This makes me so mad!!!

[Raineyrocks]

I personally think that elephants should rule the world!!!    






South Africa to sanction killing of elephants

    * Story Highlights
    * Culling was banned in South Africa in 1994 when 8,000 elephants were counted
    * Elephant population has grown to more than 20,000
    * The new policy becomes official Friday
    * Animal rights activists threaten tourist boycotts and legal action
    * Next Article in World »

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PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) -- South Africa announced Monday that it was reversing a 1995 ban on killing elephants to help control their booming population, drawing instant outrage from animal-rights activists.
art.elephant.ap.jpg

An elephant wanders in Tembe Elephant Park in South Africa in January 2007.

Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk did not say how many elephants could be killed, saying only that some animal-rights groups' estimates of 2,000 to 10,000 were "hugely inflated."

"Culling will only be allowed as a last option and under very strict conditions," van Schalkwyk told reporters. "Our simple reality is that elephant population density has risen so much in some southern African countries that there is concern about impacts on the landscape, the viability of other species and the livelihoods and safety of people living within elephant ranges."

The Johannesburg-based group Animal Rights Africa threatened to call for international tourist boycotts and protests and to take legal action.

South Africa's elephant population has ballooned to more than 20,000 from 8,000 in 1995, when international pressure led to a ban on killing them.

Elephants require great tracts of land to roam in order to get their daily diet of about 660 pounds of grass, leaves and twigs, and they are increasingly coming into conflict with people in the competition for land.

Van Schalkwyk also announced that the government is prohibiting the capture of wild elephants for commercial purposes -- a move likely to draw fire from a fast-growing industry in elephant-back safaris.

In addition, he said, the government is drawing up regulations to govern treatment of the country's 120 captive elephants. Van Schalkwyk said his department had received "numerous complaints" about cruel training practices including the use of electric prodders.
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All three measures are part of a comprehensive update to South Africa's elephant policy that the government calls an attempt to manage the needs of elephants with those people, killing some of the animals humanely while eliminating the unnecessary and sometimes treatment of tamed elephants.

The new regulations on managing elephants, effective May 1, say killing must be through "quick and humane methods and a rifle with minimum caliber of .375," and used along with other measures such as contraception by injection and moving elephants to new areas.

Van Schalkwyk said the debate over killing elephants was marked by "strong emotions."

"There are few other creatures on earth that have the ability of elephants to 'connect' with humans in a very special way," he said.

In addition, elephant populations in other countries are low, elephants are classed as "vulnerable" worldwide, and trade in ivory has been banned since 1989 to try to combat poaching.

The new regulation said that elephants' survival often depends on their operation as a family unit, and "an elephant may not be culled if it is part of a family unless the matriarch and juvenile bulls are culled as well."

It said killing may be carried out only under a plan prepared with a recognized elephant-management ecologist and approved by relevant authorities.

Animal Rights Africa said killing elephants was "undeniably cruel and morally reprehensible" as well as counterproductive.

"It's hugely problematic and it does the opposite of what they want it to do," spokeswoman Michele Pickover said.

She argued that when elephants are killed, the herd automatically breeds more, and other elephants move into the space of the slain elephants, resulting in a larger population than before the killing.

Her organization also argues that there are not too many elephants in South Africa.

She also said the latest research has proved that elephants have a sense of self-awareness and cognitive powers that place them in a special category together with great apes, dolphins and humans.

"How much like us do elephants have to be before killing them becomes murder?" Pickover asked.

A total of 14,562 elephants were killed in South Africa between 1967 and 1994. Without that campaign, their numbers would have rocketed by now to 80,000, according to the national parks service.

Many elephants were traumatized by the killings and some became aggressive as a result.

Bob Scholes, lead author of the elephant management regulations, acknowledged to reporters that there is a "down side" to killing.

"It changes the way they behave, there is a lot of evidence for social behavioral consequences as a result of culling" he said. The new regulations say that killing should not be carried out near other elephants.

Contraception also is fraught with problems. A female normally breeds every four years and does not mate while nursing. With contraception, a female comes on heat every four months -- but does not fall pregnant -- and so suffers the physical stress of frequent copulation with bulls four times her weight.

