EFFORTPOST South African Wild Game High Court Drama - Snotsickness and the great Mass Culling of the Wildebeests

Greetings Dramastrags

In South Africa, we have an extremely strong and prolific hunting and gun culture amongst afrikaners, especially compared to the pansy Bongs here. We have often been compared to the bugerland Southeners whom are all gunsexuals and decorate their homesteads with wild cured skins and taxidermic monstrosities. Some say it's because the early dutch voortrekkers have had an almost one to one cultural frontiersmanship comparison to their burger counterpart rural people, since self reliance was needed to survive in the "wilderness", away from european civilizational amenities only found in cities, during the founding years of america.

Because my father and uncles are all avid hunters, and follow hunting related news, I've been exposed to various dramas related to the wild game and antelope industry of South Africa, of which brings a lot of foreign currency in the form of tourists and hunters from burgerland and europe, and other parts of the planet.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351989418302336

https://www.farmersweekly.co.za/animals/game-and-wildlife/sa-hunting-poised-for-growth/

Today I wanna talk about the great courtroom drama that occurred in 2017/2018.

From 2014 onwards there had been an increasing amount of court cases between agrieved farmers, regarding the spread of Snotsickness which were transmitted by wildebeest to neighbouring cattle camps, and which is a fatal disease for cattle. Wildebeest are carriers of the disease, but are not themselves affected by it. Now, Snotsickness had been known about since for like a 100 years, and the standard wisdom by experts was that at least a 1km distance was required to be kept between the wild game camps of Wildebeest and any farm cattle, especially by neighbouring farmers so as not to recklessly cause them financial damage, as since, if a cattle farmer found even one infected cow within their herd, it was extremely likely that they would have to cull the lot to prevent transmission, and would be extensive economic damage if not total financial ruination.

Pics of wildebeest: (wildebeests are those animals which trampled Simba's dad)

The 1 km rule became a legal requirement from 2014 onwards as several court hearings resulted in the wild game owners of vectors to be held responsible for not follwoing procedure to maintain safety. But everything changed when a courtroom ruling drama in the Gauteng High Court would result in national gnashing of teeth.

CONTEXT 1 : Snotsiekte/Snotsickness - Malignant Catarrhal Fever (MCF)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4698299/

https://www.cpdsolutions.co.za/Publications/article_uploads/malignant_catarrhal_fever_april_2013.pdf

I know it sounds juvenile, but the name is pretty apt. The disease literally causes cattle and cows to drown in their own snot, as the virus forces a malfunction of the animal's mucus glands in their noses, and chokes them slowly and painfully to death. An extremely gruesome death for any animal.

What's important to know is that Wildebeest are immune to the effects of the disease itself, yet still acts like vectors - similar to that of the rats and flies which transmitted the Black/Bubonic plague from the far east into Europe. The bad and worse news is that there are no vaccines against MCF, and no medical counter agent. The only solution to stop the very infectious disease is containment, long distancing between camps/corrals and immediate culling of suspected infected wildebeest or cattle. Depending on the virus variant, cattle or sheep or other domesticated animals are vulnerable towards the transmission between animals.

In 2008 a study was made to test 304 wildebeest, and what they found was that the disease was transmitted between mother to foetus, so it was an intergenerational disease and wasn't going anywhere soon. The study also found that the Black wildebeest compared to the blue wildebeest was a "persistent carrier". Meaning the basterds remained infected till death, and transmitted the virus to the next generation, and remember the animals themselves were immune and unaffected by the disease they carried.

The virus is also transmitted by air debris, not just flies biting between the wildebeest and cattle hosts. The virus is even transmitted downstream if the wildebeest drinks upstream. Also the even worse worse news, is that if a mother cow survives to give birth, then her offspring is also infected. Point is this is one b-word of a disease for farmers and vetenarians to try and deal with. Oh yeah MCF sometimes causes the cattle to go blind if it attacks their corneas. Hells bells

Anyways, the point of me rambling this disgusting virus off to you guys, is to bring home the point that the farmers whose cattle affected by this hellish disease tend to be really fricking mad, and there would invariably follow a civil lawsuit against the game farmer nearest him if it could be proven (with good or bad proof), that the wildebeest herd was the origin of the infection.

CONTEXT 2: Court Cases involving MCF

https://regsdienste.solidariteit.co.za/en/legal-view-when-malignant-catarrhal-fever-is-transmitted/

Here's a short excerpt from how prior to 2017/2018, CMF virus damage court case used to go:

"In various rulings a lot of testimony has been put forward in this regard and various expert opinions have been accepted as the standard truth. One of these opinions highlighted by our courts and accepted as such, is that should the blue wildebeest be kept at least one kilometre away from the cattle, the probability that these blue wildebeest would infect the cattle with malignant catarrhal fever is minimal or even completely improbable. A general rule was therefore laid down by our courts that the blue wildebeest should stay one kilometre away from cattle.

In this case two farmers in Lephalale appeared in the local magistrate’s court with regard to a dispute about malignant catarrhal fever. A very important aspect was that the defendant in this case had been farming with game, including blue wildebeest, with the necessary permits since 2002. The other important aspect was the fact that the claimant, when he started his lease on the farm, was aware that the defendant had blue wildebeest and as an experienced farmer knew that blue wildebeest were carriers of malignant catarrhal fever and that it could have harmful consequences for his cattle farming. However, in spite of this he hired the land.

