"On the 14th May 2021, the City of Cape Town issued a press release stating that the City of Cape Town wants to inform residents that its Urban Baboon Programme will no longer include the use of paintball markers as an aversion tool.
This instruction follows after the National Council of SPCAs media announcement on the 12th May 2021 that it no longer supports the use of paintball markers as a scientifically proven and humane aversion tool."
The COCT was criticised for refusing to engage in any meaningful way with residents and concerned organisations about the management of baboons including the use of paintball guns for years.
The NSPCA believed the indiscriminate use of paintball guns fired at point blank range at baboons causes unnecessary suffering and therefore constitutes a criminal and prosecutable offence in terms of the Animal Protection Act 71 of 1962.