Help keep One Green Planet free and independent! Together we can ensure our platform remains a hub for empowering ideas committed to fighting for a sustainable, healthy, and compassionate world. Please support us in keeping our mission strong.

At Kenya’s Vipingo Ridge, wild animals roam throughout the only PGA-accredited golf course in the country. Giraffes, birds, impala, eagles, deers, waterbuck, and alligators are some of the animals roaming around this course that the company says is part of their “Conservation project to establish a wildlife sanctuary.”

Vipingo Ridge is 2,500 acres of land that was once privately owned and is now an “animal sanctuary” or “Conservation,” the Minister of Wildlife and Tourism in Kenya told CNN. While their efforts to create a place for animals and some rescued animals, not all of their animals are rescued, meaning these species could have been perfectly fine living where they were before.

Being publicly-funded gives us a greater chance to continue providing you with high-quality content.Click here to Support Us

Although some of the animals arrive as rescues, the region’s wild species are free to roam the course. The Ridge says there are indigenous trees planted on the course for the animals. The Ridge believes that by taking and building on the animals’ ecosystem that they are helping the animals roam free while creating a unique (money-making) experience for their guests.

“It’s such a nice thing to be able to go play golf and you’ve got wildlife just around you,” Vipingo Ridge’s director of golf Saleem Haji told CNN. “It’s not false, not a zoo … that’s where they want to be.”

Is it where they want to be? What if someone came and developed a 2,500-acre golf course around your house that you had to walk through every day with golf balls flying everywhere?

It is a danger to the animals to be roaming on a working golf course where guests are constantly hitting balls on the big open greenery. It is incredibly irresponsible and doesn’t make much sense to double a wildlife sanctuary into a golf course. The golf course was likely the main goal, with the animals added to attract tourists and create a “unique” experience that they make seem better by calling it a sanctuary.

Kenya’s Minister of Wildlife and Tourism told CNN that animals, such as antelope and the Grévy’s zebra, were brought in from other countries and can now find a “haven” on the golf course. Is putting these animals on a golf course with humans the safest and best place for them?

The Vipingo Ridge chairman Alastair Cavenaugh told CNN, “Our intention is to create ultimately a breeding program where we can breed up stocks and improve gene pools with a view to then — in conjunction with KWS (Kenyan Wildlife Service) — reintroducing them either to the wild, into the parks or to other sanctuaries and Conservation areas like ourselves.”

While they may have fine intentions, a sanctuary doubling as a dangerous golf course is not the place to do this, and breeding often does not help conservation. These animals deserve to be roaming free and not in danger from the activities going on around them.

Sign this petition to help save the wild animals of Kenya!

Being publicly-funded gives us a greater chance to continue providing you with high-quality content.Click here to Support Us

Related Content:

For more Animal, Earth, Life, Vegan Food, Health, and Recipe content published daily, subscribe to the One Green Planet Newsletter! Also, don’t forget to download the Food Monster App on the App Store or Google Play Store. With over 15,000 delicious recipes, it is the largest meatless, vegan, and allergy-friendly recipe resource to help reduce your environmental footprint, save animals and get healthy!

Lastly, being publicly-funded gives us a greater chance to continue providing you with high-quality content. Please consider supporting us by donating!