November 13th., 2003
Dear Friends,
This morning it is cold at SanWild. We have been waiting for much needed rain in vain and the terrible drought has continued for so long now that it almost seems that one can get use to it. Some of the animals are hanging around our office waiting for the lusern that is keeping them alive daily. We know all of them by site already, the magnificent kudu bulls that have gradually lost condition as the drought continued, the injured warthog female and her two young babies they are by now almost fully grown. Today however the drought seems worse, the animals seem sadder especially the one kudu bull in particular who have for the past 12 months shared his life with a magnificent creature called Baixinha.
On Monday morning I received the call, which I have dreaded and tried not to think about since Baixinha arrived. The telephone call with a distraught voice on the other side: "Mom, please phone Dr. Rogers, he has to come immediately Baixinha is very ill and she does not want to get up." My heart sank into a terrible darkness while I made the call and when I arrived at SanWild; Peter's vehicle came up to the entrance gate at the same time.
After an initial examination both Peter and myself knew deep down in side that her time had finally come, but neither of us were willing to make the decision then and there. Blood test were taken and courier to the laboratory in Pretoria. We received the results late on Tuesday afternoon multiple organ failure. I closed my eyes and prayed to God to spare her life. I could not accept that the time had finally come to say goodbye to the most magnificent creature who have ever crossed my life. I would have sacrificed anything and would have given all I have (even my life) if only she could be granted another year of freedom in the African bush, but it was not to be.
Her breathing slowly became more laboured and I saw the dimming of the gentle eyes as they pleaded with me to let her go. I just cried and cried until no more tears could come from my soul. I cried not only for Baixinha, but also for all the other animals that crossed my path in the last 12 months. I cried for animals in captivity whose freedom had been taken away for human greed and our selfish needs and I cried for endangered animals bred to spend the rest of their lives in captivity because there is simply nowhere for them to go.
Peter arrived at SanWild this morning and the injection to put Baixinha to sleep was administered shortly after 10h00. She went to sleep and stopped breathing shortly afterwards. She will be buried at SanWild today, but I know that her spirit will always remain free at SanWild the only place she ever knew happiness and freedom even if it was only for a very short period of her life. Baixinha spoke with her eyes and although no actual word could be spoken out aloud between us, she understood how much we cared and I knew she had finally found a place of peace and happiness. Many wild animals such as kudu, warthog, zebra, red hartebeest and francolin shared her world and they will all miss her especially the old kudu bull with whom she shared her food daily.
Trying to come to terms with her death I realised that a lot work remains to be done. Work that will ensure that at least some animals can have a place they can call home, a place of safety and freedom. We need to continue our efforts to save and help those who cannot speak for themselves and I hope that Baixinha's memory will help my regain my strength to continue for as long as it takes.
Over the last couple of months we have been involved with and exposed to the most terrible abuse of Southern African wildlife. The issues range from poaching and drought victims to the most terrible practises relating to the illegal trapping and trading of our indigenous wild animals. If this on its own is not enough we are also fully aware of the trading in surplus zoo animals large cats, wild herbivores etc. where most of the animals end up as trophies on a hunter's wall. Some of the surplus zoo animals are not shot immediately, but are used to breed hunting fodder. The list of animal exploitation practises in South Africa is endless and we know for a fact that reporting such practises to the authorities have proved to be pointless. Appealing to the ethics of the hunting fraternity is a laugh and it is my personal opinion that the situation will get worse and worse because good people do nothing.
At SanWild we receive regular reports about the exploitation of wildlife and we know we have the will to fight for all animals no matter how important the rest of the world may regard them as a species, but unfortunately we cannot always respond because we simply don't have the financial resources to do so. I made a promise to Baixinha this morning when I said goodbye I promised that I will continue the fight. I will keep on trying to secure SanWild as a safe haven for wild animals and I will do what I possibly can to put an end to the exploitation of wild animals in my country along with the exploitation of surplus zoo animals across the world. How dare we as humans take an animal's freedom away and when they are no longer wanted, just sell them off into the most terrible conditions? How dare we allow a person to capture cheetahs from the wild and export them as "captive bred" to countries where there are no animal welfare legislation. How can he be allowed to get way with it? The answer is quite simple as long as we put our own needs first and forget about our animal friends, this will continue. As long as good people choose to do nothing, it will continue unchallenged the cruelty, the exploitation and the abuse.
Despite being terribly tired, I promised Baixinha that we will help, but I need your help to fulfil my promise to her. I cannot fight these bastards without your financial assistance, as the only way I know how to prevent the exploitation is to expose it to the whole world and all of you out there. We have to ensure that the exploitation of animals such as Baixinha stops now even if it is only for a handful of animals. We need to tell the world that South Africa is allowing surplus zoo animals to be imported into this country to boost the canned hunting industry. I need the world to know that there are individuals here that are capturing cheetahs and other large predators from the wild and condemning them to a life in captivity some are even hunted. I also need the world to know that smugglers are illegally capturing leopards and lions from the wild and hunting them in canned hunts. I need to tell the world that we have reported these incidents and that indeed we have handed proof of our reports to the Endangered Species Units and were quite willing to testify in a court of law, but that indeed nothing has been done to prevent these unscrupulous and terrible people continue their paths of destruction.
Please help us at SanWild because I cannot do it on my own.
If you are interested to help and by doing so keep Baixinha's memory alive you may contribute via the payment gateway on the Afritrust website at www.afritrust.com or simply make a direct bank transfer into the Baixinha Rescue Fund specially set up for this purpose. Kindly please mark your donation Baixinha.
Lastly I would like to ask you to please let me know if you are aware of any rhinos out there somewhere that are ill treated and that can possible be rescued
from a terrible life in captivity.
Let's see if we can together do what is the right thing to do and return their freedom ASAP.
Warm regards
LOUISE
