What an absolutely ridiculous initiative. Is this a way of turning the Kruger Park into one massive farm??To feed impoverished people? Why doesnt the Kruger begin including these communities in sustainable developements and joint ventures via tourism instead? Teach them how to 'fish', instead of feeding them like they mean nothing. How embarrasing to these poor people, that instead of empowering them, you give them handouts. What is happening in our country for goodness sakes?? Wake up Kruger. WAKE UP!

If the culling of animals is about feeding the adjoining impoverished communities, it would be far more useful to support farming initiatives than to cull the very reason that people visit the Park!!!

I would be extremely worried about the distribution of diseased meat, when we know that many buffalos in Kruger are infected with bovine TB. I agree that supporting farming initiatives would be more productive.

Would have wanted to stay away from this one as, once again, emotions hold profound sway...... Carrying capacity of the KNP is in many ways a nebulous affair ? Depending on what stripes are on your short sleeved shirt and who pays the messenger, ' experts ' on this matter are a dime a dozen. In essence, envisage a smorgasbord of vibrant animal kingdom wildlife within this region. At one hundred thousand US $ a kilo, king pin is rhino horn, bring in the international criminal syndicates ( ICS ) to run this one please ! Done. Are we to view our natural African resource of wildlife as sacrosanct within Mother Nature command & scope and our role as humanunkind as simply facilitator of this or are we to ' farm ' it for our sole benefit ? Farm rhinos for their horn, ele's for their tusks and remain prostitutes ( with all respect to these essential souls ) of our own being ? Divergent energies thrive within Africa and as such, who will guide us within the realm of fundamental respect, co existence and mutual thriving we are tasked to provide between human and natural resource ? Mankind is evolving in each & every moment of existence, question is who pays the Tillerman... ?
Ciao. Colin J. FRYER. Centre Stage Travel, Cape Town.

The wanton culling exercise will definitely not solve the drought and hunger issue as it is a very short term plan which doesn't hold any water at all. The issue is about coming up with a long term programme that deals with social issues once and for all and this can look at issues like introducing a tax on products that the park offers and this tax can be directly cultivated back into the community to benefit the people. It's important to remember that we are still grappling from the near extinction of rhinoceros and as such this should cause us to push for even tight and robust management schemes that aim to promote the continued growth and sustainance of these species. If it's a problem of numbers why not even think along translocation as some parts of the transnational parks are still low in numbers of these species. Let's save what we have and practice real conservation in its entirety. Lastly it's important to remember that we have large numbers of people who fly so many kilometres practically globetrotting to view these animals (products) so why not benefit directly financially from these animals than slaughter to stop hunger for a day.