard died on 8 June 2010 on the farm of Mr Gerrie Nortje near Willowmore as the result of a gin trap. These gin traps (exactly these as pictured) are now defined by the Department of Environmental Affairs as a soft trap. This is utterly outrageous!

Do you care enough to stop this?

*IF YOU DO NOTHING ELSE FOR CONSERVATION, * ACT ON THIS NOW!
PLEASE Object to the Norms and Standards for the Management of Damage Causing Animals by 31 January 2011

Submit the attached drafted objections. You are welcome to edit it and to distribute it.

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
Edmund Burke

Download full Newsletter as pdf

Please take the time to read this email. This newsletter gives you the full context of the issue and a practical way in which you can help to address it. In this detailed newsletter, we let you into a glimpse of our work and experience in this field, and the politics, crimes and realties of the on-going slaughter of our biodiversity in South Africa in the name of the "management of damage causing animals". The newsletter highlights a few case studies from our work, mostly in the last 6 months or others that are still unfolding from this last year. We stress that this reflects a very small region of the eastern part of the Western Cape and the western part of the Eastern Cape, but many similar such activities happen across our country, every day!

The South African Government’s Department of Economic Affairs recently published Norms and Standards for the Management of Damage Causing Animals (N&S) on the 26th November 2010. This document is fundamentally flawed and you will see that the decimation of our faunal diversity will be legitimized and legally entrenched for generations. It is a disgrace that such a piece of statute should guide the management of our biodiversity. In it, the government proposes to rename GIN TRAPS as SOFT TRAPS; this is an oxymoron if ever one existed. Watch this YouTube video to see the impact of these newly named "soft traps".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9374mQJNWPg

The power is within the hands of us as citizens to object to this fatally flawed guideline document that will impact on all relevant legislation and regulations to follow. More than 80% of land in South Africa lies outside of protected areas, and as such, it would have a devastating impact on our biodiversity. Please read the details of the Norms and Standards and object formally to it.
Attached is a draft objections letter to use in your objection: feel free to edit and change it.

The Norms and Standards for Management of Damage Causing Animals can be viewed at:

http://www.environment.gov.za/HotIssues/2010/animalstandard.pdf

Objections should be sent by no later than 31 January 2011, to:

The Director General: Environmental Affairs
Attention: Mr Thomas Mbedzi
Private Bag X447
Pretoria
0001

OR

The Director General: Environmental Affairs
Attention: Mr Thomas Mbedzi
North Tower (Room 1320)
315 Pretorius Street
Pretoria

OR

Fax: +27 (0)12 320 7026

OR

Email: NMbedzi@environment.gov.za

Title the correspondence: Objections and Comments on the Published Norms and Standards for the Management of Damage-Causing Animals (Government Gazette Vol 545, Pretoria, 26 November 2010, No 33806) - General Notice (1084 of 2010)

Please copy us on the correspondence as this way we can ensure that we have a record of the comments and follow it up.

CASE STUDIES OF INNOCENT WILDLIFE DESTROYED AND PUT AT RISK

Most of the methods used in "damage-causing animal management" are indiscriminate and ecologically damaging, killing many tens of thousands of innocent animals each year, as in these two examples: Bush pigs (Dec 2009), often at the brunt of the management practices - these animals were killed in the Baviaanskloof in a sports hunt. The innocent little Cape Foxes are wiped out in their thousands, as in this gin trap/soft trap, caught as by-catch.

These Norms and Standards for the Management of Damage-Causing Animals are fatally flawed. By its very definition of damage causing animals in the Norms and Standards, all wild animals are defined as damage causing by virtue of their natural feeding habits. Together with the modus operandi of the Norms and Standards, and the methods being legalized, the assault against our wildlife heritage will legally be allowed to continue and escalate.

Ecologically and ethically acceptable alternatives that have proven to be successful are available to landowners, inclusive of shepherds (that creates jobs), guardian animals, protection collars, and advanced technology and animal husbandry methods.

By way of trying to convince you of the impact of these methods, let us illustrate the atrocities that we have had to witness against our wildlife over the last few months and updates on unfolding cases we reported on previously.

We are not exaggerating the impact of the onslaught on our wildlife in the practice of predator control. The cases we present are merely the "few" cases we have been dealing with in our small region of influence in the last few months, never mind the vast majority of cases that go undetected. It seems the Norms and Standards will enable these events to become more commonplace, and lawful.

This email contains details of case studies illustrating the pitfalls that the Norms and Standards will entrench in law in South Africa:

1.    Ewald Gerber killing of leopards in the Langkloof, Eastern Cape
2.    Illegal hunting by Eastern Cape officials for leopards
3.    Mr Arthur Rudman being charged for the possession of a falsified permit on which 2 leopards appeared on the counterfoil of the official permit
4.    Eastern Cape department allows damage-causing animal to be hunted and:
1.    Sold onto safari hunts, and to
2.    Issue retrospective permits for killed damage-causing animal
5.    Gin trapped leopard dies on the Baviaanskloof reserve edge in the Willowmore flats
6.    Mr Marius Kleyn kills 3 leopards in 2 months on his farm in Hankey with packs of hunting dogs
7.    Leopard dies in snare in the Garden Route
8.    Serval caught in gin trap in Western Cape
9.    Use of snares and the promotion of soft traps by academic and conservation agencies undermine the ecologically and ethically acceptable management strategies being promoted. The Cape Leopard Trust captures 3 leopards in snares.
10.    Dawid Smith shoots monitored leopard in Baviaanskloof

1. Ewald Gerber's killing of a leopard in the Langkloof, Eastern Cape

We reported previously that Ewald Gerber (a farmer in the Langkloof near Joubertina, Tel 042 273 1739) is reported to have illegally killed this female leopard on 10 October 2009. He was reportedly accompanied on this illegal hunt by Quinton and Marlene Horak (Tel 076 734 3946, email: qhorak@gmail.com ), Herman Ferreira (a policeman from Paterson police station). Also accompanying them was Ewald Schreiber, Mackie Schreiber (both of Joubertina), a farm labourer of Ewald Gerber and another off-duty policemen (also from Paterson Police station whose name is not known to us) as well as a child of one of the policemen.

The leopard was reportedly hunted with dogs and shot once the dogs chased the cat into a tree. We have been led to believe that no prosecution has been undertaken in this matter. This was an illegal hunt as this protected species was hunted with dogs and without a permit.

Such methods of hunting are now supported by the Norms and Standards!

