From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2000--


Dog-shooting passé in S.A.

KRUGER NATL. PARK; CAPE TOWN--Word that immunocontraception seems
to work with female elephants at Kruger National Park, South Africa,
appeared to touch off a furor over dog exterminations which continue in
lieu of effective animal birth control in the Cape Town region, at the far
end of the nation.

Perhaps it was only coincidence, but the engineer of the Kruger
project, South African-born University of Georgia researcher Richard
Fayrer-Hosken, is also working on immunocontraceptive methods for use with
dogs and cats, as he explained at the June 2000 Spay/USA conference in
Waltham, Massachusetts.

Fayrer-Hosken and associates reported in the September 14 edition
of the British journal Nature that of the 31 female elephants whom they
darted with immunocontraceptives in the first year of the project, just 11
became pregnant. Among a control group who got a placebo, 89% became
pregnant.

An attempt to use estrogen-based contraceptives instead of lethal
culling to control the numbers of Kruger elephants failed several years
ago, when the elephants receving the estrogen became more fertile instead
of less.

Five days after the Nature report was amplified by major South
African media, Ugandan chief veterinary officer Chris Retebarika received
widespread media notice for telling a workshop on rabies control that,
"Depo-Provera used by humans in family planning is very effective in the
control of births in dogs," and that canine birth control is cheaper,
more effective, and safer than killing dogs.

One day after that, former Randburg SPCA cruelty investigator John
Munn described to the Cape Town Star how he and ex-Randburg SPCA shelter
manager Hannelie de Lange cried at night after killing dogs and cats with a
captive bolt pistol because the financially stressed organization could
afford neither injection euthanasia drugs nor a veterinarian. Munn and de
Lange reportedly shot 266 dogs and cats during the first six months of
2000.

"I can't believe anyone in their right mind would consider it,"
said Christine Kuch of the South African National Council of SPCAs. "There
is a world of difference between euthanasia and slaughter."
The Cape Town Star reported that Munn and de Lange could face
criminal charges.

But whatever they did, they were not alone. The same edition of
the Cape Town Star described the outrage of residents of Sutherland,
Northern Cape, at discovering more than 100 dead unlicensed stray dogs in
a pit at the municipal dump. The dogs were apparently shot with captive
bolt guns by staff of the Worcester SPCA, upon request of Sutherland
municipality.

A week later, the KwaKulu-Natal Directorate of Public Prosecutions
authorized the prosecution of three police officers who shot a German
shepherd, a Staffordshire bull terrier, and a Doberman through the window
of an outhouse, at request of the dogs' female owner. Her motive was
unclear.

Unwanted dogs used to be shot with little evident public concern.