The After Life creator took to Twitter to show his support for Donal Rogers and his dog Kim, calling the situation ‘sad and frustrating’ – his tweet has received masses of support.
Ricky Gervais has become the latest person to join in the fight to save ex-Garda Donal Rodgers’ dog Kim.
The Jack Russell was ordered by a court to be put down after she reportedly bit a woman while walking on the Strokestown Famine Trail in Co Roscommon on March 6th.
However, the UK comedian has said that the order to put her down is “sad and frustrating”.
More than 600 people have donated €12,868 in a bid to help Roscommon’s Mr Rogers and his beloved pup – surpassing the fundraiser’s goal of €5,000.
Hundreds of thousands of people have also signed a Change.org petition to save the dog.
Retweeting a post about Donal and Kim that asked for “high public exposure”, Ricky Gervais wrote: “This is so sad and frustrating. Anyone out there know how this dog can be saved? #SaveKim”
Donal launched an appeal in the High Court to prevent Kim from being put down, but on July 28th, he withdrew the appeal after the court indicated to him “that there were other avenues to pursue.
“The battle is far from over, not even half over,” Donal told Gript.ie. “My supporters are fighting to keep Kim alive. I have wonderful support from all over the country.”
Antilly, the German Shepherd who shared the screen with comedian and actor Ricky Gervais in After Life, is adding plenty of screen credits to her CV since the show.
She won the hearts of TV viewers worldwide as Ricky Gervais’ loyal dog in Netflix smash After Life.
RICKY AND ANTILLY
And thanks to her role as Brandy, the pup who gives Ricky’s character Tony Johnson a reason to live after his wife’s death, Antilly’s career is booming.
ANTILLY
The German Shepherd has been to Belfast to shoot scenes with Hollywood stars Chris Pine and Michelle Rodriguez for a blockbuster Dungeons And Dragons film.
ANTILLY IN DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS
And she’s starring in upcoming BBC drama Sherwood with David Morrissey and Robert Glenister as well as Netflix spy series Treason with Charlie Cox and Olga Kurylenko.
Antilly has graced screens since she was a puppy, playing everything from Army hounds to police dogs.
She’s also worked with A-listers including Tom Cruise and George Clooney, who said she was the best-trained dog he’d seen.
Antilly’s owner Ashley Foster jokes: “They bring us over to do the serious acting.”
Ashley started as an animal trainer 10 years ago and worked on Batman flick The Dark Knight Rises with Antilly’s parents – he was one of villain Bane’s henchmen with the dogs playing attack hounds.
Antilly followed in her parents’ pawprints and signed with Stunt Dogs & Animals. The company was working on a film with Michael Fassbender and wanted a police dog to bite him – one of Antilly’s many skills.
ANTILLY’S DAD ASHLEY
Using protective sleeves, Ashley, 34, safely directs the clever canine where to bite. He says: “She’s very controlled. As soon as the director calls cut and I tell her to let go, she lets go straightaway.”
Antilly’s skills are so honed, she even managed to convince a scared stuntman on Martin Clunes’ series Doc Martin to do a dog bite scene.
ANTILLY CHASES DOC MARTIN (MARTIN CLUNES)
Ashley, from Bicester, Oxon, says: “He’d done one before, they’d used two ex-police dogs and they couldn’t get the dogs off him. I had to show how she works for him to agree to do it.”
The talented pooch, 10, has a wide range of tricks from shaking her head and limping on command to playing dead. All she needs is the reward of a sausage and Ashley stands off-camera, tempting her with his telescopic bait stick.
(OUTTAKE) ANTILLY AND RICKY ON THE SET OF AFTERLIFE
“She’ll lie there, completely still,” he says. “People could be crying and wailing over her and she won’t move. Every time she does something she will get paid with a sausage.”
Ashley often appears alongside Antilly and after receiving the script, they do lots of prep work to make sure she is happy.
PREPARED FOR AN AFTERLIFE SCENE
Ashley adds: “For After Life there wasn’t really much to prepare for. It was straightforward.”
When they’re not filming scenes, he uses the time to work on training.
He also brings other dogs with him to train, including German Shepherd pup Pen, who has already worked as a police dog in TV shows and will eventually take over from Antilly.
For now, though, she is continuing her film work. Ashley says: “She’s still super fit, healthy and happy and loves to work.”
Ashley and Antilly are backing a new challenge from charity Street Paws, encouraging Brits to walk 274,000 steps in April for every homeless person in England.
