The National Council of SPCAs (NSPCA) has been admitted as amicus curiae in the Supreme Court of Appeal, in a case that will decide whether South African law allows the export of horn from captive-bred rhinoceros. It follows the NSPCA’s earlier admission before the Full Bench of the High Court in the Northern Cape.
At stake is more than a permit dispute. The underlying judgment declares that a CITES exemption forms part of our domestic law, and does so in terms that reach far beyond rhino horn, potentially opening the door to trade in captive-bred specimens of any protected species. The Full Bench held that welfare considerations were not relevant to that narrow question of legal incorporation. The NSPCA respectfully takes a different view of where welfare belongs in the process, not at the point of incorporation, but in the exercise of discretion that follows it.
That is the space the NSPCA exists to occupy. The NSPCA has been here before: it was the applicant in the commonly referred to “Lion Bone case”, where export quotas were struck down for the same reason, a failure to weigh what captivity does to the animals whose bodies are being traded.
“Rhino welfare cannot be an afterthought in decisions that will shape the future of this species,” says Grace de Lange, Chief Operating Officer of the NSPCA. “Wherever South African law permits the trade of animals or their derivatives, the wellbeing of the animals concerned must be part of that conversation. That is why we have asked to be heard in this matter, and why we will keep asking to be heard wherever animal welfare is at risk of being left out of the room.”
Thank you to Adv Les Morison SC and Samantha Martin, and Gittens Attorneys as our legal team, for all the work and for the support provided to the NSPCA.
Export cannot be undone. Once horn leaves the country, no later court victory brings it back. The NSPCA’s submission is simple: before that door opens, the animals on the other side of it deserve to be considered.
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