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HARARE––If anything good for animals comes out of the last years
of the Robert Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe, it may be the Africanization
of the Zimbabwe National SPCA.
Often seen by Zimbabweans of African descent as a relic of colonialism,
the ZN/SPCA has become emblematic of the battered hopes of many Afro-Zimbabweans
who still aspire to a peaceful and productive society that shares norms
and values with the developed world.
Mugabe, 81, on April 1, 2005 strengthened his grasp and that of his henchmen
on control of what remains of the faltering Zimbabwean government after
25 years of increasingly corrupt misrule by claiming a two-thirds majority
in Parliamentary elections. Critics of the regime both within Zimbabwe
and abroad challenged the authenticity of the results.
Whether or not the balloting was rigged, supporters of Mugabe’s ZANU-PF
party again tortured animals to terrorize opponents before the election,
as they often have before. In Makoni, for example, near Mutare, Mugabe
backers burned an opposition leader’s henhouse, killing 14 birds.
“No arrests have been made but police and the ZN/SPCA continue to
make enquiries,” said ZN/SPCA national chair Bernice Robertson Dyer.
ZANU-PF supporters also bought votes––and allegedly built cash
reserves against when the government falls––by poaching Zimbabwe’s
fast-diminishing wildlife.
Five years after Mugabe first bought support for his faltering government
by encouraging supporters to occupy farms owned by people of European
and Asian descent, Zimbabwean agricultural production has fallen far below
food self-sufficiency, but Mugabe has refused international food aid,
seeking to starve opponents into flight.
Supposedly to help feed hungry Zimbabweans, the Mugabe government in late
2004 began slaughtering wildlife in Hwange National Park.
“Operation Nyama, or ‘Operation Meat,’ is ostensibly a
campaign to feed starving villagers in northern Matabeleland,” wrote
Christopher Munnion of the London Daily Telegraph on March 23, 2005.
The killing was to have ended in December 2004, Munnion noted, but Zimbabwean
Conservation Task Force chair Johnny Rodrigues said he received a report
at the beginning of March “from a group of disgusted American tourists.
They saw a national parks truck which had broken down inside Hwange and
was fully loaded with dead impala and buffalo. An attempt had been made
to conceal the dead animals, but the Americans could easily see what was
in the truck.”
Rodrigues said an Australian couple also saw a government truck full of
wildlife carcasses in Hwange, and cut short their visit due to hearing
around-the-clock gunfire.
“If the aim was to feed the people, it is strange that most of the
elephant bulls that are being shot have 60-to-70-pound tusks and are in
their prime,” added Rodrigues. “Old bulls with broken tusks
are not targeted.”
Downsizing
“It
is a time of evolution and change for our Society,” admitted Dyer
in a March 25 e-mail, “as we grapple with the worsening situation
and the continuing exodus of supporters and volunteers. Recent estimates
put the dwindling Anglo population at a mere 12,000,” with much reduced
ability to donate.
“From 15 SPCA chapters in 2002, we are down to nine,” Dyer continued.
“We were devastated by Meryl Harrison’s decision to leave at
the end of 2004,” when Harrison wrote to friends that she hoped to
emigrate to England, after several years of stress-related health problems.
Harrison, formerly manager of the Bulawayo Branch SPCA, in August 2000
became national coordinator of the ZN/SPCA, personally directing the ZN/SPCA
response to cruelty by land invaders.
The parting was not wholly amicable. Harrison wrote that she resigned
after conflicting with Dyer over the purchase and renovation of a farmhouse
near Harare as a new large animal rescue facility and head office, while
property prices are at their lowest ebb since Mugabe took power. Harrison
favored instead increasing the ZN/SPCA investment in mobile clinics and
animal care supplies. Imported pharmaceuticals are reportedly now prohibitively
expensive, due to the collapse of the Zimbabwean dollar.
Dyer also noted the April 2005 exodus to England of ZN/-SPCA horse rescue
volunteers Claire and Mark Evans. “Sue Calasse and April and Angus
Thompson in Mashonaland and Claire Einhorn in Matabeleland will continue
with this important work,” Dyer said, also introducing “new
Matabeleland regional inspector Glynis Vaughan,” and a new head office
staff member, Roslyn Varkevisser,” whose names reflect the traditional
ZN/SPCA Anglo/Afrikans support base.
The recent stars of the team, however, include Simon Chikadaya, who “continues
to attend to all reports in the Mashonaland area,” Dyer recounted.
He is “ably assisted by the gentle and hardworking Mathias Tengaruwa,”
Dyer continued, “who has made a name for himself” conducting
rural clinics and humane education programs.
Succeeding Harrison as perhaps the most visible face of the ZN/SPCA in
the field is John Chikomo, who “continues his excellent work in Masvingo
Province,” Dyer said. “John is now providing outreach to Mashava
and Zvishavane, which no longer have SPCA committees, and Chiredzi, which
no longer has an inspector, and he now includes Beitbridge in his patrols.
A serious problem has developed along the Beitbridge roads to Bulawayo
and Masvingo,” Dyer added. “Nearly all of the fencing along
600 kilometers of road has been removed, and donkeys and cows are killed
daily.” Chikomo is often called to euthanize the injured animals.
“A sinister aspect of the disappearing fences,” Dyer reminded,
“is that the wire is used to produce snares. In a single sweep of
one conservancy [overrun by land invaders], hundreds of snares were recovered.”
Chikomo won 12 cruelty convictions in the first three months of 2005,
Dyer said––a substantial achievement anywhere, more so in a
nation notorious for failing law and order. His victories included two
closures of slaughterhouses for not properly stunning animals, the conviction
of a farm cooperative in Bakita for allowing 32 pigs to suffer from starvation
and mange, and the conviction of the warden at Kyle National Park for
allowing four horses to starve.
