2008 November | Bushmeat in Kenya

Painful death. Part 2

Category: Bushmeat kenya | Date: Nov 24 2008 | By: bushmeateastafrica

Thousands of snares have been retrieved by the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, Bornfree Foundation and other organisation running desnaring project in the country. Just one desnaring DSWT team lifts approximately 450 snares month operating for a maximum of two weeks per month. One poacher can set at least 100 snares per day with a success rate of about 20% and about 15-20 poachers enter the park per day. With a success rate of about 20%, and assuming that one poacher sets about 100 snares a day, then 15 poachers have a probability of killing at least 300 animals per day. This figure may seems to be unrealistic. But the number of snares lifted per day and the number of animals found dead and those rescued by the desnaring teams is a true testimony of the magnitude of the bushmeat crisis.

620 snares retreived by Bornfree. Photo Elsie/Bornfree

Some of the animals trapped die and are eaten by carnivores such as lions or hyenas while others decompose before the poacher or the carnovores arrive. This is common as the poacher is sometimes unable access the area where the trap is set due to security patrols, weather changes or is unable to locate the excact place the snares was set. These snares remain active until they trap an animals or are removed by the desnaring teams. Snares are unselective and sometimes trap unintended animals such as jackals which the poachers may, due to frustration if they do not succeed in trapping the intended animals, sell their meat to unsuspecting consumers!!

However, in some cases, some animals are found on time by the desnaring teams and are rescued before they die.

Lucky to be freed. photo Elsie/Bornfree

Iregi Mwenja

Technorati : Bushmeat, poaching, snares

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Painful death. Part 1

Category: Bushmeat East Africa | Date: Nov 20 2008 | By: bushmeateastafrica

Hunting using wire snares is a very destructive and indiscriminate method of hunting that result in the killing of many untargeted species. Research has also shown that up to 90% of the animals caught go to waste as they rot before the hunter comes to check on his snares.

However, it is the painful death that this method inflicts on the animals caught that leave many animal lovers horrified. A snared animal takes many days before it eventually dies as you can see below. They die of starvation and physical injuries and not necessarily chocking as most people think.

Why is this method popular with poachers? Because the risk of being caught is low, wires are locally available, require little effort and investment. But it lead to a huge lose of wildlife, including endangered species like cheetahs, elephants, wild dogs, etc. That is why in Kenya organizations like Bornfree Foundation, David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, Youth for Conservation, ANAW etc have launched massive desnaring campaigns around the bushmeat hot spots in the country, mainly around the Tsavos, kajiado, Machakos, Mt Kenya, Masai Mara, Machakos, Taita and Naivasha.

Critics of this methods have sometimes raised doubt on the success of these program given that poachers have been known to double their effort once their snares are removed, while lately, they have devised new methods that are more efficient e.g. using a bright torch and a car horn at night to dazzle animals before killings them. What is not in doubt though is that fact that for every snare removed, an animal is saved!

Iregi Mwenja

Bushmeat Researcher

Technorati : Bushmeat, Snare, hunting methods, poaching, snaring

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Bushmeat Passed Off As Beef in Kenya

Category: Bushmeat kenya | Date: Nov 17 2008 | By: bushmeateastafrica

Lest we forget!!

It is more than a year since this article was published, but things haven’t changed for the better!

By ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY
The Associated Press
Thursday, July 12, 2007; 3:50 AM

NAIROBI, Kenya — James Akedi’s plate is piled with fragrant strips of nyama choma, the entree of choice in much of East Africa whose name means, quite simply, “roasted meat.”

Akedi can only hope he’s getting what he paid for: two pounds of government-inspected, disease-free beef. Kenyan authorities say wild animals such as zebra and wildebeest are illegally slaughtered and passed off as beef _ posing grave threats from diseases such as Ebola and anthrax linked to eating the flesh of infected animals.

“I have always been cautious when going out to buy meat,” Akedi said. “But you never know.”

Over the weekend, police recovered more than 450 pounds of “bushmeat” in an unrefrigerated minibus traveling from a wildlife dispersal area outside Nairobi National Park, Kenya Wildlife Service spokesman Paul Udoto said. The driver said he was going to pass off the meat as beef at Nairobi markets, Udoto said.

Similar shipments have been entering Nairobi nearly every day for the past two months, the wildlife service said. Three people have been arrested and are charged with poaching and illegal trade in wildlife meat.

“This is a big threat to human consumption,” Udoto said. “It has not been inspected by veterinary officials.” Human outbreaks of Ebola, a deadly virus that causes massive hemorrhaging, have been linked to handling carcasses and eating the flesh of primates infected with the disease. Anthrax and the hemorrhagic disease Rift Valley fever are also risks to people who are exposed to dead infected animals or eat tissue from infected animals.

The problem isn’t limited to Africa, either: In southern China, authorities have cracked down on a burgeoning illegal civet cat trade to prevent an outbreak of SARS. Civet cats, mongoose-like animals, are considered a delicacy in China and are suspected of spreading severe acute respiratory syndrome to humans.

In many West and Central African countries, bushmeat _ particularly from primates and elephants _ is considered a delicacy. But in Kenya, the main reason for eating it is the lower cost. While beef sells for around $1 per pound, a pound of bush meat may cost 20 cents.

Saturday’s haul and the KWS investigation suggest that the trade is still thriving _ something that Milton Njoroge, the officer in charge of Nairobi’s popular Burma Market, freely acknowledges. “For sure this is going on,” Njoroge told The Associated Press from his office at the market, cow carcasses hanging outside the door. “They won’t bring this meat in the daytime; they do it at night. They bring them inside sacks. They chop it up very fast. It becomes hard for us to know what has happened.” The market houses independently run stalls where small hotels, kiosks and individual customers can buy meat.

Veterinary and City Council officials are there during the day but at night, private guards patrol against theft. Njoroge said there are concerns that criminals could be paying off private guards. Stall managers interviewed by the AP denied trading in illegal meat, saying they only deal with meat that is still on the bone so they know exactly what kind of animal it comes from. The problem arises from boneless meat, like that from the zebra and wildebeest found last weekend.

Slaughtering wildlife is illegal in Kenya. The government banned sport hunting in 1977, but allowed limited hunting to cull animals and harvest game meat until 2003, when animal rights groups managed to shut it down. Nairobi Mayor Dick Wathika said officials were investigating to ensure food safety.

“I wish to assure Nairobians that no meat will be served to them uninspected,” he said this week.

Some Nairobi residents aren’t so sure. “Many people in Nairobi must have eaten this meat thinking it was beef,” said John Njoroge, who owns a fast-food joint in Nairobi. “Just goes to show that what don’t know can’t hurt you.”

But Njoroge, the Burma Market officer, isn’t taking any chances. When asked whether he would eat meat sold at his market, he balked. “No,” he said. “I don’t buy here.”

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