02/12/2025
๐ฒ๐ท๐พ๐พ๐๐ธ๐ฝ๐ถ ๐ป๐ธ๐ต๐ด ๐ธ๐ฝ ๐ฐ ๐๐ธ๐ผ๐ด ๐พ๐ต ๐ณ๐ธ๐
๐ธ๐๐ธ๐พ๐ฝ: ๐ฑ๐๐ฒโ๐ ๐๐ด๐ต๐ป๐ด๐ฒ๐๐ธ๐พ๐ฝ ๐พ๐ฝ ๐๐ท๐ด ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐พ๐พ๐ฝ ๐๐ฐ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐๐๐ฐ๐๐ ๐ณ๐ด๐ฑ๐ฐ๐๐ด
Cape Townโs baboons have once again pulled a raw nerve in the City of Cape Town's conscience. In the past months we have watched troops pushed to the edge, individuals removed, and beloved baboons like Earl quietly disappear from the landscape.
Earl, the dispersing male who wandered through Plumstead, Kenwyn and Lansdowne, became a symbol of this tension. After being trapped and returned to his natal range, he failed to integrate with a northern troop and lingered around Constantia for months. The Joint Task Team eventually confirmed that Earl, coded TK67, had been euthanised after their deliberation. For many people this was not just the death of one baboon, it was another painful reminder that when systems fail, the animals pay with their lives.
Against this backdrop the new Baboon Action Plan and the proposed sanctuary for the Seaforth and Waterfall troops have landed in a space already heavy with grief, anger and mistrust.
BWCโs own committee and supporters, like much of the wider baboon community, are divided. That division is real, and it is understandable. We want to say from the outset: there is nothing shameful about that.
๐๐๐ฎ ๐๐ฉ ๐๐จ ๐ค๐ ๐๐ฎ ๐ฉ๐ค ๐๐ ๐๐๐ซ๐๐๐๐
If you care about the baboons, it is impossible to approach this plan with a neat, single emotion.
People who oppose the sanctuary do so because they fear it will become a slow extinction plan, or a precedent for removing โproblemโ baboons instead of changing harmful human behaviour. They are worried about fences, fire risks, the lack of baseline data, vasectomies and the long history of inadequate public participation. Many have stood in the trenches for years, witnessing shooting, maiming and quiet removals. Their distrust is not imaginary, it has been earned the hard way.
People who support the sanctuary do so because they look at the immediate alternatives on the table and see a brutal truth: for the Seaforth and Waterfall troops the realistic choices right now are a contained sanctuary, or culling. They see urban baboons who have spent most of their lives raiding dustbins, dodging cars, dogs and paintball guns, and they ask whether a secure, well designed sanctuary might offer, at the very least, safety and peace.
Both positions are rooted in love for baboons and in exhaustion with broken systems. Both are responses to twenty-plus years in which authorities have failed to implement basic mitigation: proper waste management, baboon proof bins, corridors, enforcement of by-laws, and honest engagement with communities.
BWC will not pretend that this is simple. It is not.
Being divided is a sign that people are thinking deeply and feeling deeply. It means we are paying attention.
๐๐ช๐ง ๐ฅ๐ก๐๐๐ ๐๐ฃ ๐ฉ๐๐๐จ ๐๐ค๐ฃ๐ซ๐๐ง๐จ๐๐ฉ๐๐ค๐ฃ
Beauty Without Cruelty is an animal rights organisation, not a specialist baboon management body. We do not run troops, draft management protocols or implement field operations. For that, we rely on those who have devoted decades of their lives to the daily realities of baboon welfare.
For many years we have been guided on "Baboon Matters" (pun intended) by Jenni Trethowan and the Baboon Matters team. Jenni brings more than thirty years of hands-on experience with Cape Peninsula baboons. She has walked the mountains, watched troops fragment, negotiated with officials, stood at the front line when dispersing males were targeted and when mothers lost infants. When an expert with this level of experience says โthis is not ideal, but it is the best workable option on the table right now,โ we take that seriously.
Trusting expertise is not abdicating responsibility. It is acknowledging that no single organisation can be expert in every species, every ecosystem and every technical plan. Responsible advocacy sometimes means saying: we will stand beside those who hold specialised knowledge, and we will support them while continuing to raise broader ethical concerns.
๐๐๐ ๐จ๐๐ฃ๐๐ฉ๐ช๐๐ง๐ฎ: ๐๐๐ค๐ค๐จ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐๐ฃ ๐๐ข๐ฅ๐๐ง๐๐๐๐ฉ ๐ก๐๐๐ ๐ค๐ซ๐๐ง ๐ ๐ฅ๐ค๐จ๐จ๐๐๐ก๐ ๐๐๐๐ฉ๐
From what has been shared, the proposed sanctuary for the Seaforth and Waterfall troops is not a cage in the popular sense. It is a contained area of land, walked and assessed by those we trust, where the baboons would have space, seclusion, a planned diet and environmental enrichment. It is not the large, free roaming landscape many of us dreamt of in earlier years. But for these specific urban troops, who are already living within a very human-dominated environment, it may be a safer life than the one they currently endure.
We are acutely aware of the threat that hangs over this proposal. We have been given to understand that if legal challenges derail the sanctuary, that option can simply be taken off the table. Will every baboon then be killed outright? Perhaps not. But enough have already been killed for us to know that this is not a risk taken lightly.
