Barbara Creecy Opposes South African Wildlife Industry

Consequent upon our Minister of the Environment’s refusal to respond to correspondence and honest criticism of her attitudes – making her silence “DEAFENING” – Hunters and game ranchers are beginning to consider that she  is “Fair Game” whenever she roams “her own and highly selected ” hunting fields in South Africa – seemingly – in search of new (and fabricated) animal-rights-activist reasons to oppose our highly successful commercial wildlife industry.  The TGA, in its manifesto, has obligated itself to our society, to tell the honest truth to the people of South Africa. We cannot do this, however, unless the Minister will tell us just what that “truth” is!

South Africans are asking:  

  1. Why isn’t our Minister for the Environment complaining about the British Government’s proposed ban on the import of South African game trophies to the U.K.? Does she support the British move? Or does she support her South African hunters and game ranchers, and the people comprising South Africa’s wildlife industry? Her silence on this matter is particularly deafening!
  2. When she is told that the animal rights extremists’ doctrine is “to abolish all animal uses by man”, including sustainable-use of wild animals, hunting and the farming of both wild and domestic animals for consumption by man, does her silence imply that she agrees with the animal rightist ideologly? Or Does she disagree with them?
  3. Does the Minister agree with, or disapprove of,  the sustainable and commercial use of South Africa’s living wild resources (plants AND animals)?
  4. Does the Minister support the continued activities of foreign people and organisations (NGOs) who visit  South Africa principally to generate ever more new  lies to tell to the general  public of the world about wildlife management affairs in Africa (such as: the elephant is facing extinction)?
  5. Does the Minister support the gross interference in South Africa’s wildlife management affairs by overseas animal rights organizations like HSUS; HSI; PETA; and the Born Free Foundation – when they are openly distributing false and fabricated propaganda that  goes against South African wildlife protocols and the stated National Conservation Strategy objectives of her own Department of the Environment? In other words: Does the Minister support the right of overseas animal rights organizations to operate their organized-crime programmes in South Africa to South Africa’s detriment?
  6. Why is she not supporting our hard-working and ingenious RHINO farmers in their bid to sell their legally procured rhino horn? There are provisions within the protocols of CITES to register our rhino farmers as “Captive Breeding Entities”  and our rhino farmers qualify. Why has she not pursued this avenue of progress?  LEGALLY, CITES can only intervene in wildlife trade when that trade involves WILD animal populations.
  7. Why is she not supporting our hard-working and ingenious LION farmers in their bid to sell legally procured and captive bred lions, and to hunt legal captive bred lions, and the sale of legally procured lion skeletons, on the international market? There are provisions within the protocols of CITES to register our Lion farmers as “Captive Breeding Entities”  and our LION farmers qualify. Why has she not pursued this avenue of progress? LEGALLY, CITES can only intervene in wildlife trade when that trade involves WILD animal populations.

MORE TO COME!  MORE AND MORE TO COME!

The TGA, to do its professed job properly, needs to be able to communicate with the minister on all these matters.  We have deferred passing public opinions on all these matters – and MORE – SO FAR – until we get confirmation from the minister.  And I talk for many people who have written to the Minister without ever receiving even the common courtesy of an acknowledgement .

Our patience is not limitless!

From

CEO TGA

Ron Thomson

I am NOT a ‘trophy hunter’ - and never have been. I am not involved in the trophy hunting safari business. I am also not a game rancher. But I have ‘administratively controlled’ professional hunters and safari outfitters in my capacity as a government game warden. I am an 80 year old ex-game warden with 60 years of continuous experience in hands-on wildlife management, and national park management, in Africa (1959 to 2019). In breakdown, I have 24 years experience in the management of national parks in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe - and in the management of the wild animal populations that lived inside those national parks; one year as the Chief Nature Conservation of the Ciskei in South Africa; three years as Director of the Bophuthatswana National Parks Board in South Africa; and I worked for three years as a professional hunter in the South African Great Karoo (taking foreign hunters on quests for plains game trophies). I discovered, however, that professional hunting was not my forte. I worked as an investigative wildlife journalist for 30 years in South Africa. I have written fifteen books and hundreds of magazine articles on the subject of wildlife management and big game hunting in Africa. Five of my books are university-level text books on wildlife management. I am a university-trained ecologist; was a member of the Institute of Biology (London) for 20 years; and was a registered chartered biologist for the European Union for 20 years. I have VAST experience in the “management hunting” of elephants, buffaloes, lions, leopards and hippos (as part of my official national park work in the control of problem animals); and I pioneered the capture of black rhino in Zimbabwe’s Zambezi Valley (1964 - 1970). My university thesis was entitled: “The Factors Affecting the Survival and Distribution of Black Rhinos in Rhodesia”. Look at my personal website if you want any further details about my experience: www.ronthomsonshuntingbooks.co.za.

Ron Thomson has 280 posts and counting. See all posts by Ron Thomson

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.