Founded in Newcastle in 2016, Street Paws provides free accessible vet care and support services to homeless people and their pets.
STREET PAWS
Ashley says: “The work they do can save people. I’ve known people who are struggling to find housing and have got a dog and are really worried about not being able to find somewhere to live with them.”
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When tomorrow starts without me, And I’m not there to see; The sun will rise and find your eyes All filled with tears for me
I wish so much you wouldn’t cry The way you did today, I know how much you loved me, As much as I love you, And each time that you think of me I know you’ll miss me too.
But when tomorrow starts without me, please try to understand That an angel came and called my name And petted me with her hand.
She said my place was ready, In Heaven far above, And that I’d have to leave behind All those I dearly love.
But,as I turned to heel away, A tear fell from my eye, For all my life I never thought That I would have to die.
I had so much to live for, So many sits and downs to do, It seemed almost impossible, That I was leaving you.
I thought about our lives together, I know you must be sad, I thought of all the love we shared, And all the fun we had.
Remember when I’d nudge your hand, And poke you with my nose? The frisbee I would gladly chase, The bad guy,I’d “bark and hold”
If I could relive yesterday, Just even for awhile, I’d wag my tail and kiss you, Just so I could see you smile.
But then I fully realized, That this could never be For emptiness and memories Will take the place of me.
And when I thought of treats and toys I might miss come tomorrow, I thought of you and when I did, My dog-heart filled with sorrow.
But when I walked through Heaven’s gate; And felt so much at home; As God looked down and smiled at me, From His beautiful throne.
He said,”This is eternity”, And now we welcome you, Today your life on earth is past, But here is starts anew.
I promise no tomorrow, But today will always last; For you see,each days’ the same, There’s no longing for the past.
Now you have been so faithful So trusting, loyal and true; Though there were times you did things, You knew you shouldn’t do
But good dogs are forgiven, And now at last you’re free; So won’t you sit here by my side, And wait right here with me?
So when tomorrow starts without me, Don’t think we’re far apart, For every time you think of me, I’m right there, in your heart.
Author unkown
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JUSTIN WANN, PICTURED WITH HIS DAUGHTER EMILY, 12, HAS EXPLAINED WHY HE TAKES HE HAS TAUGHT HIS THREE YOUNG CHILDREN HOW TO HUNT
The family almost entirely live off wild game, regularly eating what they shoot and kill to teach the children where their food comes from.
WANN’S DAUGHTER SAMANTHA IS PICTURED POSING WITH A DEER THAT WAS SHOT AND KILLED DURING A FAMILY HUNTING TRIP
A recent picture uploaded online shows Samantha posing next to a deer which she shot from 45m away, before carrying the animal home.
Emily, ‘not to be outdone by her sister’, shot her first deer just weeks later, while Sophie has also been pictured practicing to shoot with a pink single shot .22 rifle.
SAMANTHA IS PICTURED HERE WITH THE FIRST DEER SHE SHOT AND KILLED HERSELF WHILE ON A HUNTING TRIP
Samantha and Emily, who both first learnt to shoot with the same gun, now hunt with bolt action .243 hunting rifles.
Mr Wann learnt to hunt and shoot when he was taken on hunting trips as a child by his grandfather in western New South Wales.
SAMANTHA AND EMILY ARE PICTURED WITH A WILD DOG THAT WAS KILLED DURING A FAMILY HUNTING TRIP
‘I strongly believe in firearm education for kids, especially kids in rural areas where there is a high chance they will be exposed to guns at some stage,’ Mr Wann said.
WANN’S WIFE SARA WITH THEIR DAUGHTER EMILY, WHO WAS 18-MONTHS-OLD AT THE TIME, POSING BEHIND A ‘FERAL’ PIGSAMANTHA IS PICTURED WHEN SHE WAS YOUNGER HOLDING A DEAD RABBIT IN HER HANDS
Editor’s Note: Misguided Parenting.
Many hunter’s believe it is their parental duty to teach children to use guns. It’s a difficult viewpoint for others to understand. Yet good parenting involves protecting children from harm. Allowing children to do what we do, regardless of age, safety and moral implications, is not protecting them.
Teaching his daughter to hunt has become a war veteran’s purpose in life. He has a dream that his daughter will be the “first four year old in the world to hunt and kill a hog.” It doesn’t seem to matter whether his young daughter wants to hunt.
