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ELEPHANT TOURISM ASSOCIATION
COMMENTS
ON ELEPHANT NORMS AND STANDARDS
The Elephant Tourism Association
(ETA) applauds the Minister of Environmental Affairs and
Tourism and his Department on the exhaustive public process they
recently completed leading to
the issuing of the Norms & Standards for elephant management in
South Africa. No organization
or body can fault the Minister or his Department on the process that
has been followed. The topic
remains an extremely emotive one and those involved will attest to
the heated debate that became
a standard during these deliberations.
Part 4 of the Norms and
Standards, Captive Elephants, is applicable to the ETA membership.
The minister referred to this in his speech, “Our legal advice was
that, while some of the concerns
can be effectively regulated during the permitting process in terms
of the TOPS Regulations,
DEAT’s Duty of Care as the permit issuing authority in respect of
elephants in captivity, for
example in zoos, circuses or elephant back safaris, was limited to
setting standards”.
The Minister has committed his
department to producing more detailed standards for the
management of captive elephants within a further 12 month period.
These further standards will
then be published as annexure VII to the existing Norms & Standards.
“The
Department of
Agriculture will work on these issues in parallel with DEAT’s work
on the Minimum Standards.
A joint task team will be established by the Department of
Agriculture and DEAT, to be lead at
Deputy Director General level, to deal with this issue as a matter
of priority”
ETA members played an integral role in the process leading to the
document issued by the
Minister, as did many other interested and affected parties. Whilst
the captive elephant
sector represents only about 130 of the total number of elephants in
our country, this sector
of the debate received much attention due to conflicting views from
various interested parties.
Our membership is diverse and includes zoos, a circus and animal
wranglers. Some of the
members’ elephants roam freely during the day and spend their nights
in stables. However, each
member is bound by the common goal of providing the best care for
these elephants.
It is important to report that ETA has already developed a draft
Code of Conduct for its
members which commits itself to the Norms and Standards issued by
Department of
Environmental Affairs and Tourism, as well as to the two Acts that
reside under the
Department of Agriculture.
The ETA draft code has three functions:
1.
To feed into the regulations that will be published to guide this
sector.
2.
To adopt the final document that will be issued as a result of this
twelve month process.
3.
To guide this sector of the elephant industry.
During the last fifteen months, ETA membership has been subjected to
six workshops; two in
1996 and four in 2007. During this time the various elements to the
captive sector were
hotly debated, resulting in a draft document that will undergo
further interrogation in the next
twelve months.
From the outset, various NGO’s (animal welfare organisations
included) were invited to
participate in the process we embarked on. Sadly, NSPCA and IFAW
declined to
participate; however, this did not deter our membership from
proceeding and seeking input
from experts further afield.
It is important to note that:
1.
The Elephant Tourism Association remains committed to the care and
welfare
of its members’ elephants.
2.
The organisation’s reason for being is to ensure quality management
and care of
elephants in captivity.
3.
ETA has consulted with local scientists, animal behavioural
biologists and other interested
groups to get input into this sector of the industry.
One of our major challenges in 2008 is to establish a formal
training program for
member elephant handlers. This process involves working through the
SETAs such as
Agri-Seta and THETA. Last year extensive meetings were held with the
Department of
Labour to access these SETAs as a matter of urgency.
Recently an interesting meeting was held with a leading animal
behavioural welfare
scientist with over twenty years experience, who has committed to
working with ETA on
developing effective formal training courses for elephant handlers.
We believe her experience
could be extended to other areas in our country where people work
with animals.
In closing, ETA is committed to the process that lies ahead, and as
an affected party believes
that its input will be valuable in creating a document that will
deliver excellent welfare
standards to all elephants in captivity.
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