Animal Survival International (ASI) is deeply troubled over the City of Cape Town’s intention to capture two troops of free-ranging chacma baboons from the vicinity of the Cape Peninsula near Simon’s Town, sterilize the males and confine the troops within fenced enclosures.

From an animal-welfare perspective, ASI strongly objects to this proposal. Cape Peninsula baboons are highly intelligent, socially complex wild animals that naturally range over large territories. Long-term confinement in a restricted enclosure carries well-recognised risks to animal welfare, including loss of space, autonomy, environmental complexity and behavioural choice. These are critical to physical and psychological well-being in free-ranging primates.

ASI also questions proposals to sterilize adult male baboons as part of the intervention. While vasectomy is used in some captive-management contexts, the permanent prevention of reproduction in wild-origin troops raises serious questions about social stability, long-term behavioural impacts and ethical issues, particularly when applied on a troop-wide scale.

ASI further notes that this project appears to be proceeding without the completion of essential legislative, environmental and administrative processes. Decisions of this magnitude which affect animal welfare, ecosystems and public interest, must be subject to full legal compliance, transparency and public scrutiny.

Extensive research indicates that confining free-ranging baboon troops carry substantial risks of stress, social disruption and ongoing welfare challenges and should only be considered after less intrusive, coexistence-based alternatives have been fully evaluated.