“I have to be with her for her very first kill… Can’t take that away from me, you know. It’s going to be a huge accomplishment that her dad’s a triple amputee with one arm and he’s got her to where she can hunt herself,” he says in the documentary Kids and Guns. She has already been made to watch him kill a squirrel from his wheelchair, then hold the corpse for photographs and watch the skinning.
A corruption of childhood
Images of children carrying guns or holding slain animals represent a corruption of childhood. Children enjoy pleasing the adults in their life, but they don’t have to kill to earn our approval, unless we make it that way. They can help to prepare food, or feed animals, or grow vegetables. We can teach them how to create and nurture. When they reach adulthood, they can choose whether or not they want to use guns and kill animals, but before then, let’s not force them down a path.
Perhaps we should look more critically at why we teach children the things we do. Is it for their benefit, for society’s benefit, or our own? It’s one thing to dress our children in our favourite football team kit, although better they make their own choice, but it’s a different matter to place a gun in their hand.
Children are highly impressionable. Killing has no place in childhood if we want a more compassionate society. We first need to teach children to respect nature, otherwise what hope is there for preserving the natural world and for protecting humanity in the long run?
A society that promotes killing surely isn’t a healthy one.
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Norwegian authorities have killed a Walrus that was drawing large numbers of human onlookers. They said it was necessary because PEOPLE had failed to heed warnings that their safety could be in danger.
Norwegian authorities killed a popular walrus due to safety concerns, they announced on Sunday.
Norway’s Directorate of Fisheries said Freya was euthanized early on Sunday “based on an overall assessment of the continued threat to human safety.”
The 600-kilogram (1,320-pound) marine mammal, affectionately known as Freya, had become a popular attraction over recent weeks.
The sightings were unusual because walruses normally live much further north, in Arctic waters.
What reason was given?
Officials had repeatedly warned that people should refrain from getting too close and posing for pictures with the animal.
“Through on-site observations the past week it was made clear that the public has disregarded the current recommendation to keep a clear distance to the walrus,” a statement from the Directorate of Fisheries said. “Therefore, the Directorate has concluded, the possibility for potential harm to people was high and animal welfare was not being maintained.”
Norway’s Fisheries Directorate Frank Bakke-Jensen said in a statement that all other possible solutions had been examined, including moving Freya elsewhere. “We concluded that we could not guarantee the well-being of the animal by any of the means available,” he said.
Bakke-Jensen said that ultimately, human safety had to take precedence.
“We have sympathies for the fact that the decision can cause reactions with the public, but I am firm that this was the right call. We have great regard for animal welfare, but human life and safety must take precedence.”
However, opponents of the decision said more should have been done to take the animal’s well-being into account.
A spokeswoman for animal rights group NOAH, Siri Martinsen, told Norway’s TV2 television channel that the measure had been rushed. She said fines should have been issued to disperse the onlookers.
Biologist Rune Aae told the NTB news agency it was “infinitely sad that they chose to euthanise such a beautiful animal simply because we did not behave well with it.”
The Blue Planet Society pressure group — which campaigns to protect the world’s oceans — branded the decision “utterly disgraceful.”
They actually did it. Freya the walrus has been killed by the Directorate of Fisheries in Norway.
THE BLUE PLANET SOCIETY’S RESPONSE FOLLOWING THE NEWS THAT FREYA HAS BEEN KILLED
An International Traveller
Freya — whose name refers to the Norse goddess of beauty and love — was first spotted in the waters of the Norwegian capital in mid-July.
She had already found fame climbing onto pleasure boats in Kragero, an idyllic southern coastal village.
Her exploits, which included chasing a duck and attacking a swan intrigued locals and made headlines in the press. Mostly though, she would simply bask on boats — walruses can sleep for up to 20 hours per day.
Despite repeated appeals from the authorities, interested onlookers continued to approach her, sometimes with children and sometimes in the water.
Before settling in the Oslo Fjord, Freya was spotted in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands — where she relaxed on a Dutch naval submarine — and Denmark.
Author’s Comment: Freya, please accept our apologies. we put you on a pedestal then let you down ~ OUR SHAME!!!
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Staff at a Thai animal hospital take six-month-old orphan Clear Sky swimming to strengthen her leg muscles.
This baby Elephant is trying to forget her fear of water as she learns to walk again after losing part of her foot.
The nervous six-month-old grabbed a keeper for support as she was lowered into the pool at an animal hospital in Chonburi, Thailand.
CLEAR SKY IS LEARNING TO WALK AGAIN IN A SWIMMING POOL AFTER SHE INJURED HER FOOT.
