After decades of unjustified persecution during which thousands of these harmless little foxes were mercilessly slaughtered by livestock farmers and nature conservation officials, some measure of protection is at last being afforded to the Cape Fox. No figures were kept of the slaughter in the Northern Cape province, but in the adjacent Orange Free State, the Oranjejag exterminated 60,340 Cape Foxes in a period of a few years, according to statistics reported in the August 1996 issue of the South African Journal of Science.
The Cape Fox is a beautiful, dainty and strictly nocturnal mammal. It is the only true fox and smallest member of the dog family in South Africa. It weighs 2.5 – 3 kg and is often wrongly blamed as a stock killer.
Beverley Pervan of the Kalahari Raptor Centre, co-author of the book “For the Love of Wildlife”, was appalled at the slaughter. She began a campaign to save the Cape Fox from extermination. First, she obtained scientific evidence, much of it from the University of the Orange Free State, proving that the main diet consists of rodents.
She presented the scientific evidence to the department of Nature Conservation Services in Kimberley, which for decades had consistently ignored the status of ‘protected animal’ given to it by Parliament by declaring open hunting season upon Cape Foxes in 18 of the 28 magisterial districts of the Northern Cape Province. The department had also lifted the restrictions against inhumane methods of killing, allowing farmers to poison, trap, snare or otherwise inflict cruelty upon these tiny animals. Unable or unwilling to understand the scientific evidence, the department refused to de-proclaim hunting of the Cape Fox, or even to stop the farmers from using cruel hunting methods.
Beverley then served a Notice upon the department in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2 of 2000, in order to ascertain the true reasons for its determination to continue the persecution. The written reasons forced out of the reluctant department in this democratic manner provided startling evidence of departmental neglect. The department had no idea how many Cape Foxes there were, how many were being killed or even if its neglect might lead to regional extinction of the species. No Environmental Impact Assessment had ever been done as required by law.
The sole reason given for the ongoing slaughter was that, at some time in the distant past, some farmers had asked the department to lift the protected status of the animal because it was suspected of being a stock killer. The department further stated that, since the persecution had been going on for decades, it should continue - “until the farmers ask us to stop”.
The Kalahari Raptor Centre at once issued High Court proceedings against the department to stop the killing and served a copy of the affidavits upon the Public Protector. Legal proceedings were suspended after the Public Protector intervened, and correspondence between the PP and the department then took place.
Finally in July 2002, the Kalahari Raptor Centre received the following communication from the Public Protector:
“ Cape Fox
DEC advise that, following consultations with "more than 180 role-players", the Cape fox has been removed from the annual (i.e. year-round) hunting proclamation with effect from 2002. The implication hereof is stated to be that a special permit is required to kill such an animal. It is our intention to enquire of DEC whether and how many such permits have been applied for and issued during the current calendar year, in other words, to attempt to establish whether this decision has proven to have any significant effect upon the status and numbers of the specie.”
What is left of the Cape Fox population now enjoys “protected” status. Again.
“Farmers are the custodians of their land and it is largely up to them what happens to our wildlife. I sincerely hope that farmers will not continue the destruction of these animals and now afford them the protection that they deserve,” comments Beverley. “At least the department of nature conservation now knows that it must place animal welfare upon its agenda – or face legal action. We would like to thank Advocate Gary Pienaar at the Public Protector’s Office for his assistance.”

Beverley Pervan
Kalahari Raptor Centre
www.raptor.co.za
Tel: 053 712 3576
Email: krc@spg.co.za

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