NATIONAL POST (Toronto, Ontario) 29 July 06 Rangers mourn dead croc: Killed after eating nine
Kampala, Uganda (AFP) : Ugandan wildlife authorities expressed anger yesterday at the killing of a one-tonne crocodile blamed by local residents for the deaths of nine people since the beginning of the year.
The mammoth Nile crocodile, which was believed to be 35 years old, was put down by vermin control officials on the shores of Lake Victoria on Wednesday after it was snared.
However, wildlife officers said they were enraged, as the reptile is considered an endangered species.
"These people were supposed to work with us, but they just got a vermin officer who thought only of killing the animal instead of alerting us for its removal," said Lillian Nsubuga, spokeswoman of the Uganda Wildlife Authority.
"Even if it was killing people as the locals are saying, they should have alerted us and we would have taken it away, because it has a right to life."
Local press have reported that residents had other reasons for wishing the beast dead -- they chopped off the crocodile's tail and nose, and gouged out its eyes for use in witchcraft.
"Women cut off its nose and genitals to be used in concoctions believed to attract men and make them [women] sex goddesses," a resident told the state-run The New Vision newspaper.