The six-month-old is the first elephant to receive hydrotherapy at the Nong Nooch Tropical Garden animal hospital in Thailand
Clear Sky caught her leg in an animal trap laid by villagers to protect their crops.
Staff at the animal hospital are trying to help her strengthen her withered leg muscles.
After surgery she is now having treatment to strengthen her leg muscles.
STAFFERS USE A HARNESS TO HELP CLEAR SKY INTO THE WATER AND KEEP HER AFLOAT
THIS WAS HER SECOND TIME GETTING WATER THERAPY
Baby Elephants usually love water, but Clear Sky was ‘a bit nervous and scared’, said a vet.
However she appeared to relax by the end of the hour-long session.
Vet Padet Siridumrong said: “She is still a bit nervous and scared of the water.
“Usually baby Elephants love the water.
“If she can do this regularly she will have fun.”
Villagers had found Clear Sky hungry and hobbling, after being separated from her mother in the wild.
Vets hope with more swimming, she won’t need an artificial leg.
The orphaned Elephant was in bad shape when she arrived at the hospital.
She was hobbling, in pain and in dire need of milk.
‘Kampon Tansacha, the director of the zoo that’s now her home, said: “We named her Clear Sky Up Ahead, because that is what she will need while she is with us.”
Elephants are a revered national symbol in Thailand, but their population in the wild has plummeted to an estimated 2,500 in the last century, a result of rabid development, habitat destruction and the ivory trade.
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LARRY RUDOLPH CONFESSED TO KILLING HIS WIFE ON AN AFRICAN SAFARI IN ZAMBIA AND COLLECTING MILLIONS IN LIFE INSURANCE.
An American dentist and big-game hunter was found guilty of murder in the shooting death of his wife on an African safari.
Lawrence Rudolph, 67, killed his wife, Bianca Rudolph, with a shotgun and defrauded multiple insurance companies, a federal jury found Monday. Rudolph cashed in more than $4.8 million in life insurance payments after her death almost six years ago.
Rudolph has maintained his innocence and said he believes the gun fired accidentally.
“I did not kill my wife. I could not murder my wife. I would not murder my wife,” Rudolph told jurors when he took the stand in his own defence at a federal trial in Denver last week.
The Phoenix couple shared a passion for big-game hunting and had travelled to the southern African nation of Zambia in September 2016 so Bianca Rudolph could add a leopard to her collection of animal trophies. They carried two guns for the hunt: a Remington .375 rifle and a Browning 12-gauge shotgun.
Two weeks later, as Bianca Rudolph was packing for the couple’s return home, she suffered a fatal blast from the Browning shotgun in their hunting cabin at Kafue National Park. Rudolph told investigators he heard the shot at dawn while he was in the bathroom and believed the shotgun accidentally went off as she was putting it in its case, court documents said. He told investigators he found her bleeding on the floor.
Lawrence Rudolph’s defence investigator, left, heads into federal court in Denver along with the dentist’s children.
But federal prosecutors at Rudolph’s trial in Denver, where the insurance companies are based, described it as a premeditated crime. Prosecutors argued Rudolph killed his wife of 30 years for insurance money and to be with his girlfriend, Lori Milliron.
Defence attorney David Markus had argued that Larry Rudolph had no financial motive to kill his wife. In court documents, he noted that Rudolph owns a dental practice near Pittsburgh valued at $10 million.
“We are obviously extremely disappointed. We believe in Larry and his children,” Markus and fellow defence attorneys Margot Moss and Lauren Doyle told CNN in a statement after Monday’s verdict. “There are lots of really strong appellate issues, which we will be pursuing after we have had a chance to regroup.”
The jury also found Milliron, Rudolph’s girlfriend, guilty of being an accessory after the fact to murder, obstruction of justice and two counts of perjury based on her testimony before a grand jury, according to the Department of Justice.
Milliron, who was tried alongside Rudolph, said the couple had been in an open relationship, according to court documents. Milliron and Rudolph lived together from 2017 until his arrest last year, her attorney, John Dill, told CNN.
“We are disappointed in the jury’s verdict, but that is our system,” Dill said. “Lori Milliron is innocent and we will continue to fight to exonerate her.”
An embassy official expressed suspicion after the shooting, the FBI said
In court documents, investigators alleged Rudolph raised suspicions when he sought to quickly cremate his wife’s body in Zambia.