2. Illegal hunting by Eastern Cape officials for leopards

We reported previously that in December 2009, two Eastern Cape conservation officials, Mr Gerrie Ferreira (Tel: 042 292 0339; 0836546273, email:gerrie.ferreira@deaet.ecape.gov.za ) and Mr Hennie Swanevelder (Tel: 042 292 0339; 083 406 3159, email: hennie. swanevelder@deaet.ecape.gov.za ) participated in an illegal leopard hunt in the Baviaanskloof region with Mr Ewald Gerber (who is reported to have illegally killed a leopard on 10 October 2009), with an illegal pack of hunting dogs. This occurred by their own admission and that of their seniors. It is clear that these actions are contrary to the law and the very regulations that the officers are implementing and asking all of the public to abide by. Thus they were allegedly guilty of conducting a restricted activity without a permit, and claimed in their defence the prescripts of an internal departmental guideline, which is contrary to the law allowing such practices. (This guideline document also allows the sale of damage causing animal hunts - inclusive of leopards, to be sold to commercial hunters and to issue permits retrospectively, both being illegal in terms of the law.) Furthermore, this activity occurred in a World Heritage Site area.

The public prosecutor elected not to prosecute these officials based on the alleged absence of mens rea (a guilty mind).

As lay people we find it extraordinary that state officials tasked with implementing certain state regulations claim ignorance of such regulations, and abides by some clearly unlawful internal management guidelines. We are also perplexed that the prosecuting authorities believe that this is ample reason not to prosecute illegal activities. We did not know that ignorance of the law was ever a defence, not least when it is done by the very officials that are implementing such regulations.

The Norms and Standards are ambiguous on the need for permits (thus allowing practices as in this case) and will undermine other already fraught legislation, like the Threatened or Protected Species (TOPS) regulations, never mind undermining our environmental rights as depicted in the Bill of Rights in our Constitution.
3. Mr Arthur Rudman is being charged for the possession of a falsified permit on which 2 leopards appeared on the counterfoil of the official permit

Mr Arthur Rudman (Tel: +27 41 966 1441, Fax: +27 41 991 0456, Cell: +27 83 280 1334) owns Blaauwkrantz Safaris near Uitenhage and is a Director of Wildlife Ranching South Africa. He is currently being prosecuted for allegedly being in possession of a falsified permit containing two leopard trophies that was not on the original permit. It is not clear where these trophies originated from. Mr Rudman owns and runs one of the largest and oldest commercial hunting operations in the Eastern Cape.

This falsified permit was discovered at a Graaff Reinet taxidermist in September 2009.

We can now confirm that charges are being laid against Mr Rudman.

Mr Rudman is a prominent figure in the game industry. He and his sons are very vocal proponents for hunting leopards in the region, and have often alleged that our data about the perilous state of the leopard population numbers in the area is somehow compromised or misrepresented.

Watch the following: http://www.blaauwkrantz.com/news_article.asp?NewsID=65&cache=12/8/2010%2010:00:16%20PM

There is intense pressure to allow permitted hunts of leopards using dogs of commercial hunting operators, and it appears that the Eastern Cape provincial department are willing to issue such permits for classified damage causing leopards - all leopards in the region will now become damage-causing leopards. We predict that at the current rate of persecution, the species will disappear from the region. Commercial hunts on damage causing leopards are unlawful.

The Eastern Cape conservation department granted Mr Rudman a destruction permit in July 2010 for a leopard that was classified as a damage causing animal. We understand this permit would allow the hunt to be for profit through a commercially sold hunt.

The Norms and Standards allows the use of dog hunting, even though this is against several statutes, and the Norms and Standards are silent on this profit motif relating to damage-causing permits. Thus allowing the commercial hunts on species like leopard as seems to be the case in the Eastern Cape, the Norms and Standards will further incentivize all (commercially profitable) wildlife to be classified as damage-causing, and to be destroyed.

4. Eastern Cape department allows damage-causing animal to be hunted and: Sold onto safari hunts, and to Issue retrospective permits for killed damage-causing animals.

Currently Eastern Cape farmers are currently being offered R250 000 to participate in leopard hunts with commercial hunting safaris. This happens at the same time as a sudden and intense increase of demand for damage-causing destruction permits for leopards.

In the Eastern Cape, the provincial department condones the commercial sale of hunts of damage-causing animals, and issues permits retrospectively when such animals are killed. Both these actions are seen as perverse incentives to classify all high value wildlife as damage causing animals.

It is precisely this scenario that will proliferate across the country due to the Norms and Standards definition of all wildlife as damage-causing animals. The Norms and Standards lacks clarity on permitting procedures and conditions, it allows dog hunting, and is silent on for-profit-hunts.

5. Gin trapped leopard dies on the Baviaanskloof reserve edge in the Willowmore flats

This exact gin trap (June 2010) is newly renamed a "soft trap" by the minimum standards listed in the Norms and Standards. These devices are inhumane, ecologically damaging, indiscriminate killers, and there is no evidence that they are actually effective for their supposed purpose in the management of damage-causing animals. The specialist task teams that helped draft the Norms and Standards had recommended their prohibition. In the published Norms and Standards they are not even restricted, never mind prohibited.

Re-branding gin traps as "soft traps" is illogical and sinister (and the ultimate oxymoron). It is illogical as in law there cannot be a distinction in the two, and cynical, as it thus run contrary to the constitution, and other statutes, like the Animal Protection Act, and the National Environmental and Biodiversity Act and its TOPS regulations. If their rebranding is accepted, it will make those statutes unworkable.

Calling gin traps "soft traps" is an insult to our logic, and the conservation and ethical care principles we adhere to.

6. Mr Marius Kleyn kills 3 leopards in 2 months on his farm in Hankey with packs of hunting dogs

Marius Kleyn, Kleinrivier Boerdery, PO Box 98, Hankey, 6350, Tel: (042) 284 0700, Cell: 082 490 0912 Fax: (042) 284 0205, E-mail: kleinriv@lantic.net

Mr Kleyn had killed 3 leopards in two months on his farm near Hankey, Eastern Cape. All these cats were killed with hunting dogs and shooting. The first leopard killed was 59kg male leopard, the largest leopard ever recorded in the Eastern Cape. With the last hunt, a staff member of his was mauled by the leopard as he and the dogs cornered and wounded the leopard.
All three hunts were illegal and without permits.

(The Landmark Foundation research indicates that merely 35 territorial leopards remain in and around 300 000 ha of the Baviaanskloof Reserve complex.)

Mr Kleyn claims he was hunting caracal with his dogs as the caracals were damage-causing animals, something the Norms and Standards would permit. He claims it was not his intention to kill the 3 leopards.

