SA Seeks to Charge 4 Seal Rights Holders and 140 Seal Clubbers with Animal Cruelty

[Omaha Steve]

http://sealalertsa.wordpress.com/2008/07/08/open-letter/

July 8, 2008
Seal Alert-SA Seeks to Charge the Minister of Fisheries & Marine Resources, 4 Seal Rights Holders and 140 Seal Clubbers with Animal Cruelty
Posted by Paola under Namibia, news

Dear All Cape Fur Seal Supporters,

I have sent an Open Letter to the below individuals requesting details why Seal Pup Clubbing is NOT an offence under the Animal Protection Act in Namibia - Francois Hugo Seal Alert-SA

Seal Alert-SA, Press Release, 8 July 2008


Seal Alert-SA Seeks to Charge the Minister of Fisheries & Marine Resources,
4 Seal Rights Holders and 140 Seal Clubbers with Animal Cruelty

Francois Hugo of Seal Alert-SA meeting the Prime Minister of Namibia Nahas Angula, last year

Open Letter
Permission to Publish, Paste and Copy

On 1 July 2008, the Minister of Fisheries & Marine Resources awarded 4 Seal Rights Holders and their 140 Seal Clubbers the right to herd together 80 000 wild seal pups between 1 July - 15 November, and to club these seals pups on the head until dead, on three mainland desert beach seal colonies.

This is clear animal cruelty under the Animal Protection Act of 1962. Seal Alert-SA wants to know why this offence has never been prosecuted in Namibia?

Under the law, are all Namibian citizens not equal or does different laws apply to seal clubbers?

Is clubbing 80 000 seal pups, which started on 1 July, an offence of animal cruelty ?

This is the largest slaughter of wildlife mammals on the African continent.

Under the Animal Protection Act of 1962, an “Animal” means “any wild animal under control of any person”. Offences, “Any Person” who, “ill-treats, infuriates, tortures, maims, cruelly beats, clubs, kicks, goads or terrifies any animal”, is guilty of the offence of animal cruelty.

Deputy-Director of Marine Resources and the Namibian Ministry of Fisheries BJ van Zyl has stated that Namibia’s seals are killed according to the Seabirds and Seals Protection Act of 1973, this “Act” states, it is an offence, “pursue or shoot at or wilfully disturb, kill or capture any seal”, he states further the seal killing is regulated under the Sealing Regulations of 1976, which states, “A holder of a right relating to the harvest of seals must identify a group of pups to be harvested, which must be driven away from the sea and allowed to settle down before clubbing begins. A Clubber must kill a pup by clubbing it on the top of the head with a sealing club, until an inspector overseeing the harvest is satisfied the pup, which has been clubbed, is dead”.

The jurisdiction of the Marine Resources Act of 2000 ends in regard to the coastline, at “the high-tide water mark”.

Seals are herded beyond this jurisdiction and then clubbed to death.


FULL letter at link.