23rd Jan 2015 An elephant facing the death penalty in Namibia has been granted a reprieve due to the intervention of some kind business owners, according to this report from TimesLive SA. The elephant bull had been roaming commercial farms and after being branded a “problem animal” it was to have been killed.
Alex McDonald, who runs an agricultural business is quoted as saying “We want to avoid what happened last year when a wild elephant moved into commercial farm areas from Eastern Namibia and was shot dead by officials from the Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET)”
Mr McDonald went on to say “I engaged a few business people to collect some funds to move the elephant to a safer area like a nature park. We have now set up a trust fund via a lawyer and donations are coming in.”
The fortunate elephant was first sighted at the Kalahari Game Lodge near the border with Botswana and is believed to have entered Namibia from Botswana’s Kgalagadi Cross-Border Park shared with Namibia.
The Ministry of Environment and Tourism who originally planned to put down the elephant has said in a statement that “The MET has received a request from some farmers to capture, release and transfer ownership of this elephant to them which the ministry could not do for various reasons,”
The statement then goes on to say “These farmers indicated that no serious damage is caused by this elephant. The ministry has now decided to let the elephant roam the area without any intervention.”
The MET has however warned that the elephant will still be destroyed, if it becomes a problem to farmers. Let’s hope its safely moved before that happens.