3 leopards killed like this by accident in exactly the same fashion in 2 months on the same farm is a very implausible scenario!
Pic: Mr Elton Grobbelaar, the farm worker mauled by the third leopard hunted with dogs on Mr Kleyn's farm.

7. Leopard dies in snare in the Garden Route

This leopard died in a snare in the Garden Route near Plettenberg Bay in late August 2010. The Norms and Standards are silent on prohibited methods, or for that matter which methods should be prohibited.

Snares, gin traps, poison baits, denning, helicopter hunting, "Killer" walk-through snap traps, and dog hunting ought to be prohibited activities in the Norms and Standards, that is, in all and every circumstance.

PIC: Garden Route Snare Incident, August 2010. Research indicated that the Garden Route has about 25 territorial leopards remaining. There is no mention in the norms and standards about the prohibition of this method, and others, in the management of damage causing animals.

Pic: Walk-through "Killer" snap trap: there is no mention in the Norms and Standard on the prohibition of this commonly used method in "managing damage causing animals" in which many thousands of innocent animals succumb, like this porcupine.

8. Serval caught in gin trap in Western Cape

Serval has been extinct from the Western Cape for decades. Last month we rescued one out of a gin trap, only to have to euthanize him 4 days later. Serval is now again extinct from the Western Cape.

The Western Cape's CapeNature, in a stricter policy than that of the National Legislation, has restricted the use of gin traps in all circumstances, meaning a permit is required for their use. In this case the law was evidently broken as no permit was in place, but no prosecution will follow as CapeNature elected to rather try to educate the person breaking the law than enforcing the law. We call on the guilty to be prosecuted to show some commitment to enforce the regulations.

These injuries illustrated the impact of gin traps. This was an innocent animal.

The N&S not only call these traps "soft traps", but make their continued use lawful and unregulated.

9. Use of snares and the promotion of soft traps by academic and conservation agencies undermine the ecologically and ethically acceptable management strategies being promoted. The Cape Leopard Trust captures 3 leopards in snares

As if the challenge is not great enough to advocate ridding our land of all forms of gin traps, snares and other unethical means of capturing wildlife, we are faced with conservation organizations using such methods.

We have received reports that in the last few months three leopards have been captured by the Cape Leopard Trust in snares for research purposes in the Gouritz region. Not only do we believe the use of snares to be unlawful in terms of the TOPS regulations, it also undermines efforts to have these devices outlawed. These devices are inhumane, unselective, and represent a risk to the captured animal and the people managing it. This has been confirmed by concerned parties who have witnessed the injuries to these animals and the risks.

Permits to use snares have been granted in this matter by CapeNature; we believe unlawfully in terms of the TOPS regulations. This undermines efforts to have these devices outlawed.
It is notable that the Cape Leopard Trust only a few years ago promoted the use of soft traps.

It is thus of little surprise that these terms and oxymorons find themselves into the Norms and Standards and that it is silent on the use of snares.

Pic: A cable snare around the neck of a leopard from 2009. It was never established who set this snare on the outskirts of Port Elizabeth, and it was probably set as means to capture wild animals for bush meat.

10. Dawid Smith shoots a monitored leopard in Baviaanskloof

Two days after the publication of the N&S a farmer shoots a leopard that we have been monitoring for 3 years, and this while this farmer is on a paid retainer to help us manage the wildlife human conflict in the region. This leopard had a territorial range of 60 000 ha, the largest recorded to date in the region.

Dawid Smith is a farmer at Kleinpoort farm in the Baviaanskloof (Tel 049 839 1010, Email:bavkleinpoort@tiscali.co.za ). He killed this very dominant leopard in the Baviaanskloof on the 29th of November. He called it in and shot it with a hunting rifle. It was a leopard we had been monitoring for 3 years, and formed part of the current research study in the region. The impact on the social dynamics of the already depleted leopards is unknown, but probably devastating. Any juvenile offspring in the area will likely be killed by the new male who will take over his range. We know of at least one juvenile male in this leopard's range.

Mr Dawid Smith has probably been the largest beneficiary of our leopard conservation efforts in the region, dating back to June 2007. He was offered compensation for any damage the leopard might have caused provided he practiced ecologically acceptable and ethical production practices and used the preventative measures we provided. He failed to meet his side of the bargain and chose to kill the leopard.

In 2007 it was Mr Smith who captured a leopard in a gin trap, which broke free from its anchors and ran through the mountains with the gin trap still attached to its leg for three days with a pack of dogs chasing it - only to be torn apart by the dogs in the end. For a few years it seems thereafter the shame of that event, and the money that changed hands, enabled us to get him to work with us in an ecologically and ethically acceptable manner.

This leopard was shot without a permit, but the method used (call and shoot hunting) is supported by the Norms and Standards, as will be the method of the death of the leopard in 2007!

The leopard shot by Dawid Smith.

ADD YOUR VOICE TO STOPPING LEGISLATION THAT WILL LEAD TO THE SLAUGHTER OF OUR BIODIVERSITY.

Submit the attached drafted objections. Feel free to edit it and to distribute it.

Download full Newsletter as pdf

NEWSLETTER: Burning of the Traps [20 Sept 2008]

Sat, 26 Mar 2011 05:46:20 -0800

The Landmark Foundation staged a public and symbolic burning of gin traps in the Baviaanskloof (Eastern Cape) this week.

This is a culmination of a 4 year effort to rid the area of these barbaric predator control mechanisms; namely gin traps, indiscriminate poisons and hunting dog packs. These "tools" have seen the known numbers of leopards killed in the area rise to 25. These barbaric and ecologically damaging production tools are causing havoc and immeasurable damage to our biodiversity countrywide, as literally thousands of animals are being indiscriminately wiped out through these practices in the interest of agricultural profits. Furthermore, retailers are knowingly sourcing their products from such production methods, and we as consumers are knowingly or ignorantly supporting these practices through buying these products.

Download full pdf of newsletter

Four leopards were killed in 2006 by these traps in the Baviaanskloof valley alone. This led to dramatic and public conflict between the Landmark Foundation and local farmers who had used this method of predator control for generations. But from the start of 2007 the farming community decided to formally forgo the use of these much derided methods of predator control. The Landmark Foundation then developed an integrated project to convert the entire valley (about 50 000 hectares) to non-lethal, ecologically acceptable and ethical control methods (our other efforts are scattered across the landscape from Mossel Bay to Graaff Reinet to Grahamstown).

