There was a time when the world was at peace, a time when the future of all creatures’ great and small was determined by natural rhythms the way God intended when He created this beautiful planet. However, there was also a time when all this changed. There came a time when our humanity, of which we so proudly speak, diminished. A time when we lost our compassion for our fellow human beings and also the wild creatures that shares our planet.

Unlike the rest of Africa, South Africa over the past years created an industry based on wild animals. When it began thirty years or so ago, it had the best intentions in the world – to conserve, protect and increase dwindling wildlife populations.

This industry grew rapidly and the good intent on which it was based – to breed and supply excess wild animals to protected and conservation areas from where animals had been removed or had become extinct began to tilt as wild animals became commercially valuable and were supplied to a growing hunting and export industry.

More and more people became involved in the wild animal business, a huge gap opened between the eco-tourism, and hunting-and-exporting industries as the latter became entrenched with unethical and inhumane conduct. Wild animals increasingly became commodities to be captured, transported, sold, hunted or exported. Animal needs and welfare plays no role whatsoever.

Wild animal hunting and trading became a very lucrative business in South Africa and conservation principles deteriorated even further as conservation departments became more and more incompetent. It seems that many professional hunters, private game farm owners, animal traders and breeders were keen to exploit the new government’s inability to deal with the situation.

Conservation bodies showed very little interest and existing laws seemed completely inadequate to deal with the wildlife trading and hunting industry. Conservation law enforcement came to an all time low and not even animal welfare organizations seemed to be too interested in the plight of many wild animals.

Terribly unethical and cruel practices such as the breeding of large predators specifically for hunting started up. Despite huge international and local condemnation of this practise, that soon became known as “canned hunting”, the South African Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism in December 2006 announced that they will be legalising this industry and will allow the hunting of captive bred predators after such animals had “been released back to the wild” for a six-month period.

The illegal trapping of wild leopards and cheetah escalated and animal smuggling networks started doing a roaring trade by supplying innocent captive bred or illegally trapped wild predators to be shot as hunting trophies. The trade in wild cats’ skins increased drastically.

Large trophy male animals (such as kudu, eland, waterbuck etc.) were being removed from breeding herds and supplied to some farms where the hunters were so eager to kill their quarry that indeed animals were not even off loaded, but shot on the game transportation trucks. Others are killed while walking on perimeter fences of private game farms in a drugged state. These animals are commonly referred to as “Put and Take Trophies” by the industry.

During game capture operations, the social structures of antelope species are disregarded as game capturers routinely separate breeding groups. Large male animals are sold exclusively to hunting concerns while female and young animals are sold to newly established game farms or to existing hunting ranches wanting to breed up their future hunting stock.

Live game auctions regularly feature male trophy animals that are sold for record-breaking prices. Many of these poor unfortunate creatures are shot within hours of arriving at their new destinations in bomas. Many game capture units will advertise the sale of only trophy animals, which are separated from breeding groups or are captured in bachelor herds.

A wide variety of indigenous and exotic animals are also offered for sale at live game auctions in South Africa ranging from endangered species such as African wild dog, cheetahs and white lion to exotic animals such as fallow deer, lechwe, lama and Bengal tigers. Not even lion cubs are spared and are removed from their mothers to be sold off to willing buyers.

Very few animals in the South African wildlife industry are sold purely for eco tourism purposes these days.

Even small animals like rock hyraxes, squirrels and porcupines are not spared the auctioneers hammer. For many young and often un-weaned animals, the road ahead is pretty bleak. Some are purchased when they are young and cute to be hand raised as pets.  Maybe their new “mothers” do not know anything about the specialised hand raising that is necessary for many wild animal species or maybe they simply grow tired of the responsibility that comes with being a “mother” to a wild animal and they are sold off to the next buyer. Some die soon after purchase because of incorrect feeding and care. 

Others grow into “nasty” and unsuitable pets and are shot or dumped simply because humans do not understand that a wild animal needs to remain exactly that – a wild animal.

For many young antelope species the relocation of wild herbivores remain a huge threat. Captured with the rest of their group while very small and forced into capture bomas, loading areas and game trucks, many young animals are fatally injured during the random separation of family units. If they survive the journey, they may be too young to keep up with their panicked mothers and die a slow, lonely death at their new destination.

Hunting seasons leave many unweaned and orphaned calves to die a terribly slow death from starvation.

Many more wild animals died as a result of bad capture and translocation methods and some very bad live game auctions went ahead unchallenged. Thousands of animals lost their lives in tacky and inadequate holding pens where they were being held pending sale to the highest bidders.

Despite the efforts of a number of good wildlife veterinarians and game capture operators to alleviate the suffering and cruelty by means of excellent tranquilliser drugs and capture methods, the bad operators are allowed to continue without any formal or proper training and licensing. This resulted in unspeakable cruelty being inflicted on many wild animals. 

It became more and more evident that the South African game industry was spiralling out of control and the ethical and moral values with regards to how South Africans treat animals has become highly questionable.

Although the lure of financial gain is the overriding incentive, the industry has gained support for its activities under the banner of sustainable utilization and no matter how unethical and inhumane some practices have become, the industry’s ways are widely accepted in South Africa. Unfortunately, the dark side of this industry has begun to undermine South Africa’s credible standing as a leading country concerning the conservation of wildlife in Africa.

The concept of SanWild started as early as 1990 when orphaned animals were taken in for hand raising, but it was soon realised that an emergency rescue and response team was desperately needed to help and support injured, orphaned and traumatized wild animals that would normally just be killed or left to die. Soon the idea of a wildlife emergency rescue and rehabilitation centre expanded to include the vision of a fully-fledged wildlife reserve that could serve as a safe haven for rehabilitated and rescued animals.

Today SanWild supplies veterinary assistance for all injured and traumatized wildlife and will take in orphaned animals for hand raising and eventual release back to the wild irrespective of the species or financial or conservation value.

It is acknowledge worldwide that the greatest threat to wildlife and wilderness areas is habitat encroachment – that is the growing demands of the super species, man. South Africa is no exception. Wild animals and their habitats are not high on the list of priorities when competing with the needs and whims of man and at SanWild we know that the only way to conserve and protect the wild animals that are dear to us is to ensure that enough protected land is available for them – not only for individual rehabilitated animals that became the injured or orphaned casualties of the game industry, but also to allow for all species to be protected and safe from persecution. This includes species seen as the game farmer’s enemy – the predator, be it the jackal, caracal, cheetah or African wild dog. It is only when all the components of a system can function naturally that conservation is given real meaning.

SanWild’s objectives are therefore a combination of acquiring habitat and saving individual wild animals in need of help. All land acquired through our fundraising efforts will fall under the auspices of the SanWild Wildlife Trust and will thus be protected in perpetuity. Our goal is to establish a 15 000 hectare sanctuary and our vision is to ultimately incorporate adjoining farmlands to form an ecologically viable wildlife reserve to protect a unique wilderness area.