Are tough tactics like the use of paintball guns against raiding baboons justified? The question has caused robust debate.
|||Are tough tactics like the use of paintball guns against raiding baboons justified? The question has caused a robust debate in the past few days.
Activist Nikki Botha asked whether the protocol allowing paintball guns had been subject to public comment.
“I cannot possibly think that the Animals Protection Act or any other laws drafted to ‘protect’ our animals would allow for this kind of haphazard, free-for-all.”
Associate Professor Justin O’Riain, who heads UCT’s Baboon Management Unit, said past management on the Peninsula had included chasing, whips, whistling, shouting, the throwing of stones, rocks and sticks, and the use of catapults. More recently, noise aversion in the form of whips and “bear-bangers” – loud explosive devices – had been approved.
Last year, CapeNature had given select applicants permission to use paintball guns, subject to conditions.
“Thus from an accountability and wildlife management perspective, the status quo would appear to have improved,” O’Riain said.
Veteran baboon conservationist Jenni Trethowan said her Baboon Matters Trust did not approve of paintball guns as a management tool.
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The message going out is that it is okay to hurt these animals if it gets them out of the village. (But) the problem is that the rewards of the villages will keep attracting the baboons back, so the problem has not been addressed in any meaningful way.”
Cape Argus