The Baviaanskloof became an important focus and pilot area where we have been able to demonstrate and prove the dramatic success of the non-lethal control methods on an area-wide basis with cooperating neighbouring farmers. These methods include Anatolian dogs, protective sheep collars, alpacas, herding techniques and limited compensation schemes. It is currently being applied to about 13 000 small livestock animals in this valley and in the 12 months that these methods have been applied less than 10 livestock losses attributed to predators have been reported. This seems to emphatically counter the nay-saying in the agricultural sector and agricultural media about these methods, and dramatic and unexpected early successes in an area plagued by heavy losses at the time of using lethal controls!

Our current effort has seen the entire Baviaanskloof valley, on the western entrance to the Baviaanskloof Mega Reserve near Willowmore, participate in the eradication of these barbaric and cruel production methods. More than a year ago the farmers agreed to stop using gin traps, poisons (which were not really used in the area) and hunting dog packs. This week, the farmers and the local community formally rid their entire valley of these tools by destroying 160 of these traps in their valley. This follows the confidence they have developed in the non-lethal control methods. Robert Leggat, a world renowned bronze wildlife sculptor will be melting down these traps and shape a memorial sculpture from the remains of the traps to both celebrate these magnificent creatures , the leopards, but also (to use his own words) to "capture and honour the collective suffering caused by these barbaric traps and devices".

In the wider area we have been able to rescue 17 leopards from certain death at the hands of these methods.

The Gin Trap Debate
The Landmark Foundation lives under no illusion that this is merely our first great collective breakthrough and that this battle will continue to tax us. We will need to continue our mission from valley to valley to clear our country of this barbarism, as the formal government structures and commercial and retail players have done little or nothing to assist in our efforts. It is tragic and inexcusable that government has remained largely silent on this matter, and that they continue to allow these methods in their regulations and legislation. Gin traps are legally allowed in South Africa in the use of predator control. How ridiculous, as these tools have been banned in more than 90 countries, but not in South Africa! In fact, the agricultural sector promotes it, and is fighting to retain its use. Appeals to meet the Minister of the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism on the matter have gone unanswered. Furthermore, some government conservation agencies and conservation NGOs (like the Cape Leopard Trust) are actively going around promoting the use of rather sickeningly called "soft" gin traps (sometimes called rubber jaw or soft jaw traps).

Pic: Example of a so-called "soft" gin trap

The traps are barbaric, and the attempt to rebrand them with rather euphemistic names is a mere "green washing" effort and a sellout to strong lobbies to continue the use of these barbaric devices! They continue to fracture limbs, cause blood supply cut off and gangrene and thus the death of the animal; they tear ligaments and tissues, and cause dehydration and stressful deaths. The animals still chew off their limbs and break their teeth trying to free themselves from these devices. Using "soft" as a prefix to a barbaric device does not remove the barbarism! There have even been attempts to bribe the Landmark Foundation in May this year to "soften" our language on gin traps!!!! Has the world gone mad?!

Pic: Gin Trap Injury

All this while there seems to be little or no support from the regulatory authorities, if not active undermining of efforts to remove this scourge of gin traps/leg-hold traps from the country side, and while all our retail chains continue to profit and source products through this production method.

We have a situation where thousands of these traps are added to the landscape on a monthly basis. With a ban on these traps, significant pressure will come to bear on the retail sector not to source their produce from illegal production methods! Thus even in the absence of enforcement capacity of the government entities, the market could enforce this ban through the power of the retailers to ensure compliance with legislation by their suppliers. A government ban is essential to rid our country of these barbaric practices, and the retailers have a moral obligation to urge for this. Failing their support we must mobilise consumers to force them into it. It is our belief that the gin trap will do to our meat and animal fibre products and exports what the meulsing debate did to the Australian wool industry - we will certainly campaign for this and we are taking our campaign to Europe and focusing our efforts on the Wool and Mohair industry to start. Our green labeled brand of Fair Game will provide the incentive to farmers to conserve the biodiversity on their farms, and thus reward those that conserve our biodiversity through premiums for their products.

The Source of the Traps in South Africa: The Landmark Foundation discovered that a factory in Prince Albert, in the Western Cape, is "quietly going about its business" of manufacturing as many as 1200 gin traps each month - two hundred of these are leopard traps - and this while it is expressly illegal to use these devices on protected species! The factory owner, Mr Peter Schneekluth, boasts that he has 3000 farmers on his books. That means that between 12 000 and 15 000 of these traps enter the system each year! These traps can very easily be used for the next 20 years. The next time you visit the town of Prince Albert, amongst the many other beautiful tourist attractions, do go and visit Mr Schneekluth in Magrieta Prinsloo Street, in the wooden factory in the industrial area.

WHAT IS THE CUMULATIVE EFFECT OF THIS DAMAGE TO OUR BIODIVERSITY?!

Yet, our government allows this, and statutory and conservation agents promote the use of these and so-called "soft" options of this form of barbarism.

In our understanding there is no such thing as soft barbarism!!!!

Pic: Mr Peter Schneekluth's Gin Trap Factory in Prince Albert

We suggest that you write to the following people to protest about the situation, if you support our efforts:

Mr Peter Schneekluth - the owner of the gin trap factory in Prince Albert to object to the barbarism that he is promoting and the barbaric tools he is manufacturing; Tel 023 541 1360 Fax 023 541 1255 Email: jackalcontrol@absamail.co.za
The Tourism Association in Prince Albert to voice your disquiet that this factory blights the image of the town; Email: princealberttourism@intekom.co.za
Prince Albert Mayor, Mrs Gay van Hasselt should hear how the origin of such barbarism stems from her town, Email: Vanhasselt@icon.co.za
Mr Marthinus van Schalkwyk, Minister of DEAT whose legislation still allows this barbarism and who has not responded to request to meet him on this matter; Email:ministry@deat.gov.za or mwillemse@deat.gov.za or CLenders@deat.gov.za
Mr Quinton Martins, Project Manager of the Cape Leopard Trust who is going around promoting barbaric "soft" gin traps as acceptable conservation tools. Email:quinton@capeleopard.org.za; and
The retailers that continue to source and sell produce that are manufactured using these barbaric tools. Contact the CEOs of Shoprite Checkers, Pick 'n Pay, Spar and Woolworths and ask them to explain why they source produce using such barbarism in production! - Between them they are responsible for between 55 - 70% of all meat sales in South Africa!

Below is a press article from the Mercury Newspaper from today (5 September 2008).

Yes, the slaughter of leopards in South Africa is in the name of profits and culture - as if either is justified?! We also condemn the horrific and barbaric killing of a leopard in the North West Province last week with government officials hunting the animal down with automatic rifles and a horde of people in tow as spectators, and parading and posing with the dead animal. Such bloodlust and blood sports are despicable!

