Letter to the Editor

Dear Editor,
 
I found your article on Captive animals being used for tourist interactions interesting especially after having read it whilst hosting the director of the Department of Agriculture (Scientific Research and Development) at our facility who has director been following our program that began six years ago:
 
•    Developing research models to measure the welfare of the animals.
•    Training the people who work with animals in these environments (accrediting these workers properly)
•    Measuring the impact of tourist interactions on animals.
 
The African Elephant Research Unit is based at the Knysna Elephant Park and has driven this process over the past six years. Having attended MANY public meetings where these discussions have been held, we realised a number of facts:
 
•    That these places will be around for as long as they have been around.
•    Many so called concerned welfare and rights organisations are very vociferous at these meetings, but never involve themselves in making a difference to the lives of these animals NOW.
•    That over all these years of debating, these organisations still only debate but have not addressed the critical areas of making a difference.
 
It was an amazing experience to introduce the Director to our findings (research results) and to demonstrate to him how research can be extremely effective in guiding management processes.
 
To this Editor, I ask that in your articles you look to the places that are doing the right things for the right reasons. That you strive to understand that there are definitions for places and that many rehab centres, registered correctly and doing real conservation work, compete against places that simply use animals to make money. That by educating the tourist in the places doing real conservation work; you will perpetuate their efforts and create a deeper conservation understanding through these efforts.
 
I look forward to interacting with you via e-mail in the future, to ensure that you have accurate information at hand on this subject, and that all places are not painted by the same brush.
 
Kind Regards
 
Greg Vogt

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