Press Release
ARA STATEMENT ON SHOOTING OF KWAZULU-NATAL HIPPO
15 July 2008“A tragedy that could, and should, have been avoided,” said ARA spokesperson, Steve Smit after being told that the wandering KwaZulu-Natal hippo, Nkululeko, had been shot by the authorities in the early hours of this morning.
Smit believes that had the provincial conservation authorities, Ezemvelo KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife acted sooner and more decisively, the tragedy of both the human death and the killing of this hippo could have been avoided.
Smit said that ARA would call for a public inquiry into the manner in which this whole saga has been handled by EKZNW. “We need to understand why the conservation authorities chose to adopt such a relaxed approach to the obviously uncharacteristic behaviour of this hippo, knowing that a point would be reached when the animal’s proximity to humans would pose a threat to human safety, with the inevitability of it having to be killed.
“This incident should be a lesson to the conservation authorities that they are in partnership with the general pubic and that there is a mountain of resources and a wealth of knowledge that could have been accessed for assistance in dealing with this matter. . The fact is that in their own words ‘this hippo was of no conservation value to EKZNW’, and therefore they were quite obviously not prepared to go to any trouble or expense to capture and relocate it. They simply monitored the situation hoping that the hippo would return to its home territory, failing which they would shoot it once it reached the more densely populated areas of the KZN north coast. Shooting it was the easiest and cheapest option for them to take. Its as simple as that!”
“EKZNW must shoulder all the responsibility for the sad end to this saga”, concluded Smit.
Ends.
ARA Spokepersons:
Steve Smit – 082 659 4711
Carol Booth – 082 411 5444
Michele Pickover – 082 253 2124
ARA email - info@animalrightsafrica.org
Steve Smit - steve@animalrightsafrica.org
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