While farmers and retailers may own their land and their businesses, and people may own and participate in their culture, the biodiversity of this country and these animals belong to us all!

They are my heritage.

Police are hunting for a Jozini man linked to the slaughter of at least 120 leopards, a rare and specially protected hunting cat whose distinctive spotted pelts often adorn the shoulders of the Zulu royal family and other traditional dignitaries.

The man was arrested four years ago when police found the remains of 64 leopard skins, which were in the process of being tailored into traditional attire.

Though he was eventually convicted of several serious wildlife crimes in the Ingwavuma Magistrate's Court last year, he never went to jail. Instead, he was fined, given a suspended sentence and ordered to do community service. But now it appears that he never gave up his thriving illegal business, which involved poisoning endangered cats and other wild animals with a potent weedkiller.

Three weeks ago, police found the remnants of another 64 leopards at his home in the Mamfeni area, near Jozini, along with skins from several civet cats, 10 suni antelope, 30 samango monkeys, a wildebeest and five grey duiker.

The culprit was not at home, but detectives found several cans of a powerful German-made pesticide which they believe was used to poison wildlife watering holes in Zululand, Maputaland and possibly Mozambique. The man and his agents were also suspected of using traps and guns to kill the animals.

Details of the discovery, which has shocked nature conservation officials, were announced yesterday by Senior Superintendent Rajen Aiyer, head of the police organised crime unit in Durban.

The case is likely to revive debate about the ceremonial display of protected animal skins by the Zulu nobility or traditional leaders and the degree to which this drives commercially driven wildlife crimes.

Aiyer was speaking at a meeting of the KZN Wildlife Crime Working Group in the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi game reserve.

He said the wildlife products seized at Mamfeni were valued conservatively at R2.6 million and he noted that a single leopard claw could be sold for R100 at the Mona traditional market at Nongoma.

Aiyer is a founder member of the wildlife crime working group which was set up in KZN six years ago, soon after the police endangered species unit was disbanded.

The group includes senior Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife and KZN Prosecuting Service officials.

Ezemvelo ecologist Catharine Hanekom said hundreds of tons of wildlife products, mainly plants, bark and tubers, were being sold at the Mona market every month.

Mona supplies muti products at wholesale prices to traditional healers and dealers who transport the goods to the Warwick Triangle market in Durban, the Farraday market in Johannesburg and possibly markets in Malawi, Botswana, Mozambique and Swaziland.

Hanekom said traditional medicine was used by millions of people around the world and the demand was unlikely to decline. However, several plant species were used wastefully. Traditionally, muti was harvested sustainably and in small quantities, to protect the parent stock, but with rapid urbanisation, suppliers now felled entire trees to harvest the bark.

The exploitation of dwindling natural resources could not be sustained, she said, noting that the rural landscape was being steadily degraded, in particular by organised commercial timber groups.

One of the more unusual guests at the meeting was Sindi Mkhize, a Pietermaritzburg sangoma who was convicted of wildlife-related crimes.

Some of Mkhize's initiates stole and killed a rare Seychelles tortoise from the Lion Park and Zoological Gardens near Camperdown two years ago. A lion skin and a leopard skin were also found at Mkhize's home. She was later sentenced to community service.

Advocate Dalene Barnard, who prosecuted the case, noted that several people were horrified that Mkhize had been given a soft sentence, but she was satisfied that community service had been the correct option.

Barnard said Mkhize told her that she had benefited from the sentence, which included cutting down invasive alien trees and plants, and had also volunteered to become involved with public awareness projects with other traditional healers.

This article was originally published on page 1 of The Mercury on September 05, 2008

File Photograph...From a wedding. Spare a thought for the dead cats.

NEWSLETTER NEWS & UPDATES [08 Aug 2008]

Sat, 26 Mar 2011 04:07:30 -0800

Two slain black-backed jackals. This picture was taken near Graaff Reinet on 28 July 2008.

Is this the "proud display" of South African DEAD biodiversity??!!

Please consider your farm-reared meats or animal fibre (wool and mohair) purchases next time you are at the supermarket, as your choices may make you part of this barbarism.

The Landmark Foundation is developing wildlife-friendly products that will be launched under the Fair Game™ brand in the next few months, so do look out for these.

STOP THIS SLAUGHTER OF OUR PREDATORS

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We remain resolute in our position and efforts to promote non-lethal predator controls on livestock farms. We consider leg-hold traps (gin traps), indiscriminate poisons and hunting dog packs to be barbaric methods that need to be outlawed and that consumers should resist. Please contact us if you would like of copy of our non-lethal predator management guide, Predators on Livestock Farms.

This is not unlike the controversy of the 10/80 poison, where a conservation entity reportedly received R400 000 to promote this poison to kill predators.

In a perverse turn of events we are informed that some conservation entities and academics are pushing to soften the positions taken on gin traps. They are trying to euphemistically call these barbaric tools "leg-hold devices" (and even more sickening "soft gin traps") and claim that they are safe and acceptable. They are not. Some conservation entities even use these devices in their research methodologies and hand them out to farmers as an item they promote in production practises! Such positions contradict basic facts and knowledge of the pathology caused by these barbaric devices. These devices cause distal limb gangrene as they occlude blood supply, fracture limbs, injure ligament and tendons and other soft tissues and often breach the skin (resulting in compound and lethal fractures). Never mind the fact that the animals suffer and often die of dehydration. What more do you expect when the limbs of wild animals are held anchored to a chain?! These traps are indiscriminate, in humane and thus any form of "control" is merely a delusion and a "green-washing" effort. How can conservation entities promote such barbarism?!

This is not unlike the controversy of the 10/80 poison, where a conservation entity reportedly received R400 000 to promote this poison to kill predators.

We have even been subjected to attempts of bribery to get us to soften our position on gin traps. Has the world gone mad?!

We had further bad news on 5 August 2008, when an old female leopard was captured in one of our live traps on a farm in the Baviaanskloof. The veterinarian darted and treated the animal which showed evidence of some dehydration. She was a very old female judging by her worn down teeth and her condition. During the recovery after the darting and fitting of the GPS collar, she collapsed and died. A full autopsy is being conducted as the cause of death is not clear although stress and possible underlying illness have been suspected by the veterinarian.

Leopards Died: 25 since November 2002 - these are the confirmed and known cases in the Addo National Park areas and the Baviaanskloof Mega-Reserve surrounds, most as the result of gin traps. We believe that this may be only the tip of the iceberg of the cases in the wider region.

Leopards Rescued: 17 since April 2004 (7 translocated to Addo Elephant National Park, and 10 released on site).

Thus, of the 42 leopard incidents since 2002 that we have been involved with, 40% were saved. (The initial 15 all died with a success rate of 0%, now that percentage has increased to 63% since 2004 - so we are heading in the right direction.) Eight percent (2 cats) of the deaths have been the unintended result of us trying to save the cats. These events are clearly regrettable, and 8% to high, and we will continually strive to avoid these distressing results.

Everyone in our team and all the collaborating entities deeply regret this outcome and we are gutted by it. Firstly we take responsibility for this, and although with the evidence currently at hand we do not believe that human error caused this outcome, we will nevertheless fully investigate it through a post mortem investigation and take the lessons from it to heart. So we must gather the lessons learnt, pick ourselves up and continue to improve our results.

We remain resolute that non-lethal controls are the way to go and have proven resoundingly successful.

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NEWSLETTER: 17th Leopard Rescued [20 July 2008]

Sat, 26 Mar 2011 02:11:19 -0800

Predator Persecutions Continue…but some Battles Won

The Landmark Foundation has in the last week rescued the 17th leopard in the last 4 years in and around the areas surrounding the Tsitsikamma Mountains, the Baviaanskloof Mega Reserve and Addo Elephant National Park in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. In fact, it was the 14th rescue in the last 18 months! We have been able to do this with the help of local farmers who have been willing to embark on and partner with us on our non-lethal, ecologically and ethically acceptable predator management efforts. We are proud of these efforts, although daunted by the task at hand.

Since late 2002, 24 leopards have been killed in this area (80% of them as a result of gin traps on farms!), but the real number may be substantially more than that, perhaps even double. Pic: Dead black-backed jackals, Great Karoo. Persecuted???!!! (Photo: Nama Karoo Foundation)

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Just in the last few weeks we have had unconfirmed reports of two leopards that have been killed illegally near Uitenhage since the beginning of the year. Who knows the extent of this problem??!!

The Landmark Foundation runs a limited compensation system whereby farmers are remunerated if any of our GPS collared leopards are proven to have caused losses

Our latest success is a continuation of the inroads we have been able to make in the region in supporting farmers to change to non-lethal and ethical predator management. The Baviaanskloof Valley has in many ways led the way in this work. The entire farming community in this valley have banded together with us to tackle predator management in a holistic, area-wide manner with ecologically and ethically acceptable means. This has enabled us to help rescue 7 of the 17 leopards in this particular valley of some 45 000 ha.

Since 2004, the Landmark Foundation and its partners have been able to rescue 17 of the last 26 leopards in the region – a 63% success rate. The success rate of our methods of rescue and management continue to improve. Prior to 2004, 15 of the first 15 cases we were involved with died – 0% success. Initial data and early indications of our research indicate that the breeding population in the Baviaanskloof Mega Reserve area is perhaps 50! This is not an ecologically and genetically sustainable population. Thus the saving of the last 17 individuals is a significant turnaround of the persecution of these animals.

The latest rescue was a 30 kg male leopard on the farm Vleikloof in the Baviaanskloof Valley near Willowmore in one of our live traps. The farmer, Mr Willie van Rensburg, has together with his colleagues of the Baviaanskloof Valley collectively embarked on a project with the Landmark Foundation whereby all lethal controls have been stopped. All gin traps have been removed from livestock production in the Baviaanskloof Valley and no poisons or hunting dog packs are being used. Protective sheep collars have been fitted to all the livestock (12 000) and 5 Anatolian shepherd dogs have been introduced. We recently had the privilege of a field visit by world renowned livestock guarding dog expert Prof Ray Coppinger from the USA to some of our participating farmers.

Pic: Leopard rescued by Willie van Rensberg,Baviaanskloof. The leopard is sedated.

Commercial farms in the wider region, covering about 120 000 hectares, are part of our regional programme supporting holistic, non-lethal, ecologically acceptable and ethical predator management practices. In total we have collared about 13 000 livestock with protective wire mesh collars, and some with bell and scent collars. We have run two alpacas as herders in a trial, sponsored and introduced 12 Anatolian shepherd dogs in total, and have a research programme with Rhodes University, and also soon commencing one with Pretoria University.

While these successes do keep us going we are constantly reminded of the vast extent of the problem of predator persecutions. Some farmers remain unwilling and resistant to change their practices.

A dramatic reduction in predator losses has been reported in the Baviaanskloof over the last year as a result of these efforts, which are reported to be an improvement in excess of a 90% at present. We are running a trial with this valley in an area-wide effort to test our mitigation methods. We suspect that the improvement has been the result of both the mitigation measures and the stabilization of the predator populations and top predators. NON-LETHAL, ECOLOGICALLY ACCEPTABLE AND ETHICAL METHODS ARE NOT ONLY PROVING EFFECTIVE, BUT FAR SUPERIOR THAN LETHAL CONTROLS, AND ARE MORE PROFITABLE FOR THE FARMER!

The Landmark Foundation runs a limited compensation system whereby farmers are remunerated if any of our GPS collared leopards are proven to have caused losses, as we correlate the site and times of the losses with the movements of the leopards. We see this as an integral part of payment for ecosystem services – a topic that some environmental activists love talking about in trying to get industry and government to apply resources to conservation efforts and (their lifestyles), but yet we are vilified by some conservation agencies for our payments when we try to save leopards by it through compensating the damage they might cause. These efforts have been a resounding success and have resulted in a new and eager willingness by some farmers to participate as they genuinely see their interest being supported. We have seen hardened attitudes change, and more importantly a culture of persecution of these animals convert to a culture of enthusiastic conservation.
Many of the rescued leopards were unharmed in the live traps we have sponsored and introduced to counter the barbaric use of gin traps, poisons and hunting dog packs that are used so ubiquitously in the region and countrywide. The increased sighting of leopards in the Baviaanskloof is testimony that our efforts have been successful.

While these successes do keep us going we are constantly reminded of the vast extent of the problem of predator persecutions. Some farmers remain unwilling and resistant to change their practices. While we have succeeded in a small area in the central Baviaanskloof the slaughter of predators persists countrywide.

