Please Help the Elephants in South Africa !

ambassador@saembassy.org, vanheerdenm@foreign.gov.za, mwillemse@deat.gov.za, berlin.consular@foreign.gov.za, bloemb@saps.org.za, peternk@saps.org.za, contact@carteblanche.co.za, Helenb@incape.co.za, wealet@ctn.independent.co.za, ctletters@ctn.independent.co.za, fionm@mg.co.za; truth @sabc.co.za, vanderwaltdf@sabc.co.za, jyeld@ctn.independent.co.za

Her Excellency Barbara Joyce Masekela
Ambassador of South Africa, Embassy of South Africa
3051 Massachusetts Ave. N.W.; Washington, DC 20008


Dear Mrs. Masekela,
Dear Politicians and Media Journalists in South Africa,

These mass killing operations tear apart elephant families and leave the survivors permanently scarred. Between 1967 and 1995, 14,562 elephants in South Africa’s Kruger National Park were culled. Terrified elephants were herded into groups with helicopters while people on the ground and in the air opened fire with high-powered weapons. Elephants are capable of communicating over long distances, and their death screams were undoubtedly heard by other elephants miles away.

Innumerable orphaned calves, who were regarded as valuable collateral, were sold to zoos and circuses, where many were beaten into submission, chained, and confined and had their precious freedom taken and their spirits broken. And scientists are now determining that these individuals were left with lifelong emotional trauma from witnessing the violent executions of their families.

Although elephants are considered by many to be the quintessential symbol of the African continent and ecotourism plays an important role in the South African economy, many of the country’s officials treat elephants as nuisances to be “controlled,” marketed, and profited from... Numerous scientists have condemned South Africa’s proposal to kill elephants. There is no evidence that elephants pose an imminent risk to biodiversity. Reducing the elephant population is arbitrary and scientifically unsound, and it reflects outdated wildlife-management principles.

Please urge your country to remove culling from the list of options for elephant “management” and implement the humane, sensible suggestions advocated by scientists and reported by Care for the Wild International, including the following:

• Reduce the number of artificially created watering holes — this would divert elephants to previously underutilized areas.
• Expand protected elephant habitats by linking them to adjacent areas, and develop migration corridors to other regions.
• Develop community-based wildlife-conservation programs outside the existing protected areas to increase the benefits of tourism to nearby rural areas.
• Protect vulnerable and valuable areas by erecting and maintaining fences and implementing other nonlethal deterrents.
• Administer contraception, which is affordable and involves minimal intervention that can reduce the number of elephants in a large population.

Yours sincerely,