Rudolph scheduled a cremation three days after her death, according to court documents. After he reported her death to the US Embassy in the Zambian capital of Lusaka, the consular chief “told the FBI he had a bad feeling about the situation, which he thought was moving too quickly,” FBI special agent Donald Peterson wrote in the criminal affidavit.
As a result, the consular chief and two other embassy officials went to the funeral home where the body was being held to take photographs and preserve any potential evidence. When Rudolph found out the embassy officials had taken photos of his wife’s body, he was “livid,” Peterson wrote.
Rudolph initially told the consular chief that his wife may have died by suicide, but an investigation by Zambian law enforcement ruled it an accidental discharge.
Investigators for the insurers reached a similar conclusion and paid on the policies.
But forensic evidence showed Bianca Rudolph’s wounds came from a shot fired from at least two feet away, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court.
“At that distance, there is reason to believe that Bianca Rudolph was not killed by an accidental discharge as stated,” the complaint said.
US Attorney Cole Finegan welcomed the jury’s ruling.
“Bianca Rudolph deserved justice,” Finegan said in a statement. “We can only hope this verdict brings Bianca’s family some amount of peace.”
A friend of Bianca Rudolph’s asked the FBI to investigate
But federal investigators maintained the shooting was premeditated so that Rudolph “could falsely claim the death was the result of an accident.”
Rudolph orchestrated his wife’s death as part of a scheme to defraud life insurance companies and to allow him to live openly with his girlfriend, the FBI alleged.
Larry Rudolph was charged with foreign murder in the 2016 death of his wife.
Bianca and Lawrence Rudolph moved from Pennsylvania to Arizona about four years before her death. Rudolph’s dental practice remained in Pennsylvania, and he commuted back and forth from his Phoenix home.
Federal authorities got involved after a friend of Bianca Rudolph asked the FBI to investigate the death because she suspected foul play. The friend said Larry Rudolph had been involved in extramarital affairs and had a girlfriend at the time of his wife’s death.
Milliron worked as a manager at Larry Rudolph’s dental practice near Pittsburgh and told a former employee that she’d been dating him for 15 to 20 years, according to court documents. Milliron moved in with Rudolph three months after Bianca Rudolph’s death, court documents said.
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When God had made the earth and sky, The flowers and the trees, He then made all the animals, The fish, the birds and bees.
And when at last He’d finished, Not one was quite the same, God said, “I’ll walk this earth of mine, And give each one a name.”
And so He travelled far and wide, And everywhere He went, A little creature followed Him, Until its strength was spent.
When all were named upon the earth, And in the sky and sea, The little creature said, “Dear Lord, There’s not one left for me.”
Kindly the Father said to him, “I’ve left you to the end, I’ve turned my own name back to front, And call you DOG, my friend.
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I want my money back I came to see an Elephant I paid to see a conservation ambassador Inspire me to help conserve the species Especially her kind
I saw an empty shell
She looks like an Elephant But what is there to see, not Happy She is a poor teacher of Elephant lessons She is no solitary animal, but kept confined Like all captives, neurones scrambled, brain denied Stereotypy is not a dance – no, a pathetic trance A sign she can’t be happy in mind She’s not right in the head.
She is an empty shell
They have broken personalities All the Elephants with names, captive They are poor Elephant facsimiles They have the stature, the thick skin and bones They are devoid of Elephant spirit, truncated They are subjected to Floydian ‘Brain Damage’ They are all caught on the dark side (“‘As a matter of fact, it’s all dark’*) Cut off from the herd
They are empty shells
We pay the price to see: see the price they pay We fall for the old ‘conservation /education’ story We fail to see the oppression and the damage done We should be able to see for ourselves We could accept they are Sentients like us We could see them better in a sanctuary We could do the right thing Will we?
Collect all the empty shells
Put them back where they can refill Regain their freedom and society Be Elephants again, herd mentality That would be something to see Is it just a Zoological fantasy?
I find myself unhappy for Happy, again
If I find myself outside her enclosure (But I wouldn’t pay to go in anyway) Watching her sway song, groundhog days One day closer to her end of days Inspired to write yet another Happy poem Adding to ‘Not Happy’ ‘Personable’ ‘Elephant Stomp’ After the first setback of her legal person court case What would I do if I were you?
Might just as well go to a museum Pay to see a stuffed Elephant This one already is
I want my money back I came to see an Elephant Largest land animal, majestic Social fellow-sentient being Exemplary, salutary
I got an empty shell
*From ‘Brain Damage’ on the Pink Floyd album ‘Dark Side of the Moon’
**From ‘The Needle and the Damage Done’ by Neil Young
For all captive Elephants – Happy, Lucy, Shankar, The Fresno Elephants and so many more.
