WildLife Group
of the SAVA
TOPS Permits
- an Update
Dr. Robert Cambpbell
Director C.r.o.s.s ECO Vet One health Services
When all of us want to follow the letter of the law to
be able to work with wildlife, a struggle starts. This
struggle is not so much a veterinary one but rather a
required Tops paper run that seems to hit slopes and
potholes around every provincial line, some are well
tarred surfaces and others are valleys and sinkholes
that need to crossed before work can begin without
having a green scorpion sting you when you least
expect an “Ouch”!
Some of you may have had similar experiences or had
good experiences but in my opinion you are in the
minority.
Let’s start at the beginning
what was needed to do.
1.
Contacting the correct person to obtain the Tops
permit application forms.
This on its own was a hurdle that seemed to be a
musical chair until you go higher up in rank. After
being supplied via the DEA with a excel sheet for
contactable personnel in each province that could
assist. The roulette began. These delivered no
satisfaction or responses in the majority of the
provinces. Phoning some wildlife friends and who they
used had delivered better results. The phones where
constantly engaged or no one answers, this was after
3 weeks of continuously phoning during work days at
different times.
After large struggles and lots of frustration it seemed
that asking each province for a contact they knew
would assist was the best option to get satisfactory
results. This time the struggle was that the personnel
4
assisting many times did not have satisfactory
knowledge on the permit to be filled out and there
was confusion about the final cost to be paid. This
was not on accordance with what was stated by DEA
department. I will touch on this matter later in the
letter.
2.
Completing the relevant sections on the permit
request form: