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The Crime: Shock at slaughter of penguins

SENSELESS KILLING: Five of the penguins which were bludgeoned to death in a brutal attack on six penguins, two gannets and two pelicans at the East London aquarium on Sunday night.

Report and picture
by Toni Müller

EAST LONDON -- Almost half of the aquarium's flock of endangered penguins and four seabirds were found slaughtered in their enclosures yesterday morning. This follows a similar incident on Saturday night in which two chicks and an adult were killed.

The blood-soaked bodies of the birds littered the pens, which stand adjacent to the Esplanade on the beachfront. Aquarium staff and police were horrified at the carnage. "For the aquarium staff it's a major shock," said curator Willie Maritz. There are now only 12 penguins left out of the original 21.

Some of the penguins killed were part of a captive breeding programme and others were birds that had been rehabilitated. "This is a senseless killing," said police spokesman Captain Sbongile Ndyoko. "It's obvious the birds weren't killed for meat because they were left here." The dead birds were transported to the SPCA where autopsies found they had been bashed over the head with a sharp object. Maritz was visibly shocked and said the similarity of the incidents suggested the same perpetrators were involved. "It was someone with malicious intent. It's not something that somebody with his head screwed on correctly would do."

The birds in their enclosures can be seen by passersby from the sidewalk. "The penguin pool and the enclosures are very vulnerable. You just always hope and think that people don't have that kind of malicious intent, but if they do it doesn't matter if there's electric fencing or razor wire. If they want to kill the birds, they'll kill them. "We don't think of the birds in terms of monetary value. The loss for us is much greater than that. "The pelicans, Bobo and Bessie, were characters. A lot of people enjoyed them and loved them. This kind of thing just makes you think how sick some people have to be to actually do that."

Maritz said they would now have to decide on the future of the penguin colony.

• The aquarium has a captive breeding programme for jackass penguins to ensure the genetic viability of the penguin population on the South African coast.
• Over the last 13 years, the penguins have produced 115 chicks, making the aquarium one of the largest exporters of jackass penguins in South Africa.
• The penguins have been exported to oceanariums and zoos all over the world, including Israel, the US, Japan and Netherlands.
• The jackass penguin is an endangered species governed by the laws of the Convention for International Trading of Endangered Species.
• The Friends of the East London Aquarium has offered a reward of R1000 for information leading to the arrest of the perpetrators.
• "We hope that whoever knows what happened here has a conscience and will come forward with information," said Maritz.
• Anyone with information can contact the Fleet Street police on 743 4400.

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