Sanlam Supports Hunting

Are you a Sanlam Policyholder?

The invitation below is self explanatory. Sanlam supports the hunting
industry and is prepared to spend some of its marketing budget - ie your payments - to benefit that cruel activity. We believe that the shedding the blood of unoffending animals for fun should have absolutely no connection with the business of insurance.

Times change and nowadays, many ordinary citizens regard sport hunting with horror. Since 1962, it has been a criminal offence to ill-treat livestock and domestic animals as well as captive wild animals. Why should hunters be exempted from the norms of civilized society? Do they seriously argue that their living targets feel less pain when hurt than dogs and donkeys? Imagine the outcry if farmers allowed well-heeled thugs to charge around their farms shooting arrows and bullets in to their sheep and cattle. Yet morally it is the same thing to hunt in SA. 'Wild' animals confined in fenced camps are really just alternative livestock.

Using policy holders funds to promote such a deviant activity might
arguably be regarded as at least unethical and at most a violation of the insurance contract, which carries a much higher moral duty of care - uberrimae fidei - than normal commercial contracts.

Are you content with this use of your policy payments?

Invitation: Sanlam Investments Hunting work session 2009 (21 - 23 May 2009)
Date: 21 ? 23 May 2009, optional 24 May

Time: Thursday, 21 May at 14h00

Venue: Eastern Cape Plains Game Safaris, Eastern Cape

Website: http://www.ecsafari.co.za <http://www.ecsafari.co.za/ >

Sanlam would like to use this relaxed hunting opportunity to engage you on a passion we share, being our respective businesses.

Once we received your RSVP, we will send you a detailed pack with additional information and game costs.

This was first brought to our attention by Chris Mercer of Campaign Against Canned Hunting http://www.cannedlion.org

Update to Petition: Sanlam Response:

Our response to the petition on the hunting issue is as follows:

 

·                     We do not support canned hunting in any way whatsoever. Hunting trips such as these are an extremely infrequent occurrence within the group and they are planned directly between individuals and clients who are specifically interested in this activity. These are, without exception, funded from the fees we generate as a business; no policyholder fees have ever been used for this purpose.

·                     Sanlam Investments is taking the reaction to this trip extremely seriously. We pride ourselves on being a business that holds the needs of our policyholders and investors at the very centre of all that we do. For this reason, if we establish that any Sanlam activity is concerning to our clients, we treat these concerns with the utmost importance.

·                     As a consequence, the group will hold internal discussions to formulate a group hunting policy. We have cancelled our current hunting trips while we assess the situation