20120827
AP
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — A consortium of wildlife ranchers says tens of thousands of animals face annihilation in a wave of land takeovers in southeastern Zimbabwe by politicians of President Robert Mugabe's party.

The Save Valley Conservancy said Sunday that thousands of people's livelihoods also are threatened in in the 1,000 square mile (2,600 square kilometer) nature preserve and surrounding districts after hunting permits and land were granted to 25 leaders of the ZANU-PF party in a black empowerment program.

In Sunday newspaper advertisements, the consortium said "greedy individuals" — including a provincial governor and a Mugabe Cabinet minister — had used color as "a racial tool" to collapse world-renowned wildlife conservation for short-term gain.

The group said that when humans behave like animals, people destroy not only each other but generations to come.