ENVIRONMENT:
Time Running Out for Swaziland to Sell Elephants to U.S. Zoos
James Hall
Time is running out for Swaziland to sell eleven ''orphaned'' elephants to zoos in the United States, even if the sale means incurring the wrath of powerful animal rights organisations.
MBABANE, Feb 21 (IPS) -
''Elephants are big, beautiful animals, but they can be destructive to
eco-systems,'' Kenneth Dube, a game ranger at Hlane Royal Game Reserve, told
IPS.
The position of the Big Game Parks of Swaziland, a private collection of
three animal reserves whose unofficial but powerful patron is King Mswati
III, is that too many elephants are ruining the habitats of other wildlife,
including some endangered species.
After word leaked that two U.S. zoos wished to purchase eleven surplus
elephants from Swaziland, the powerful American animal welfare group People
for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) expressed its opposition in
letters to King Mswati and Tourism Minister Stella Lukele.
Jane Garrison, an elephant specialist with PETA, told IPS, ''PETA is adamant
against stealing animals from their natural homes and cramming them in zoo
cages, but especially when it comes to the San Diego Zoo and the Lowry Park
Zoo, which are the zoos that want to cage Swaziland's young elephants''.
Ted Reilly, the founder of Big Game Parks of Swaziland, sent his son Mickey
Reilly to the United States to investigate the American zoos. That was six months
ago, and the trip's outcome is unknown.
''We have to report our findings to His Majesty (Mswati) before a public
announcement,'' Mickey Reilly told IPS.
Meanwhile, the sale is on hold, which pleases the tourism ministry. If the
elephant sale goes forward, PETA has promised to mount a tourism boycott
against the tiny Southern African kingdom, whose population is only slightly
larger than PETA's international membership. Government is hoping to
increase tourism in the kingdom, to bring in much needed foreign currency.
Tourism authorities fret that the elephant sale is not worth upsetting those
plans.
At Hlane Royal Game Park, however, the matter seems more urgent.
''The elephants are making life difficult for breeding raptors (like hawks
and vultures) and other species whose habitats are disturbed by the
overpopulation of pachyderms,'' game ranger Dube said.
The problem is the elephants are ''orphans'', unattached to a family.
Elephants lie in a hierarchy of family-like colonies. When a ''father''
elephant is missing, the rouge youngsters tend to go wild without an elder
to enforce discipline. In the case of Hlane's elephants, they refuse to
respect park boundaries, and roam the countryside, destroying crops at a
time when the country is suffering a critical food shortage.
Hlane repopulated Swaziland with elephants relatively recently, in 1985, 40
years after elephants were hunted to extinction in the country. The animals
came from South Africa, and many were orphans.
PETA offered an alternative to the sale to U.S. zoos when the group
proposed that the elephants be sent to an animal preserve in South Africa.
However, South Africa has had bad experiences with orphaned elephants, and
forbids their importation.
''South Africa exported a problem when they gave Swaziland so many elephant
orphans,'' said Dube.
Hlane Park requires 300,000 U.S. dollars to extend electrical fencing to permit
the elephant population to roam more extensively. Park conservationists
feel that until the fence is erected, culling of the elephant herd is the
hope for the survival of other species. A sale to an appropriate animal
facility would allow the elephants to live, and bring in needed revenue to
ensure future culling might be unnecessary.
PETA insists the U.S. zoos are not appropriate facilities, based on
research the group has conducted that documented incidents of abuse against
elephants.
A source in the Swaziland animal conservation movement told IPS that PETA's
input is welcomed, because all parties are ultimately concerned with the
elephants' welfare. However, Swazis fear that PETA's help comes with
strings attached.
''PETA assisted South African parks financially, but on condition that
animal herds not be culled. This has led to a crisis in overpopulation, and
animals are dying of disease and starvation,'' the conservationist said.
Swazi conservationists have come to realise that PETA has enemies in the
United States. Groups opposed to the animal welfare agenda have been
e-mailing Big Game Parks of Swaziland and the local media spurious ''reports''
that PETA is engaged in illegal activities, and puts the welfare of animals
above human beings.
PETA's Garrision said such tactics are as familiar as they are unfounded,
and they show how lobbying groups in support of animal hunting and the
leather and fur industries are threatened by animal conservation.
Swaziland is geographically distant from such Developed World concerns, but
is the centre of a battle pitting elephants against poor peasant farmers
desperate to protect their crops.
''It is a very bad thing when animals destroy crops, and you can understand
why a farmer would be devastated,'' Ted Reilly said. ''Our interest as a game
reserve is to protect animals. Elephants' welfare is key. That is why we
seek compromise, and we are looking for alternative ways forward.''
Palace sources say King Mswati has received the game parks' report on the
possible elephant sale to the United States and is close to reaching a decision. By
custom and law, all animals in Swaziland are the ''property'' of the king, who
holds them in trust for the Swazi people. Mswati must therefore approve of
the sale of every game animal.
His decision will weigh the threat of a tourism boycott against the welfare
of peasant farmers during a food crisis, and eleven elephants who face death
via culling or life in U.S. zoos (END/2003)