It is therefore no real surprise that we have come up against resistance. There is no place for such legislative barbarism in this country. Please send your objections to Minister Van Schalkwyk of the National Department of Environmental Affairs for legally allowing such barbarism in the form of leg-hold traps, indiscriminate poison traps and hunting dog packs in his department’s legislative tools. Call for these methods to be expressly outlawed as methods of control. His email address is ministry@deat.gov.za and his secretary’s email is mwillemse@deat.gov.za

We have a bizarre situation in the environmental sector where a “never on a Sunday” approach seems to be followed by conservation sectors on this issue. Some apply rather bizarre logic by saying that because enforcement capacity is poor, there is reason not to outlaw this barbarism, something akin to saying that just because of the poor enforcement of the unlawfulness of crimes like rape and murder there is no point in outlawing it. What kind of logic do we operate in?!

Even more worrying is the fact that some conservation organizations and research institutions are using leg-hold traps for their research work! Perhaps another reason why our appeals to work together seem to have fallen on deaf ears in these sectors.

The Landmark Foundation is about to launch a wildlife-friendly brand that will be independently audited and verified to be such

And then we have the retail sector. All our supermarkets are currently profiting from these barbaric production practices. There is not a single retail outlet in this country you can support with the assurance that livestock products (meats and animal fibres – wool and mohair) have not been produced using these barbaric practices. Please consider this when you purchase these products, and make the correct (ethical and conservation) decision, as your support of such products is contributing to this persecution and allowing people to profit from it. We have appealed to these retail groups for 4 years now, and still not a single retailer has predator-friendly produce in their stores. This is a disgrace! These companies knowingly buy from farmers and producers that utilize leg-hold traps (gin traps), indiscriminate poisons and hunting dog packs. Thus, their profits derive from such production practices. How can this be tolerated any longer? Those farmers that are responsible and ethical producers should be rewarded and differentiated from those that are not through certified, accredited and labeled products!

The Landmark Foundation has compiled and drafted a manual acting as a production standard for holistic, non-lethal, ecologically and ethically acceptable management of predators on rangelands. Woolworths has kindly paid for the printing and production of 2000 of these manuals. Any parties who would like a copy should get in contact with us. We will also distribute it through Woolworths, Cheetah Outreach, De Wildt and our partner organizations: CapeNature and the NSPCA. Woolworths is rumored to be about to launch a limited pilot predator-friendly meat product. Do go out and support it when it does emerge, as this is something we have been working towards with the retail sector.

Pick ‘n Pay is currently carrying our logo on some of the meat products in support of our efforts. While this is clearly of great value to us, this label does not indicate that such produce is free of predator persecution practices.

In the absence of legislation or concerted retail sector action, we believe that the market mechanisms will need to address this issue. While our mitigations measures are profiting farmers in better productivity, we aim to add value to participating farmers’ products at the till through a branded and value-added product. This will bring the farmer a premium for supporting biodiversity conservation and give you, the consumer, the power to choose ethical produce that conserves these magnificent creatures.

To this end the Landmark Foundation is about to launch a wildlife-friendly brand that will be independently audited and verified to be such. The first of the products to be launched will be a meat brand that will be predator-friendly and certified free of the use of leg-hold traps, indiscriminate poisons and hunting dog packs. The production of these products will be guided by the production manual that has just been published and its code of conduct.

Please watch the media for the announcement and launch, and do support the product when it hits the shelves. We hope that all the retail groups will come forward and support the brand. Farmers are the custodians of the predators we believe they should conserve. The wildlife-friendly brand will be the ultimate tool in benefitting those farmers supporting the initiative. Other wildlife-friendly products will follow that will be guided by their own production standards. Help us build this brand!

Photo: Anonymous

This story was recently passed on to me (see the photos above). It is particularly poignant, but I bet it is repeated a hundred times a day in our country. This occurred in the Western Cape.

“On our most recent visit to -------- we encountered a beautiful Kolgans trapped in a gin trap. His leg was broken in half, skin ripped off and the bone exposed. My husband is a doctor and after examining the poor bird realised that he would not recover from his wounds, as exposed bone usually contracts an infection, and it was obvious that this bird has already been trapped for a while.

We decided to release it and place it back in the water, hoping it would die in peace soon.

He made his way with difficulty to the centre of the dam opposite the stone houses on the farm. We could hear him calling and within seconds his partner (and as we all know they mate for life) came flying towards him to join him in the water. Leading the way, they swam to the closest reeds. Slowly in our boat we followed. We spotted him hiding in the reeds while she was standing on a near by rock keeping guard and hissing at anything that moves... protecting him.

I doubt if our friend the Kolgans made it, but what was most disturbing was the fact that this gin trap was planted on a beach in the sand where not just any animal could have been injured or killed, but a child could have stepped into.”

I am afraid that this is done in the name of profits. Despite appealing to government to change legislation, this has had no effect. In fact some government and conservation agencies have vilified us for raising the issue – bizarrely so. Appealing to retailers to enforce it from their side has been ineffectual or tardy to say the least, thus we will have to resort to consumer insistence and actions.

What has been even more disturbing is that the person who passed it on to me asked that their identity be withheld out of fear of victimization. What has become of us if we fear speaking out against barbarism? However I understand this, as we have been equally victimized for our uncompromising stance against this scourge, and have even been threatened with legal action by none other than the communications manager/coordinator of WWF for including her on this mailing list. A request to get clarity why this warranted a threat from her and her organization failed to deliver any clarity.

It is our indifference that makes us inhumane.

Issued by:
Dr Bool Smuts
Director
Landmark Foundation
bool@landmarkfoundation.org.za
www.landmarkfoundation.org.za
083 324 3344

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NEWSLETTER New Partnership for Leopards [20 Feb 2008]

Sat, 26 Mar 2011 01:45:23 -0800

Dear All

I am pleased to be able to report a further expansion and breakthrough for our project that has resulted from the rather unfortunate events reported in late 2007 where a leopard died in the eastern part of the Western Cape

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Many of you got involved in the appeals and campaign that went out with the press release of then (21 December 2007). It has resulted in a number of processes and discussions that followed from it (and in no small way your interventions had a role to play), and in so doing the Landmark Foundation and CapeNature has formally embarked on a partnership to expand our work and strengthen their actions in the eastern part of the Western Cape. This will enable the work we are doing in and around Addo National Park, the Baviaanskloof Reserve and Tsitsikammas to be expanded into the Garden Route and the Little Karoo. (Please see the attached press release.) We trust that this will enable us to build on the success of being able to rescue and return 15 leopards to the wild in this region in the last few years. Having the statutory authority in the Western Cape also as an integrated partner in our efforts will, we trust, be a great boost for predator and leopard conservation in the region.

