The Killing Fields of South Africa: Eco-Wars, Species Apartheid, and Total Liberation

Abstract

Animals are those unfortunate slaves and victims of the most brutal part of mankind." -John Stuart MillIn South Africa, the elephant has emerged at the center of heated political debates and culture wars, as the government and national park system maneuvers to return to the practice of "culling"-a hideous euphemism for mass murder of elephants.[2] Culling advocates-including government officials, park service bureaucrats, ecologists, "conservationists," large environmental organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund, farmers, and villagers-argue that elephants have had deleterious effects on habitat and biodiversity and their herds need to be "managed" and reduced.Farmers and villagers complain that elephants are breaking reserve fences, destroying their crops, competing with their livestock for food, endangering physical safety and sometimes attacking and killing humans.The consensus among these parties is that biodiversity, ecological balance, and human interests trump the lives and interests of elephants, and that the most efficient solution to the "elephant problem" is the final solution of culling thousands of lives.Opponents of culling include animal activists in South Africa and the world at large, ecologists, and thousands of Western tourists fond of elephants and the desire to see them in their natural habitat.In addition to the moral argument that elephants have intrinsic value and the right to exist-quite independent of their utility for humans-The Killing Fields of South Africa: Eco-Wars, Species Apartheid, and Toal Liberation Steve Best photo by

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