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Sustainable
eNews |
October 2002 |
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IWMC
World Conservation Trust |
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PETA gets ugly towards
small African Kingdom
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There is a very small, oval shaped country in the
eastern and southern part of Africa, called Swaziland. The Kingdom of
Swaziland is bordered on its eastern side by Mozambique, and everywhere
else, by the Republic of South Africa. The elephants of Swaziland are
those, and the descendants of those that were relocated there in the 1980s
by a leading conservationist who now heads all the privately owned parks of
Swaziland. Ted Reilly's efforts to reintroduce and then, to watch over, the
elephants of the Kingdom have been entirely successful, until now, they are
too numerous for their habitat. In the course of their lives, elephants
sometimes die. There are now eleven young elephants that have been
orphaned, and instead of planning to cull them (this means to kill them),
the plan has been to sell them to zoos in the United States.
This would be a good thing because young elephants are like children -
when they are put out in the world on their own, as they would be if they
were relocated to parks in South Africa, they get into trouble without
"community" and related adult animals to keep them under control.
This has been proven more than once in South Africa, where such relocated
lone young elephants have picked on other species, such as rhinos,
sometimes killing them. Because of this problem, the Republic of South
Africa now has a rule that only elephant families may be relocated to their
parks, not lone juveniles.
Years of experience with wild animals and their habitats have taught the
wild game managers in Africa many things of practical significance. Why,
then, would an outside non-governmental organization try to intrude its
values into these practices? The radical American animal rights
organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, is using
the eleven orphaned elephants of the Kingdom of Swaziland as a fundraiser.
PETA is threatening to call upon its nearly one million supporters to
boycott the Swaziland tourism industry, unless the orphans are relocated to
parks outside the Kingdom. PETA claims that selling them to zoos would
cause them to lead miserable lives in small enclosures, etc. One such zoo
that has expressed interest in acquiring some of the animals is the San
Diego Zoo, which is a marvelous facility with ample room for its many wild
animal exhibits, including one entrusted with endangered Chinese pandas.
The animals at the San Diego zoo are apparently content, healthy, and
active in outdoor environments that contain ample vegetation and shelter.
The visitors love them, and the zoo has a very active educational program
and high attendance. Which is exactly why PETA objects to it as a
depository for these orphans. PETA does not want people to regard animals
as objects of entertainment, or as educational subjects, because PETA's
value system insists that humans have no right to confine or own or control
animals. This value system is counter to all that most Americans hold dear,
as evidenced by the vast numbers of Americans who take their youngsters to
zoos, or just go there to soak up the ambiance of animals and their
reconstructed habitats.
PETA's call to boycott the hotels, parks, and resorts of Swaziland is
once again, typical of its disdain for people, and for cultures with values
other than its own. The boycott is a nasty threat, nothing more, because
Americans who travel to Africa to see the wildlife are not apt to be
supporters of PETA. The people of Swaziland deserve to continue their lives
as keepers of their game. Their economy, which depends in large part on
eco-tourism, deserves to thrive alongside animals kept in a healthy balance
with their natural environment. Outsiders with self-interest in promoting
their own value system at the expense of the people of Swaziland should
never be allowed to influence national policy on experience-based wildlife
management. IWMC extends our best wishes to the people and the Kingdom of
Swaziland, and to the elephants that roam their lands.
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