Cape Town - An Eastern Cape farmer has been convicted of killing 46 endangered vultures after the birds feasted on a poison-laced sheep’s carcass he had left outside to kill a pack of stray dogs.
Last week he was sentenced to a year in prison, suspended for five years, and ordered to pay more than R20 000.
For some of the people working tirelessly to look after the Cape vulture’s dwindling population, the sentence is nothing more than a slap on the wrist. Conservationists are now calling for laws around the use of poison and the protection of animals to be re-evaluated to save the birds from extinction.
In December last year, Armand Aucamp – a 34-year-old farmer with a plot of land in the province’s Molteno district – had laced a sheep’s carcass with the insecticide carbofuran.
The pesticide is incredibly toxic, especially for birds and fish, and is banned in many countries. Toxipedia, a website dedicated to identifying various poisons, said it was generally used in farming.
Aucamp told the court he had put the poisoned carcass outside as he was having issues with a pack of stray dogs killing the livestock on his farm.
Conservation group VulPro said the prosecutor had argued that the loss of the vultures was a huge blow to the environment.
There are estimated to only be 8 000 Cape vultures left in the world. It is the only endemic vulture species to southern Africa and has already become extinct as a breeding species in Namibia, Zimbabwe and Swaziland, said the organisation.
“It is not just the death of these 48 vultures that is so devastating, it is their loss to their breeding partner and future chicks that has a devastating effect on the colony and its stability,” said VulPro spokeswoman Kate Webster, who found the dead birds.
Aucamp pleaded guilty to the charge of illegally using poison and was quickly sentenced.
But Griffon Poison Information Centre director Gerhard Verdoorn said he was not happy with the result. “This is a symptom of how little society cares about species that are facing extinction at the hands of criminals who deliberately misuse pesticide.”
He said the Fertilisers, Farm Feeds, Agricultural Remedies and Stock Remedies Act of 1947 was inadequate to regulate the use of pesticides.
“I am discussing civil action with my legal counsel against the perpetrator for killing birds that people like (Webster) and myself have worked on all our lives to protect.”
Cape Argus