And moving elephants, another alternative, can be prohibitively expensive.

The era of the big white hunter in the 1900s brought Africa's elephants near to extinction. South Africa had just 200 elephants at the turn of the century.

Now South Africa, Namibia and Botswana all have booming elephant populations -- a result of their conservation efforts -- while those of east and west African nations are struggling because of large-scale poaching.

Van Schalkwyk said he had discussed the new regulations with other southern African countries facing the same dilemma.

Botswana has by far the largest population, with an estimated 165,000 elephants. Zimbabwe has an estimated 80,000 and Mozambique some 20,000. E-mail to a friend E-mail to a friend

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

[kola]

CCR song..

"the devils on the loose.....better run thru the jungle"



IMO it will get a whole lot worse before it gets better.

all things must pass,
Kola

[dalebert]

Stossel did a report on how they improved the elephant population in some places with incredible effectiveness by allowing local people to own them. I don't know for sure if they owned the actual elephants or pieces of land populated by elephants. The idea was the owners could charge for hunting and what not and they had a personal interest in maintaining the population for the own lively hood and they did an excellent job of stopping poachers and ensuring that they weren't over-hunted.

[kola]

Elephant Taxi service?

that might catch on. 

Kola

[Pat K]

I don't know the whole story here.

If the elephant herds have grown to big,
what else are you gonna do?

They will eat themselves out of food in their area,
then go looking in populated area's.

It ain't like you can put up a fence to keep them out
of your yard and garden.

The smart thing to do would be to charge big bucks
for hunting safaris.

So that probably won't happen.

[srqrebel]

Stossel did a report on how they improved the elephant population in some places with incredible effectiveness by allowing local people to own them. I don't know for sure if they owned the actual elephants or pieces of land populated by elephants. The idea was the owners could charge for hunting and what not and they had a personal interest in maintaining the population for the own lively hood and they did an excellent job of stopping poachers and ensuring that they weren't over-hunted.

Dale, are you suggesting that in the absence of government regulation, complex problems like this would somehow get solved more efficiently through profit motive?

Such blasphemy!!!

[dalebert]

Dale, are you suggesting that in the absence of government regulation, complex problems like this would somehow get solved more efficiently through profit motive?

Such blasphemy!!!

Well, before my title became Ambassador of the Schism, it was Blasphemer.

[srqrebel]

 

[J’raxis 270145]

Pissing off elephants is not a good idea.

[Lloyd Danforth]

What do they call that stuff between Elephant's toes?

[Pat K]

What do they call that stuff between Elephant's toes?

Slow natives.

[Lactivist]

They will eat themselves out of food in their area,
then go looking in populated area's.

Actually, you don't even need a fence. Wildlife Conservation Society researchers have been successful in keeping elephants out of private land by growing chili peppers!  Elephants hate them.  They grow a crop around the property and the elephants won't cross over (they assume the area all tastes the same).  OK, so it is kind of a "fence". 

[Pat McCotter]

Hi rainey!

To bring this closer to home, we can get the state to outlaw hunting in a 20 mile radius around your house. This way the deer can thrive and you can watch them in your backyard over your morning cup of coffee ... and your lunch ... and dinner .

This will also help revive the wolf and coyote populations. Wow, to be able to listen to the howling during the evening.

Just an illustration of one possible reason for the culling. Human population and excessive wildlife are incompatible to many people.

[Pat K]

They will eat themselves out of food in their area,
then go looking in populated area's.

Actually, you don't even need a fence. Wildlife Conservation Society researchers have been successful in keeping elephants out of private land by growing chili peppers!  Elephants hate them.  They grow a crop around the property and the elephants won't cross over (they assume the area all tastes the same).  OK, so it is kind of a "fence". 

Well thats good. Then they could sell the pepper crop too.

Gee I wonder  how elephant pepper steak tastes?

[Lloyd Danforth]

Hi rainey!

To bring this closer to home, we can get the state to outlaw hunting in a 20 mile radius around your house. This way the deer can thrive and you can watch them in your backyard over your morning cup of coffee ... and your lunch ... and dinner .

Unless you depend on your garden to eat