Both parties testified in court that they were of the opinion that the risk of malignant catarrhal fever being transmitted was minimal. According to the defendant, the owner of the game, he had since the year 2000 not had one case of malignant catarrhal fever, while for several years numerous other farmers adjacent to his farm were farming with cattle. The new cattle farmer now pitched up and suddenly there is a case, after there not having been a case for years.

The claimant, the new farmer, himself said that he had farmed next to another game farmer with blue wildebeest for years and there had never been any incident. Now that he had moved to a new farm, suddenly there is malignant catarrhal fever.

The claimant lost the case and appealed to the High Court of Northern Gauteng in Pretoria. The High Court ruled that the magistrate’s court in Lephalale had been correct by finding that the defendant was not liable for the damage suffered by the claimant.

The symptoms of malignant catarrhal fever are severe. It causes great suffering for the animals. Once an animal is infected, there is no medicine that will help; it is a fatal disease.

The magistrate’s court ruled that the claimant did not succeed in proving that it was the defendant’s blue wildebeest that transferred the disease and caused the cattle to die, as there was an adjoining farm where blue wildebeest were also being kept.

The High Court in Pretoria concurred with the finding of the magistrate’s court, but looked at more detail as to whether this game farmer might have been delict in his conduct and perhaps negligent. The court however found that it was not negligent per se to keep blue wildebeest. It is a given fact that malignant catarrhal fever are transmitted by these animals, but it is important to emphasise that the person who alleges that his cattle died due to malignant catarrhal fever contracted from the blue wildebeest of a specific owner, has to prove that it is this specific person’s blue wildebeest and according to the court negligence was not proved."

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SUMMARY FOR THE IMPATIENT: Guys leases land next to blue wildebeest encampment. Guy is aware of snotsuckness, and the associated risks. Cattle gets infected. Guy sues neighbour. Court tells him to GTFO. I mention this to make u guys understand why a lot of wildebeest wild game farmers were shocked and caught offgaurd by what would follow in 2019.

CONTEXT 3: Storm on the Legal Horizon

https://www.farmersweekly.co.za/agri-news/south-africa/swartruggens-snotsiekte-case-postponed-february/

But a very dark cloud hang over wild game farmers in 2017. A clownshow of a court case had been fought for a while, eventually having gone as far up as the Gauteng Pretoria High Court; and all of the big publications which cover the hunting industry followed the proceedings with angst and sweating bullets. For the 1st time in RSA history ,the horror of being forced to compensate neighbours that had been financially damaged by your wild game's presence, had been casually placed upon the table. Worse yet still, was the 1st time that High Court had been called to settle such a wild game type civil dispute matter, and the result would be enshrined in official Case Law - meaning that whichever way the High Court ruled, would be legalized and be the manner in which legal proceedings would be followed, unless another High Court decision overruled and displaced it.

This specific case had been fought for many years, and took intense measures to bring it to this legal level. Additionally south african legal costs are astronomically expensive for the average south african. Meaning that any follow up to this court case's judgement would only ever be fought against by the very richest farmers.

https://hfglaw.co.za/why-is-legal-representation-so-expensive/

https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2022-11-03-office-of-public-protectors-enormous-legal-bills-revealed/

Now I've tried REALLY hard to find particulars of this case on the internet, but this shit has been only hard printed. Like holy smokes, most good RSA stuff printed before 2020 was in newspapers and specialist magazines like SA Hunter/Jagter https://www.sajagterhunter.com/ But I've no idea how to look for specific articles, cuz my father followed this case intensely as he had a few black wildebeest on his small farm, and was under fear that in the even MCF infected neighbouring cattle it could ruin him, so many people in the hunting world around me followed it, that's how I became aware of it.

I did however find the Gauteng High Court ruling for the case:

https://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZAGPPHC/2017/286.html

https://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZAGPPHC/2017/286.pdf

In summary what's said is that the dude is sueing his neighbors for introducing wildebeest to a corral adjacent to his cattle ranch and caused the consequent infection of Snotsickness, as he had lived there for decades and have never encountered the disease prior to the introduction of the wildebeest by his douchebag negligent neighbours.

What follows is more incomprehensible legal jargon and the systemic procedures followed through the 4 years of the legal but the conclusion is that the defendants stunningly lost, and were thus responsible for paying damages which their MCF infected wildebeest caused.

Cue apocalypse!

Piet Wolmarans made himself a hated man by all who kept wildebeest, and a nationwide sneeed fest ensued. Many game farmers tried desperately to sell their wildebeest, but overnight their commercial value plummeted. They were now a toxic sue-worthy danger, and and the market supply far far outstripped the demand. The provincial auctions, in which wild game were sold between reserves and hunting lodges to have their market value determined, found themselves saturated by wildebeest. Many men were financially ruined overnight, completely bankrupt if their majority herds constituted mostly of wildebeest instead of sprinboks or Impalas or Elande or whatever.

For those who figured out quickly that the very transport costs of placing these now less than worthless wild game on their farms, towards auctions, decided that mass culling was the least damaging option. 2000 of the frickers were culled quickly as they couldn't even transport them to the nearest Reserves without fear. The rest found their money pockets burned with hot coals. My own father quickly had to shoot the few wildebeest and donate the carcasses the locals near his farm as charity, as the very large animals could hardly be eaten quickly enough for even the entire extended family (Remember the wildebeest are vectors, humans and they are completely immune to the virus and there is nothing the matter with their meat health. The shitshow only starts when the virus comes into contact with the unfortunate cattle.)