Written By Anthony Lovell.
What you can do to help wildlife:
Please Sign The Petition To Free Happy From Her Imprisonment At The Bronx Zoo HERE!
Support ‘Protect All Wildlife’ by donating as little as £1 – It only takes a minute but it can last a lifetime for an animal in need. Thank you.
We believe EVERY animal should be treated with respect, empathy, and understanding. We raise awareness to protect and conserve wild, captive, companion and farm animals. It is vital that we protect animals against acts of cruelty, abuse, and neglect by enforcing established animal welfare laws and, when necessary, take action to ensure that those who abuse animals are brought to justice.
Protect All Wildlife are involved in many projects to protect animals’ rights, welfare, and habitats. Money contributed to Protect All Wildlife supports ALL of our worthy programmes and gives us the flexibility to respond to emerging needs. Your donations make our work possible. Thank you for your support.
Everyone who donates will receive a Certificate of Appreciation as a thank you for supporting wildlife.
Kruger National Park rangers and other employees were filmed abusing a euthanised Leopard. SANParks says their conduct was contrary to the ethos of the organisation whose primary goal is to act as the custodian of wildlife.
Rangers and employees at the Kruger National Park have had their statements taken after a video surfaced of them allegedly abusing a euthanised Leopard.
According to SANParks, custodian of the Kruger Park, four of the nine people seen slapping the dead animal are SANParks employees — three are rangers and one is employed as an environmental monitor. One person seen striking the Leopard was a visitor to the park.
So far, one employee has been suspended pending disciplinary action. “Line management is finalising their approach with respect to other employees who may have transgressed SANParks’ policies and code of conduct,” SANParks said. Regarding the visitor, SANParks said it “is taking legal advice on sanctions to be imposed on him”.
The incident happened on Sunday after an employee from Shalati Concession was attacked by a Leopard. According to SANParks, this was the second attack on an employee in the park in the same area since June 26.
The Leopard was shot 30 metres from where the attack happened. “In line with SANParks’ policies and standard operating procedures on the management of damage-causing animals, a decision was taken to euthanise the Leopard to safeguard human life.”
RANGER SLAPPING DEAD LEOPARD
On the abuse of the animal’s body, SANParks said it “strongly condemns the behaviour depicted in the images captured on video … Such actions are contrary to the ethos of the organisation whose primary goal is to conserve biodiversity and act as the custodian of our wildlife”.
“The actions of these individuals run counter to conservation management and the ethos of the organisation. During the next week a campaign will be embarked upon among all employees within the Kruger National Park to reinforce these values and ethics.
“The organisation commits to managing the outcomes in an open and transparent manner while respecting the requirements of legislation pertaining to this regrettable incident.
THE SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL PARKS STATEMENT FOLLOWING THE INCIDENT
“Management is aiming to have a final report completed by Wednesday, July 27, which will make recommendations to the SANParks board on how to ensure such incidences do not occur again.”
South African National Parks (SANParks) Investigation Findings
The South African National Parks (SANParks) says it has concluded its investigations into the abuse of a dead leopard – which was caught on film in a video which went viral; and has started implementing corrective measures… including banning the man who was seen striking the leopard’s face from entering the Kruger National Park again.
In a statement, SANParks explained that the Leopard had been found and euthanised close to employees’ living quarters (within 100m), and a crowd had subsequently gathered around the dead Leopard. A Management Incident Report found that there was insufficient crowd control.
The Report made recommendations to SANParks on ways to minimise such incidents occurring in the future, and to limit human wildlife conflict.
According to the report, the official procedures had been followed correctly in deciding to euthanise the Leopard.
The problems arose during the recovery of the carcass after the Ranger Corporal asked for assistance from bystanders to get the carcass from the bushes. It was at this point that the incident – which took place in the administrative area of Skukuza – was filmed.
SANParks said: “All identified SANParks employees were questioned and submitted statements. The individual who struck the Leopard is not a SANParks employee and has been barred from entering the Kruger National Park. Disciplinary action is ongoing for all SANParks officials as well as the individual who filmed the incident.”
The Management Report also recommended that the KNP Code of Conduct should be revisited and communicated to visitors and residents; and that procedures should be amended to improve the response to crowd control situations following an animal being euthanised near to humans.
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