So says the environmentalist and director of the Landmark Foundation, Dr Bool Smuts.
About 200 people attended Smuts' talk, The Trapping Truth on the plight of the leopard and efforts to save the species from the brink of extinction, at the Knysna Bowling Club on Friday, August 23.
Smuts illustrates what he means by telling the audience the story of a farmer in Mpumalanga who was awarded for being the best farmer of the year by a respected farming magazine, two years ago. Further investigation showed that there was a dire price to be paid for this award. It turned out that the farmer ran a dog hunting club on his farm with military precision. Approximately 800 animals were killed on his farm that year, "and we, the society award him", Smuts says bitterly.
As the world's population grows, so the leopards become more and more endangered, he explained. "The more meat we eat, the more we have to produce, the more predators have to be killed."
Dr Smuts says the farmers protest that they need to kill the leopards, because it affects their bottom line. Yet, through studies by the Landmark Foundation, it has been proven that this is not the truth: A few months ago, eleven individual farmers were losing livestock at an alarming rate due to leopards. Snares were installed, poison was used, on one farm a permanent hunter was employed with the instruction to shoot and kill, but the losses increased. When Dr Smuts and his team heard about it, they approached the farmers and offered to experiment with non-lethal methods, for two years. The results were astonishing, he states. Across the border the percentage of losses decreased from 35% to 12%!
He then refers to the practice of gratuitous hunting as an example of vanity at a dire price. He uses one example: There is a particular farmer in South Africa who is literally making a financial killing every year. He sells about 150 permits a year to international as well as local hunters, because the law allows it. According to Dr Smuts, farmers are entitled to have any animal killed on their farms, as many as they like, including leopards, lions and rhinos.
Farmers, food merchants as well as the consumer must start taking responsibility if they don't want these majestic animals to become totally extinct soon. It is not necessary to use inhumane snares, poison and bullets to protect one's flock, Smuts says. "One such example is the fact that farmers are farming from the inside of their bakkies these days. They will not notice when there may be a leopard in the area. The practice of shepherding should be brought back again. One can also install cameras at certain (problematic) points on the land.
There are also steel collars that can be put around your sheep or your cattle's necks, because the leopard aims exclusively for the neck when they go in for the kill, this will slow it down. These are just a few deterrents that can be used instead of using lethal methods.
To learn more about the work of the Landmark Foundation, visit www.landmarkfoundation.org.za.
Farmers use traps like these to get rid of 'trouble' animals like leopards. There are, however, much more humane and more effective methods to prevent wild animals from killing domesticated animal stock.
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