SanWild Wildlife Rehabilitation Center and Sanctuary

Dear Friends

Here at SanWild we have all survived the crazy season and all our animals are well. A large number of injured and orphaned animals arrived during December and we were quite busy. We are happy to report that our most critical cases like the baby steenbok with the badly broken front leg and the baby rhino that was attacked by a pack of spotted hyenas, are both doing well and will recover from their ordeals.

We did have some bad news and no wonder the conservation departments are involved again. Most of you will know that for a number of years now SanWild has been caring for 22 confiscated lions. In our attempts to try and reduce the very high financial costs of looking after these lions, we searched for months to find possible foster homes that could at least accept some of the lions in our care. We set up a special lion trust that would retain ownership of the lions, but put them into the care of foster parents that will house the animals on their properties and who would pay for the financial upkeep of the lions. A special legal contract was drawn up by our legal council and presented to prospective foster parents. This contract ensured the continued safety of the lions and gave us the legal powers to remove any or all of the animals at a moments notice and return them to SanWild should the conditions and terms in the legal contract not be kept.

After many months, we finally found a suitable foster parent for Jespha’s pride and all legal documents were signed and we applied for the necessary permits to move Jespha and his family to their new home – a 1000 hectares.

Unfortunately the necessary permits to move the lions from SanWild were not forthcoming and we once again had to battle the authorities for the permits. Despite all our efforts a single individual in their legal department could not be convinced to honour the out of court settlement reached with this very department almost 2 years ago. She refused to issue a letter to the permits office allowing them to issue the export permit to Gauteng Province. The new foster parent got fed up with all the waiting and he was also extremely annoyed at having to spend a fortune on fencing the lion’s new camp. He informed us on the 10 December 2007 that he could no longer wait and was cancelling the agreement between the Trust and himself in regards to the foster care for Jespha’s Pride.

As much as this situation has frustrated us, we were simply not prepared to take the risk of moving our lions without the necessary permits as this would place them in great danger of being confiscated by an unsympathetic conservation department that could legally confiscated them from SanWild or their new destination of the grounds that we moved them illegally. We could not run the risk of Jespha and his family ending up back with the very people who tried to sell them off to hunters 2 years ago.

However this means that our financial burden could not be lightened and we will now have to institute legal action against the conservation department once again. We have already decided to approach the courts to issue a court order that will force the conservation department to pick up the financial costs for caring for Jespha’s Pride until they die of natural causes, but like everything else in Africa, it will take a couple of months for us to get this order granted in a court of law. It is also highly likely that we will have to continue going back to the courts to force compliance from the conservation department. Sadly it seems that Government does not pay without a warrant nowadays.

In the interim our monthly expenditure for the lions therefore carry on and we need to once again appeal to you urgently for help.

December and January is always a financial nightmare for us. Our wild animal emergency rescues increase sharply and our income from volunteers, tourists, members and donors decrease sharply and 2007/2008 has been no different. Our finances are at rock bottom and I would greatly appreciate your urgent help.

Every donation counts no matter how large or small. Presently we need to find at least $8000.00 US to carry us over until end February 2008. If you can help us, I would be eternally grateful. If you need more information kindly please email me on louise@sanwild.org All funds donated on this appeal will be used to feed the SanWild Lion Prides and pay for veterinary costs needed to remove a large abscess on one of Queens sub-adult cubs. Urgent veterinary intervention is needed to remove this rapidly growing abscess.

Donations can be made by direct bank transfer into our trust account or on-line on the Afritrust website - www.afritrust.com Go to the Adoptions Page, use the dropdown box and find Feed the SanWild Lions. If you need help do not hesitate to contact me.

All donations received for this specific appeal will qualify the donor to have his/her (or organisations) name entered into a lucky draw that will give the winner an entire week's free accommodation at SanWild's upgraded tourist camp for a whole week for 2 people. Our previous winner in a similar lucky draw was Ioanna Plakokefalou from France who will be visiting SanWild soon.

Kind and warm regards from SanWild

LOUISE JOUBERT

www.sanwild.org

www.afritrust.com

Telephone/Fax +27 (0) 15-3187900/1

Mobile +27 (0) 833103882

Ranger bicycle appeal

Please help us to ride again – SanWild Rangers

For the past year our team of dedicated rangers have worked extremely hard to ensure that all SanWild’s animals are safe against the increasing poaching activities in our immediate area

They are also responsible for daily perimeter fence patrols to ensure that the electrification output on the perimeter fence is maintained at an acceptable level to ensure that our herd of African elephants remains safe and sound inside the protected area of the reserve. In the past many relocated elephants have broken out of private game reserves because the electrical outputs were either down or not sufficient to keep the elephants inside. Of the elephants that did escape from protected reserves, we do not know of one animal that survived the bloodlust of the crazy people that hunted them down. To keep our elephants safe it is essential that any short or problems on the fences are found, reported and repaired within hours. To ensure this safety measure our rangers cycle the entire perimeter fences twice a day. An early morning patrol starting around 04h00 am and a later afternoon patrol that sets off around 16h00 every day Monday to Sundays. This is done 24/7, no breaks, no time off. To do this work they cycle the entire perimeter fence around the reserve that totals 48km. Effectively it means that two rangers set out in the morning and two in the afternoon covering different sections of the fence. Patrols are divided equally between the rangers. When some are doing night duty and patrols inside the reserve, others will work in the day, while the perimeter fence guys’ work on a 3-day rotation basis.

At the beginning of 2007 SanWild purchased brand new bicycles for all our rangers, but after a years gruelling work, these bicycles sadly have now reached the point where they simply cannot be repaired any longer, they are falling apart. Wheels and rims have buckled, seats have come off, the padding on the seats are non-existent and the handles are constantly falling off despite all the rangers attempt to weld them back on or tie them back on with steel wire. It is truly a sad state of affairs and they are in urgent need of new bicycles.

When purchasing the bikes we obviously did not purchase top of the range, as we could not afford to spend thousands of rands on bicycles. It was also not practical to purchase expensive mountain bikes, as they are not suited to the hard work. We needed something strong and practical and for the work they have to endure, the bikes did their utmost best, but their retirement is now imminent and some of them have passed on without our permission, their remains have not yet been laid to rest, but they are no longer part of our team.

We would urgently like to appeal for your help and if you see your way open to help us, you can either make a cash donation or help find a sponsor that would be willing to donate at least 4 bicycles to us to start with. Ultimately we would need to secure at least 6 bikes, but we will be able to do for now with 4. If we are to purchased good quality bikes we will need to raise $2 500.00

If you need more info please email me on louise@sanwild.org or phone our offices on +27 (0) 15-3187900/1 Please see Corporal Albert Mkansi's passionate plea on the Afritrust website www.afritrust.com Anti-Poaching Ranger Diaries.