Wildlife row rages in Kenya

2005-02-01 15:03

Nairobi - Kenya has turned down an offer from an Austrian zoo to release 16 of its lions into the wild, Tourism Minister Raphael Tuju said on Tuesday, amid an escalating row over plans to send exotic game to Thailand.

"Kenya has rejected 16 lions from a zoo in Austria that were to be released into the wild in Kenya," Tuju told a news conference that was interrupted by angry wildlife activists protesting the planned deal with Thailand.

He said the Austrian offer was declined because of concerns the animals might introduce non-native diseases to Kenya's lion population and opposition from the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS).

Tuju's comments came as wildlife activists stepped up a campaign to force the cancellation of the Thai deal, which initially called for Kenya to send more than 300 animals from 30 species to a safari park in northern Thailand.

"Animal in zoos are miserable," said respected wildlife expert Daphne Sheldrick, interrupting the minister as he attempted to explain the transfer.

Locals abuse animals

"Zoos are only popular in the east, where locals abuse animals," said Sheldrick, who has worked in the wildlife conservation field in Kenya for more than 50 years and runs an "orphanage" for abandoned elephants outside Nairobi.

"Wildlife in captivity is immoral," added Winnie Kairu of the Born Free Foundation, a British-based group that has appealed directly to Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki to cancel the plan.

Kenyan authorities who are hopeful the deal will boost tourism from Asia have justified the transfer on the grounds that there is an overpopulation of many of the species to be sent to Thailand.

Tuju repeated this argument on Tuesday, noting that in Kenya's southeastern Shimba Hills game reserve there were now 700 elephants, 500 more than the park can accommodate.

Tuju dismissed the activists' arguments as a fundraising ploy.

"These are busybodies who want to create a scene so that they can send newspaper cuttings to places to ask for donations," he said.

Tuju also said that the numbers involved in the deal with Thailand had been exaggerrated and expressly ruled out the transfer of endangered rhinos, which along with elephants, hippos and lions, had been in the original proposal.

"Rhinos are out of question," he said. "We are only considering 23 animals including zebras, giraffes and Thompsons gazelles, which migrate to Tanzania."

Tuju said Thailand had also requested animals from Tanzania and South Africa and stressed that Kenya had a tradition of sending wildlife as gifts to foreign nations. - AFP

- SAPA