I believe that this partnership is important to the cause that we are working towards, and I am sure it will continue to spur others on to join the efforts, namely:

Rescuing and releasing predators and particularly leopards,
Supporting holistic, non-lethal predator control strategies,
Advocating an end to the use of gin and poison traps, and indiscriminate hunting packs of dogs
Research in predator ecology, behaviours and strategies to manage them
Developing of market mechanisms towards predator-friendly agricultural products
Expanding leopard- and predator - safe territories.

For those of you that got involved, we thank you for your support.

[press release follows]

Kind regards

Bool

Press Release 18 February 2008
Partnership in Predator Conservation

CapeNature and the Landmark Foundation have established an integrated partnership in predator conservation. This partnership is an ambitious endeavour to see predators conserved across the living landscape. The project is aimed at innovative and proactive management interventions, supported by research and market solutions to the livestock-predator conundrum.

This partnership follows from the unfortunate events in November and December 2007 where a leopard died in a gin trap near the Kammanassie Nature Reserve near Uniondale in the Western Cape. In the lessons learnt from this event both organisations have agreed to work together in establishing a partnership that will proactively try to address the challenges of predator conservation in agriculturally active areas. The initial area of focus of this partnership will be mutually agreed areas of the eastern region of the Western Cape. (The Landmark Foundation has been operational in the western region of the Eastern Cape since 2004.)

The partnership will focus on conserving predators with a particular focus on the leopards. Extension services will be jointly provided to try and convert farming in the region to holistic, non-lethal predator control methods that will enable livestock predation to be effectively managed. Both organisations commit themselves to work towards terminating the indiscriminate use of leghold (gin) traps, poison traps and hunting dog packs. Further efforts will jointly be made to bring in more land into biodiversity conservation through collaboration with commercial farmers.

The use of gin traps to manage other damage-causing animals such as caracal or black-backed jackal often results in the capture of a leopard. Records of such incidents show that the overwhelming majority of leopards are caught in traps set for other target species. The events that led to the death of the leopard last November on the boundary of the Kammanassie Nature Reserve have been fully investigated and it was found that the leopard was caught in a trap allegedly set for a jackal.

While the circumstances surrounding this animal’s death are regrettable, both parties now commit themselves to providing capacity to manage future situations jointly to the benefit of leopard, predator and biodiversity conservation. CapeNature and Landmark Foundation will work together on efforts to ensure that farmers who conserve biodiversity patterns and processes, and in particular in this partnership the process of top-predation, benefit from predator-friendly initiatives and related industry directives in the production of meat and animal fibre products.

Both parties commit themselves to the partnership and will pool their resources to develop innovative and proactive strategies to conserve predators. In this regard staff from both institutions have already initiated joint meetings with landowners and commercial farmers. Where leopard damage activity is identified, efforts will be made to use modern acceptable methods to manage the situation, and in so doing ensure that unacceptable control methods such as gin traps, poisons and hunting dogs are removed from the landscapes where the parties are collaborating, and beyond.

The partnership between CapeNature (Western CapeNature Conservation Board) and the Landmark Foundation (a registered NGO), will be governed by a formal Memorandum of Understanding.

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NEWSLETTER Leopard no. 15 rescued ! [04 Feb 2008]

Sat, 26 Mar 2011 01:43:08 -0800

This week we rescued the 15th leopard in and around the Baviaanskloof since the Landmark Foundation project commenced in 2004. It was a large male leopard (for our area) of 38 kg. He was released back at the site of capture after collaring it with a GPS tracking device.

Research:
Our research programme is under the auspices of Rhodes University and which is analysing the data obtained from this leopard and the other 14 animals in the region to help establish information about the population densities, genetic vigour, distributions and ultimately the population viability of these elusive animals.

This individual leopard was trapped in one of our custom-made “live” traps that prevent injuries. The cat was released on site, and we are particularly excited by the fact that we already have 2 female leopards collared and tracked in the specific area. This will add a great deal to the information needed to understand how male and female leopards interact in the region. We anticipate breakthrough data from this animal.

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What is also now astonishing is that in the last 2 years 8 leopards have been trapped in the particular kloof concerned. 4 leopards we killed in the region prior to Landmark Foundation involvement in 2006, and since 2007 4 leopards have been “live-trapped” and uninjured in the same kloof. This does seem to challenge our understanding of leopards being solitary and dominant animals in their territories. Accepting that the preceding disturbance of population through the deaths of the first 4 animals may explain this issue, we are none the less amazed at the number of cats in a single area. The research will help shed light on these dynamics and the possibility of new theories and realities.

We have seen continued and increasing farmer support for our programme. We have to give credit to the farmers of the Baviaanskloof valley near Willowmore particularly, who have as a collective (40 000ha) converted their operations to holistic predator management in partnership with us.

Furthermore the Rhodes University research team will also investigate a further “conventional wisdom” propagated by some academics of the fact that leopard translocation are not successful and should be avoided. The Landmark Foundation has relocated 6 leopards to the Addo National Park since 2004. These cats were to be killed on the insistence of the involved farmers from where they were captured (one was shot and injured, 4 were rescued from barbaric gin traps – one cat was rescued twice from a gin trap-, one was saved from a cable snare and one was captured unharmed by our live traps). We wish to reiterate that we would prefer to release the animals at the site of their capture, and relocation to local areas only takes place if the farmers cannot be convinced to keep the cat, the conservation authorities are in agreement and the location of release has capacity to re-release these animals in the new areas. Academic “folklore” suggests that this would result in animals tracking back to their original areas, and causing great disturbance in the areas of their new release, the facts around the 6 successful releases in Addo does not supports such folklore. In fact, our work has demonstrated a resounding success of our programme and the local translocation as in this case. Rhodes University, through their research, will present these facts for peer-reviewed scrutiny.

Farmer Support:
We have seen continued and increasing farmer support for our programme. We have to give credit to the farmers of the Baviaanskloof valley near Willowmore particularly, who have as a collective (40 000ha) converted their operations to holistic predator management in partnership with us. We are collaborating with a further 40 000 – 50 000 ha of landholding adjacent to the Baviaanskloof Reserve. With the rescue of the 15 leopards over the last few years we are certain that significant progress has been achieved with the conservation of these animals. All 15 cats rescued would almost certainly previously been killed through the use of gin traps and indiscriminate hunting dog packs, adding to the 24 leopards that have been killed in the region this would have amounted to 39 leopard incidents that we know of in the relatively small region and short time (and that is only the cases we know of). The fact that we can now report on the 15th successful rescue is indeed great progress. We salute the farmers of the Baviaanskloof that are leading the way!

The meat you buy may use such production practices!!!!

Gin Traps - Photo: R Harrison White

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