Stop Killing Baboons!

In 2021, Baboon Matters, like so many organizations and NGO’s, has felt the brunt of the international Covid pandemic, but despite these overwhelming limitations we have been able to meet our short term goals and are continuing to work on medium and longer term objectives – all of which are showing positive change.

Our priority short term goal this year was the supply of Emergency Rescue Packs so that injured baboons (or other wildlife) can get appropriate veterinary care.

Wildlife and animal lover Marco Pasanisi used his engineering expertise to design a trap cage that is super-efficient as well a light and easy to use.  We were thrilled to use his new trap cage to train the Greyton baboon monitors so that, should the need arise, they can quickly trap an injured animal for veterinary care.  We have gifted the Cape of Good Hope SPCA with a new trap cage and were glad that they have already put the equipment to good use.    

Further work on the  Emergency Rescue Packs is funding dependent and we hope to get more of this essential equipment to areas where it is most needed in the new year.

Far too many baboons continue to be killed by electrocutions and we were devasted to loose charismatic baboons Khangela and Buddy to the powerlines this year, as well as juvenile baboons in other troops.   

We have had collaborative meetings with all role players to ensure that problematic transformer boxes are properly insulated and hope that the City of Cape Town moves speedily so that the first two pilot projects can be rolled out early in the new year.

We have been able to assist our colleagues at Prime Crew with emergency food supplies as well as help cover a small portion of the costs associated with their first release project in which 28 baboons will be moved to the temporary release site where they will be acclimated for release to the wild. 

This is a very important project to us all as the baboons so richly deserve the freedom that Prime Crew has worked so hard for and we hope that funding will enable a quick time line and allow other troops to move out to freedom in coming months.

In the past year we have continued to lobby for the workshop proposed by Baboon Matters and Baboons of the South in 2018.  We were thrilled that our unwavering efforts have met with success and we will be participating in a preliminary meeting /workshop at the end of this year. This is a vital step in establishing frameworks and a process within which to work so that positive, inclusive discussion can lead to change and a policy document.

I am really pleased to report that 2021 has also seen a huge increase in the levels of resident input and more groups working for better baboons protection and environmental sustainability.  In the face of lack of effective municipal waste management, resident groups have “baboon proofed” many thousands of bins across the Western Cape, residents have undertaken rolling protest actions, filed affidavits against cruelty and made it clear to the decision makers that we expect nothing t]less than fair ethical treatment for our baboons.

Baboon Matters thanks everyone who has supported our efforts and assure you that we will continue working as hard as we can in 2022 where we look forward to reporting on the outcomes of the workshop and a successful release at Prime Crew amongst other projects.  Thank you for your on-going contributions, our projects are reliant on funds raised and we have so much more to do, so thank you for supporting our work.