GEORGE NEWS - The George Wildlife Park (GWP) has to comply with a myriad of laws in order to obtain permission to keep wildlife. Five local authorities have already commented on the application, which is to be re-considered at the next Mayco meeting in April.
It does not look as if animal activist Pat Dickens is ready to bury the hatchet just yet. On Sunday night Dickens continued to cross swords with GWP owner Gustav van der Gryp on Face-book saying he should desist from threatening him.
Earlier on this week Dickens made an appeal to Van der Gryp and said, "I implore you to rethink this thing. Scrap the cheetahs. Forget the tigers. Do away with the caracals (and any lions that may or may not exist too). There really must be better ways to spend that money if you really do care for saving a species. I have done several educational tours with Eden Park/Pacaltsdorp lighties. They get so excited but it makes not one scrap of difference two days later. If you could address dog sterilisation and how to treat mange (not with Jeyes Fluid or battery acid) - THAT would REALLY benefit the disadvantaged people. It becomes something more tangible to their daily lives."
He quoted Jacques Deval who said, "God loved the birds and invented trees. Man loved the birds and invented cages."
Facebook fire
Van der Gryp responded to the Facebook petition campaign by asking Pat Dickens to take down the post as it is misleading and false. (In last week's George Herald Van der Gryp and his manager, JP Kameel, denied any intention of keeping lions and allowing the public to pet them.)
Van Der Gryp said via Facebook, "If necessary I will take you to court to publish an apology. I know where to find you." Referring to Dr Mandy Lombard's statement/letter mentioned in last week's George Herald he said, "I am sure these letters have been written by people with the best intentions but they do not seem to understand that the keeping of wild animals of any type falls under CapeNature and these letters should in fact be addressed to Cape-Nature.
The function of the municipality in this application is only to allow or disallow tourism in the specific area. As the development of additional tourist facilities is a stated objective of the George Municipality, their delay in issuing the necessary permits for tourist activities on the site is unacceptable, specifically as the planning department has already given their permission in November 2014." After permission from the municipality is received, GWP will still have to make an application to CapeNature in which a whole business plan, which must include safety measures, enclosure sizes as well as human/animal interaction, needs to be set out.
After the George Herald newspaper had gone to bed, the George Wildlife Park issued the following press release:
"Ms E [Elrie] van der Gryp, co-owner of the proposed George Wildlife Park, has confirmed that she wil be taken legal action against Mr Pat Dickens and other persons involved in the petition against George Wildlife Park. The petition associates the planned George Wildlife Park with canned hunting of lions while George Wildlife Park will not even keep lions. The park will also not be involved in breeding of cats as this is in any case not allowed by Cape Nature. GWP will also not allow visitors to touch wild animals. Mr Dickens has also made slanderous allegations against Mr JP Kameel. This cannot go unchallenged according to Ms van der Gryp. My father Mr G van der Gryp [Elrie's father], who financially supports the park, is currently on a photographic safari in Chobe, Botswana. I will just wait for his return before papers will be serviced [sic] on Mr Dickens and the other people involved. The image created in previous newspaper reports were that all the people that signed the petition were from George but this is an online petition signed by people from all over the world, some who might even [not] know where George is. Our own surveys in George show that most people in George actually support the idea of the new park."
"Ms E [Elrie] van der Gryp, co-owner of the proposed George Wildlife Park, has confirmed that she wil be taken legal action against Mr Pat Dickens and other persons involved in the petition against George Wildlife Park. The petition associates the planned George Wildlife Park with canned hunting of lions while George Wildlife Park will not even keep lions. The park will also not be involved in breeding of cats as this is in any case not allowed by Cape Nature. GWP will also not allow visitors to touch wild animals. Mr Dickens has also made slanderous allegations against Mr JP Kameel. This cannot go unchallenged according to Ms van der Gryp. My father Mr G van der Gryp [Elrie's father], who financially supports the park, is currently on a photographic safari in Chobe, Botswana. I will just wait for his return before papers will be serviced [sic] on Mr Dickens and the other people involved. The image created in previous newspaper reports were that all the people that signed the petition were from George but this is an online petition signed by people from all over the world, some who might even [not] know where George is. Our own surveys in George show that most people in George actually support the idea of the new park."
ARTICLE: PAULINE LOURENS, GEORGE HERALD JOURNALIST
'We bring you the latest George, Garden Route news'
