Malaysia Veterinary Forum (Archive)

Dr. TanDY

Elephant culling plan sparks debate

Big News Network
Tuesday 8th August, 2006 (UPI)

The elephant population in South Africa's Kruger National Park has grown to a point the government wants to resume culling, but animal lovers object.

A stark consequence of the problem is the destruction of rare trees by the elephants, who leave little for other animals, such as antelopes and giraffes, which also depend on such trees for nourishment, The Washington Post reports.

Culling involves shooting entire families of elephants and butchering them for their meat, which animal rights groups consider barbaric and unnecessary, the report said. These groups say better management practices such as newly discovered methods of birth control should be adopted.

Park officials say elephant destruction is also slowly turning the 7,000 square-mile facility into grassland from a woodland.

The Kruger Park has become a major tourist attraction and elephants, whose population has grown to 12,500 from 8,000 in 1994, are the park's top attraction.

Elephant herds also have at times broken through Kruger's fencing to feast on neighboring villagers' crops of corn, pumpkin and watermelon.

Park officials conducted an earlier cull between 1967 and 1994, but the cull was halted after protests from animal rights groups.

Dr Nat · Joined: 07 Dec 2005 Posts: 1834 Location: Klang Valley

Hmm... big dilemma. To kill or not to kill?

In the point of view from animal welfare, killing animals is never a solution. If there are nothing done to control births, then the void left by killing will be filled in no time, and soon the entire problem will come back again. (hmm, actually, this is a recurring problem, isn't it?)

There was a same situation in dealing with feral cats in Australia, if I'm not mistaken. At one point there were too many feral cats and they find that it is treatening the wildlife population. Hence, they begin shooting the cats, only to find out later that the population actually bounced back to greater numbers than before the shootings.