Faced with a choice between a plan that may offer a contained but secure life, and the very real possibility of further lethal removals, BWC chooses life.
This does not mean we give the Joint Task Team a blank cheque. It does not mean we are suddenly comfortable with opaque decision making, the lack of an up-to-date population census, or the continuation of killings under outdated guidelines. It does mean that, for these two troops, we are willing to support a compromise that keeps them alive while working to change the larger system.
We refuse to make the perfect the enemy of the good when the cost of that purity may be measured in dead baboons.
๐๐ค๐ฃ๐ค๐ช๐ง๐๐ฃ๐ ๐๐ง๐๐๐, ๐๐ค๐ก๐๐๐ฃ๐ ๐๐ค๐ข๐ฅ๐ก๐๐ญ๐๐ฉ๐ฎ
It is important to name what sits underneath the anger in this debate: grief.
Grief for baboons like Earl, who wander through suburbs carrying the invisible burden of fragmented troops and shrinking habitat. Grief for infants who never reach adulthood, for long established hierarchies broken apart, for troops forced onto a knife edge by human expansion and human indifference.
Grief also for trust that has been eroded over many years. People have marched, written submissions, attended meetings, and still watched decisions rolled out without adequate data or transparent processes. When a new plan appears at year end, accompanied by press releases before community meetings have even finished, that history cannot simply be brushed aside.
BWC recognises this grief. We share it. Accepting the sanctuary as an interim, pragmatic step does not cancel that pain. It simply recognises that the baboons do not have the luxury of waiting for a flawless process before their lives are decided.
๐๐๐๐ฉ ๐ฝ๐๐พ ๐ฌ๐๐ก๐ก ๐๐ค๐ฃ๐ฉ๐๐ฃ๐ช๐ ๐ฉ๐ค ๐จ๐ฉ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐๐ค๐ง
Supporting the sanctuary option for the Seaforth and Waterfall troops, on the basis of expert guidance, goes hand in hand with a clear set of expectations and values.
๐ฝ๐๐พ ๐ฌ๐๐ก๐ก ๐๐ค๐ฃ๐ฉ๐๐ฃ๐ช๐ ๐ฉ๐ค ๐๐๐ก๐ก ๐๐ค๐ง:
โข A current, independently verified census of baboons on the Peninsula, and transparent sharing of that data.
โข An immediate end to killing โproblemโ baboons while core mitigation strategies remain unimplemented.
โข Stronger accountability for human behaviour, including proper waste management, baboon proof bins, enforcement of by-laws and prosecution of those who injure or kill baboons unlawfully.
โข Ongoing monitoring, reporting and public communication about the sanctuary, including welfare checks, enrichment programmes, funding models and any health interventions.
โข A formal, detailed sanctuary plan that sets out the full design, operational model, welfare standards and long term management approach, to ensure that the field walkthrough aligns with a clear and transparent written proposal.
โข Future options, including possible safe release sites or expanded space, to be kept on the table rather than designing the sanctuary as a quiet, inevitable extinction.
We will also continue to affirm that activists and community members who oppose the sanctuary are not our enemies. These are people who have marched beside us on other days, who have stood in the rain outside laboratories and abattoirs. Disagreement in strategy does not erase solidarity in principle.
๐๐ฉ๐๐ฃ๐๐๐ฃ๐ ๐๐ค๐ง ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ค๐ค๐ฃ๐จ, ๐ฉ๐ค๐๐๐ฉ๐๐๐ง
The baboons of the Cape Peninsula do not need us to agree on every tactic. They need us to keep showing up, to keep asking difficult questions, to keep pushing for systems that respect their right to exist.
Beauty Without Crueltyโs position is therefore this:
We acknowledge that the sanctuary is not ideal. We acknowledge the deep, justified mistrust many people feel. We accept that good people, with good hearts, will differ sharply on this issue.
At the same time, guided by those with long experience in baboon welfare, we believe that for the Seaforth and Waterfall troops the sanctuary currently offers the best realistic chance of a life free from daily persecution, gunfire, dogs and cars. Between a contained life and a likely increase in lethal removals, we choose to support the option that keeps them alive.
We do so with open eyes, with continued vigilance, and with a commitment to hold authorities to the highest possible standards. Our loyalty is not to any committee or plan. Our loyalty is to the baboons.
If this moment invites anything of us as a city, it is humility. Humility to admit that our species created this crisis through expansion, waste and neglect. Humility to listen to those with expertise. Humility to accept compromise when the alternative may be irreversible harm.
Most of all, it calls us to remember that our task, as humans with power, is not to control every other being on this peninsula, but to learn at last how to live alongside them.
For the baboons, we intend to keep doing exactly that.
Please take a moment to really look at the photographs below and connect with them as deeply as you did with the article. An article may offer a few hundred words, but a picture, as the saying goes, is worth a thousand. These photographs by Bonita Franklin (Baboon Watch WC) capture what words often cannot. The CT3 troop stands splintered across the suburbs, a portrait of a family no longer able to move as one. The youngsters navigate streets and backyards where they should never have had to grow up. The CT1 male, weary yet resolute, carries the strain of a life shaped by constant human pressure. These images remind us who sits at the heart of this struggle, and who we are fighting for.
