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History of SANBOPC |
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The South African National Bird of Prey Centre (SANBOPC) started as a
young kid's dream in the early 1970's. After reading an article on the
Falcon Centre opened by Mr. Phillip Glasier and family in the U.K.
National Bird Of Prey Centre owned by Mr. Glasier's daughter Ms. Jemima
Parry-Jones) the dream was to one day open a bird of prey centre in
Africa. In 1996 that dream became a reality and Africa's first raptor
centre opened to the public. As per our mission statement the aim of the
centre is the conservation of birds of prey.
The SANBOPC started out as the South African Bird of Prey
Centre because certain people in the conservation world felt that the
word "national" would imply that the centre had national recognition.
(petty, short- sighted, narrow-minded and a few other words that I'm
sure one can not publish in cyberspace).
Soon the centre had national recognition with T.V., radio,
newspaper and magazine coverage. Birds were coming in from all four
corners of the country and local and international visitors were
arriving on a daily basis. Unfortunately the administration side of
things was left in the hands of someone else, and many things that
should have been done just never came about.
A disagreement with the landlord ended up in the Supreme
Court with the South African Bird of Prey Centre's long term lease being
declared null and void. (Sub-division of Agriculture Land Act, Act 70 of
1970) A long and dull story that I won't bore anyone with.
The SABOPC died but the vision and passion was still there.
Like the Phoenix the South African National Bird of Prey Centre rose out
of the ashes. The birds were moved to Johannesburg and temporarily
housed at the Johannesburg Zoological Gardens breeding farm . Some of
the breeding birds were passed on to Mr. Mark Labuschangne who was
opening a falconry centre at Treehaven Waterfowl Trust a breeding loan
agreement was entered into with Mark.This center has subsequently closed
down.
At the beginning of 2000, after close on two years of hard
work, the South African National Bird of Prey Centre was finally
registered as a non profit organisation number 2000/003517/08 thereby
giving the centre a long-term future.
Source: official web of
SANBOPC (2010)
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