Campaign launched to stop Zimbabwe exporting wildlife

Elise Tempelhoff

Beeld / South Africa

An international campaign to stop the Zimbabwean government from exporting various species of wildlife, including two young 18 month old elephant calves from the Hwange National Park to North Korea started yesterday.

Dr. Joyce Poole, director of the conservation organisation Elephant Voices, yesterday in an email to the Director of National Parks and Game Management in Zimbabwe Mr. Vitalis Chadenga, said that the two young elephants will not survive the relocation to North Korea.

Poole, that is spearheading the campaign put her organisation’s weight behind that of the independent conservation group Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force (ZCTF), that is vehemently opposed to the capture and relocation of various animal species to a North Korean Zoo.

Mr. Johnny Rodrigues, chair of the ZCTF in an email to Beeld said that he was informed that the two young calves that would still be suckling from their mothers was intended as a present from pres. Robert Mugabe to the North Korean government.

The elephant calves have already been captured and is being held in quarantine in the west of Zimbabwe before they will be exported to North Korea. Their financial value is set at approximately R80 000 each ($10 000).

Sapa reports that Chadenga during a media briefing said that the North Koreans have the expertise and required facilities to house the animals.

“It is a business arrangement and the Koreans are paying for the animals, as well as the capture and translocation” he said.

Poole says in her letter that is traumatic for elephant calves to be removed from their mothers at such a young age. It is also very traumatic for the elephant mothers to have their calves removed forcibly.

“Years of scientific research and in-dept studies on African elephants show that elephants do not only suffer psychologically, but also physically”

“The animals are prone to tuberculoses, herpes, obesity and diseases that affect their joints”

North Korea has an appalling record of animal welfare and if the animals should end up in a zoo in North Korea they will have to endure a future of cruelty and disease.

Poole also pointed out that South Africa admitted in 2008 that the capture of wild elephants were unethical. She further said that it was illegal in South Africa to capture and export elephant calves to zoos and circuses.

According to Chadenga Japan and three other countries have also approached Zimbabwe to purchase wild animals.

Louise Joubert, founder trustee of the SanWild Wildlife Sanctuary, a safe have for wild animals, said that it is incomprehensible that in this day and age, governments will still allow wild animals to be locked up in zoos.