Help Save the Baboons of South Africa

May 2005

The 35 rehabilitated baboons released by CARE into the Vredefont Dome region in 2002, as documented by Attie Gerber, have been taken by CARE back into captivity; since the animals' release, one of the two troops was poisoned (six baboons died) and two baboons have been shot. Even though the region was in the process of applying for World Heritage Site classification, the animals did not find it to be a place of refuge, CARE is unable to prevent landowners or hunters from killing the baboons because, according to the law, baboons have been classified as "vermin" and, as such, may be killed without even a permit. CARE has successfully had the law changed in two of the nine provinces in South Africa - but all baboons should be spared this persection.

Please write to the South African Minister for Agriculture and ask that South African law be revised to remove the label of "vermin" from the country's baboons. Express your concern that, even in an area like the Vredefort Dome that should have offered these animals some protection, they have been poisoned and shot. Ask that these native South African primates be protected and that positive solutions be found to alleviate onflicts between baboons and humans.

Mr. Ndleleni Duma
Minister of Agriculture, Conservation, Environment and Tourism
North-West Province
South Africa
E-mail: epilane@nwpg.gov.za

See related story: BABOONS!