Jackal and caracal are literally tearing the guts out of South Africa's multi-billion rand sheep and goat farming sector, MPs hear.
"If the problem goes unchecked, the country's small stock industry will be extinct within five... to 10 years," the chairman of the sector's Predation Management Forum, Petrus de Wet, told members of Parliament's agriculture portfolio committee.
De Wet, who is also president of the National Wool Growers' Association, said predation by jackal and caracal had "escalated beyond control", with thousands of sheep and goats being killed across the country each day.
The forum had been driven to seek a meeting with the committee after receiving little to no support from both the departments of agriculture and environmental affairs on tackling the problem.
"Losses to predators, for 2009, in the small stock industry only, equated to R1.1 billion. The latest information is this has gone up to almost R1.3 billion this year."
The impact over the past two decades had been massive.
"We produced 103 million kilograms of wool in 1990; this year, we're producing 48 million kilograms, less than half. This is due to both stock theft and predation, but predation is a much bigger problem than stock theft.
"If we look at the mohair industry, a big earner of foreign capital for South Africa, there used to be [in 1990] 10.1 million kilograms; we're down to [this year] 2.6 million kilograms.
"We've lost half the sheep and two-thirds of the goats out of South Africa due to predation," he said.
According to a document distributed to members, South Africa's mohair exports bring in, at grower level, about R620 million a year.
The country's "wool clip" is worth about R2 billion, about 60 percent of which is exported to China.
Red meat from both sheep and goats is valued at about R6.3 billion, it states.
De Wet said the predators that farmers had to contend with were "jackal, caracal and lynx, and, to a very small extent, leopard".
He referred committee members to a series of graphic photos, included in his presentation, showing dead sheep and other animals that had been partially eaten by predators.
"Thousands of animals lose their lives every day for literally 500g of meat."
He said there had been a huge escalation in predator numbers.
"There is an overpopulation of these animals. The escalation has been immense in the last 20 years. It is our estimate the population has doubled or trebled, and this is why we are dealing with this massive problem at the moment.
"If we look at... sheep and goat losses in South Africa in total... about 55 percent are killed by jackal, and round about 30 percent are killed by caracal.
"Stock theft is a joke compared to what we are suffering in the livestock industry... Statistically, stock theft in South Africa -- both large and small stock - costs the industry about R400 million."
De Wet sharply criticised the department of environmental affairs' draft "Norms and Standards for the Management of Damage-Causing Animals in South Africa", signed off by former environment minister Buyelwa Sonjica last week.
"It puts huge restrictions on SA farmers... It's the most ludicrous document... completely without foundation," he said.
The document seeks to regulate how farmers may deal with predators, including prescribing the methods and use of poison, bait, traps, dogs and firearms to control animals such as jackals and caracals.
De Wet said the limitations contained in the draft norms and standards removed the very "tools" farmers needed to deal with the problem.
"You are taking our toolbox away from us with this legislation, but you are expecting us to produce food for South Africa's people."
He appealed to the committee to intervene, saying the forum had been struggling to get officialdom's ear.
"Let us revise this process as soon as possible. A huge lack of support from the department of agriculture, and the department of environmental affairs, is probably one of the biggest contributing factors towards this huge escalation of the problem we have."
The amount of red meat lost to predators each year exceeded the amount South Africa was currently importing.
"We are importing less meat into South Africa than gets killed by predators every year; our imports are less than our losses are."
De Wet called for the appointment of a "top" government official to tackle the predator problem, and the allocation of a budget in line with the losses farmers were incurring.
"We've been licking bums for a long time trying to get this problem sorted out... Revise this process please. It is going to criminalise and cripple this country's small stock industry.
"A prediction is, if the problem goes unchecked, that the small stock industry in South Africa will be extinct within five... to 10 years. That's what we've got if we don't stop this.
"Rural South Africa will lose a massive number of jobs; we've lost half our small stock already," he said.
Earlier, committee chairman Mlungisi Johnson accused the departments of agriculture and environmental affairs of "serious disregard and disrespect" for Parliament through their failure to send any senior official to the meeting.
He vowed to take the matter up with the respective ministries.