FALLOW DEERS OF TABLE MOUNTAIN TO BE KILLED.
by
Chris Mercer.
 
Co-author of the books “For the Love of Wildlife” and “Canned Lion Hunting - A National Disgrace.”
Former Director of Friends of the Tahr.
www.cannedlion.co.za
 
If you go to our website, you will see the full story of how South African National Parks Board (SANParks) slaughtered the few hundred remaining Himalayan Tahr antelope on Table Mountain, Cape Town.  Go to www.cannedlion.co.za/tahrs/index.html  then click on ‘News.’  
You will see how exotic animals, introduced early in the last century by Cecil John Rhodes, were cruelly killed for no good reason other than their alien status.
Now it is the turn of the Fallow deer, which were also introduced by C.J. Rhodes onto his Groot Schuur estate, which he left in his Will to the people of South Africa.
 
A heritage expert puts it as follows:
 
The deer are a self-consciously intended characteristic of the sense of place of the Groote Schuur Estate, which has resulted from the very deliberate and designed intention of Cecil John Rhodes and Sir Herbert Baker.  One therefore cannot just remove them.  Every Capetonian has either regularly, or at some time passed the deer on De Waal Drive en route to the Cape Flats or the Southern Suburbs and they expect to see them there.  The deer form an infrangible part of the character of the Estate and cannot be removed without taking away an important aspect of the richness of Cape Town.  Furthermore the deer, which have been here for over 100 years, have a special association with Rhodes and should be regarded as part of our cultural heritage.
 
The National Environmental Management Act, no.  107 of 1998, states under Principles 4(f): "The participation of all interested and affected parties in environmental governance must be promoted, and all people must have the opportunity to develop the understanding, skills and capacity necessary for achieving equitable and effective participation,”
 
Contrary to its obligation to conduct a proper public participation process, SANParks decided back in 1999, to kill the deer and to do so without consulting the public.  In fact, the decision was made by relatively junior SANParks personnel.  The minutes of a meeting held on 17th November 1999, in the Newlands Forest Offices of the Cape Peninsula National Park (one year after NEMA had been promulgated),record that, in regard to killing exotic animals on Table Mountain, “ The public would be informed via the press, rather than consulted on the issue.  Will need to draft an information pamphlet outlining rationale and time frame for the operation without giving details on removal of (sic) Thar (as well as sambar and fallow deer) techniques.”
 
 
For those readers who are not familiar with SA Conservation euphemisms, let us explain what the jargon “humane removal to a game farm” actually means.  The resident herd including pregnant ewes will be chased far and wide by yelling ground forces and roaring helicopters.   Although Fallow deer are famously hard to drive, some of them will be caught up, separated from their families and driven in to the boma (capture enclosure), where they will be pushed and shoved in to containers.  There they will remain, panting and stressed, for as long as it takes to fill a container - which may be days.  Eventually, survivors will be transported long distances into places like the Karroo desert, where the hunting farms eagerly await them.  Those not shot immediately find themselves in an alien terrain to which their digestive bacteria are not adapted.  Their condition will drop and when that happens, the ticks and other parasites will multiply, causing slow and agonising deaths for some.  Survivors will be at the tender mercy of a South African canned hunting industry which is so cruel and unethical that it has attracted worldwide condemnation.  Trapped in fenced camps from which there is no escape, they will be used as living targets for hunters with bows, cross-bows, handguns and rifles.  Some hunting farms also use packs of dogs.
Case in point.  On 24th July, SANParks attempted to capture 150 deer.  Instead, staff botched the job. They eventually caught nine animals.  Next day they tried again.   Once more, the herd was chased every which way.  This day the pursuers caught only one solitary animal.  The captured deer, mainly young females, remained for two days and one night in a container, and have since been sent to a hunting farm.   SANParks has now belatedly realised the futility of its ill-considered capture method, and has decided to go with a long-term passive capture strategy.  This does nothing to address animal welfare concerns. 
 
This email is being sent to you in the hope that you can help us to stop the pending capture and translocation of the Fallow Deer in the Table Mountain National Park to canned hunting farms. Because of their cultural heritage status, which has not even been considered, the deer should remain where they are and their numbers kept stable through contraception or sterilisation.  Alternatively, Civil Society has come up with non-lethal solutions, such as capturing the deer and removing them to places of safety, but these have been dismissed out of hand by SANParks.
 
To sum up: the removal of the deer is not an ecological necessity; relocating them to an alien habitat in front of gun muzzles is cruel; the public has not been properly consulted and our heritage is being damaged.  We believe that SANParks is acting illegally.
 
Clearly, nothing short of legal proceedings is going to save the deer.  Should you wish to make a pledge of funds towards legal costs, please notify us at the emails below.  Once sufficient pledges have been received, the appropriate legal entity and banking facilities will be set up and you will be asked to pay your pledge money to the trust account notified.
 
Chris Mercer
chrisandbev@mweb.co.za
 
Cicely Blumberg
riaanb@gmail.com
 

What to do about the Fallow Deer issue: If South African, write to your MP and the emails below to ask government to hold a public commission of enquiry to investigate the killing of the Deer and the infringements of the civil rights of citizens in order to do so, and, depending on the findings of that commission, to terminate Sanpark's contract to manage Table Mountain Park. If you are alien like the Deer, please write to the South African Embassy or Consulate in your country.

Email the following:
Table Mountain National Park Staff
 
Communications Manager
JanineW@sanparks.org
 
BrettM@sanparks.org 
 
Also for info to:
hectorm@sanparks.org 
 
shaund@robben-island.org.za 
 

Chief Director: Communications Mr J P Louw
E-mail: louwjp@iafrica.com

Director: Communications: Ms Phindile Makwakwa
E-mail: pmakwakwa@iafrica.com

Minister's spokesperson: Mr Riaan Aucamp
E-mail: raucamp@deat.gov.za

Chief Director: Ministry: Ms Sindiswa Nhlumayo
E-mail: snhlumayo@deat.gov.za

Director: Office of the Deputy Minister: Mr Livhuwani Mushasha
E-mail: lmushasha@deat.gov.za

 

Please submit all written comments to:

The Director-General Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism
Private Bag X447
PRETORIA 0001
.