Robben Island culling 'on track'

Courtesy of News24.com
Original article HERE

Cape Town - Sharpshooters have culled about 1 600 of Robben Island's burgeoning rabbit population, and 174 fallow deer, an official said on Monday.

The island museum's heritage manager James Makola said the culling, which started just under three weeks ago, was "on track".

The vegetation of the 475-hectare island has been ravaged by 25 000-plus rabbits and around 500 deer, both of them alien species.

Makola said the shooting was being done by a team of experienced professionals, working after the last tourist of the day had left, and in the early mornings.

The rabbit carcasses were currently being buried on the island, while the dead deer were being shipped off by an organisation that was making use of the meat.

Cat sanctuary

Though the team had begun shooting the island's cats, thought to number about 20, it had stopped in order to give the Cat Trapping and Sterilisation Network a chance to catch them and take them to a sanctuary in Hout Bay. This would be reviewed after a month.

Island authorities were also looking at the possibility of trapping and relocating the island's guinea fowl, which were originally also on the culling list.

Island environmental officials said in September the rabbits and the deer had stripped virtually all its the edible vegetation, and that the rabbits had actually started eating stinging nettle.

They said the cats were on the hit list because they ate the chicks of penguins, the swift tern and Hartlaub's gull, of the threatened oystercatcher, and of the highly endangered bank cormorant.

Pressure group Animal Rights Africa (ARA) said on Monday it was outraged at the "illegitimate" killing of animals, which it said formed an integral part of the island's heritage.

It was confident that there were more humane solutions to the environmental degradation.

'Legal action'

The culling was in breach of the Animals Protection Act, ARA said.

"We are appealing to the public to assist us as we would like to take legal action to prevent the management of the Robben Island Museum from executing the ill-advised contract they have entered into to kill the animals.

"It seems that the Robben Island management is determined to desecrate this internationally acclaimed heritage site and once again turn it into a place of oppression, injustice, exploitation, suffering and death."

Makola said however that the island authorities were working closely with the SPCA and Cape Nature, and had based its decisions on their advice.

What was being done was the best option given the conditions on and challenges facing the island, he said.

Rabbits were brought to the island by early sailors, to breed as a source of meat. The fallow deer, which come originally from Europe, were introduced in the mid-20th century.

- SAPA