African Witches Bringing About Vulture Extinction

Vultures in Africa are quickly being wiped out by “native beliefs.” Those beliefs? If you decapitate a vulture while its alive and take its brain, dry it, then roll it in a joint and smoke it, you will dream of winning lottery numbers. Seriously. African witches practicing some stupidity called “muti” are wiping out hundreds at a whack by poisoning carcasses so the feeding carrion birds will die out all at once.

From a completely non-judgemental Guardian here:

It’s a tiny organ that, the superstition goes, holds the secrets of the future. When smoked and inhaled, the brain of a vulture is said to confer the gift of premonition. To put it bluntly, most users hope to sneak a look at next week’s national lottery numbers.

Such is the demand for vulture brains to use in muti – traditional medicine – that wildlife experts fear the birds could be driven to extinction within two or three decades. They also warn that hunting could intensify as gamblers seek an advantage when betting on the football World Cup in South Africa.

“There is a lot of betting in South Africa. So we may see an increase connected to gambling around the 2010 World Cup.”

A 2007 study found that 160 vultures are sold a year for muti in eastern South Africa, with the total across the region thought to be much higher. About 1,000 are killed every year in Tanzania alone.

The birds are shot, trapped or poisoned by hunters. One tactic is to poison an animal so the vultures that feed on the carcass themselves fall victim. “You can have 300 or 400 converge on a poisoned carcass and all be wiped out,” Botha added. Brains and other body parts are then sold at street markets or shops in Johannesburg and other cities.

Seven of the nine species of vulture are rated endangered. Botha said there was demand for the bearded vulture in Eastern Cape province. Traditional healers prefer that the bird be captured alive as the head needs to be removed while it is still living so that “the brain does not flow down into the spinal cord” and the muti loses its potency.

What is worse? Their idiotic religious beliefs about smoking brains or their complete lack of understaning about avian biology? And betting on soccer? Is this white South Africans doing this, because the article doesn’t say. This story goes on and completely lacks any criticism of the practice whatsoever. Even Mother Nature Network refuses to condemn the practice in their writeup on this story! Now had this been an article on cruelty of turkey farms before Thanksgiving in the US, you could bet that there would be loads of condemnation and quotes from experts extolling the virtues of tofurkey.

Here is a crime report talking about killing 72 birds at once. Barbaric. Cultural beliefs are not all equal and some need to be eliminated for this disgusting behavior.

A lot of this is happening in Tanzania. That’s where they also hunt and kill albinos because they are more magical than leprechauns.