A World Without Big Cats

           

            Big cat populations around the world are in drastic decline. Tigers are endangered and on the verge of extinction, Lions may be extinct in the wild by 2030 if we continue on our current course, Cheetahs and Clouded Leopards are classified as vulnerable and face greater pressure every single day, and snow leopards are endangered (possibly critically endangered, we simply don’t know enough about their population numbers because seeing them is such a rarity). There are some species that are even worse off than all of that; the Amur leopard is down to just around 20 individuals and on our current path there is little hope they will be saved, The Siberian (or Amur) Tiger is down to under 350 individuals, and the Iberian Lynx which is the rarest cat species in the world is down to around 100 individuals spread across three isolated populations. (The Amur leopard is not categorized as its own species, it is classified as subspecies of leopard despite the fact it is very different from its African brethren, otherwise it would be known as the rarest species of cat). If any one of these species goes extinct it will be the first species of feline to go extinct since Smilodon (saber-tooth). Big cats are under attack from all angles and without intervention we may lose them forever.

            These strong, powerful, beautiful, and majestic beasts have fascinated and left us in awe since we were living in caves, which is apparent when you think about how often you see a picture of a big cat. Seriously think about it for a moment, big cats are absolutely everywhere. They’re the mascots of our sports teams, they’re on our cereal boxes and family crests, they’re in the logos of countless businesses and corporations, and so many more places it is impossible to count. They’re engrained so deep in our consciousness that we don’t even realize how prevalent they are in our daily lives and how intrinsically important they are to us. If I just said the word Africa to you it’s more than likely that one of the first things, if not the very first thing, you would think of is a lion. Lions and tigers, cheetahs and leopards; Big cats are loved by hundreds of millions worldwide, probably including many of you reading this right now.

            The threats big cats face are varied, numerous and growing. Every species of big cat is poached for their pelts. Lions, tigers, and snow leopards are poached for use in traditional Chinese medicines and for consumption. Locals poison them like pests, and every day their habitats gets smaller and smaller as man continues its unyielding effort to dominate every spit of land we can get our greedy hands on. As big cat habitats get smaller and smaller the possibility of populations recovering is getting less and less likely. Their numbers fall farther every single day and the problem is so vast and ignored that the best efforts of conservationists worldwide are hardly making a dent in the global slaughter.

            So if many of us love big cats how are we letting this happen? What are the obstacles preventing us from saving big cats everywhere? Well the answers to that are very simple. Firstly people just don’t know the extent of the problem. The plight of big cats isn’t a part of our daily lives and thus nobody is really talking about it. Secondly the people and governments that are capable of making a direct difference aren’t pushing the issue properly. Thirdly some people are afraid of them and despite their admiration and respect they just want them killed so they don’t have to deal with them. And finally the greatest obstacle to conserving big cats around the globe is man’s unrelenting greed. Every problem big cats face can be directly tied to greed whether it be the rich guy whose eating a tiger paw just because he can to the corporation tearing down a forest create a new plantation. Humanities greed is the single greatest threat facing not only big cats but also nearly every species on the planet.

            So now I want you to do something……… Think of your childhood and the first time you ever saw a lion or a tiger. Remember that sense of awe and wonder you felt seeing such a magnificent beast for the first time, that lump of timid exhilaration you got in the pit of your stomach because you were at the same time excited yet a little scared. Think of the thousands of children worldwide who feel that same feeling for the first time everyday. And now imagine they all disappeared, imagine that every species of big cat went extinct overnight. No child would ever again lay their eyes upon these beautiful beasts and get that feeling in their stomach. No one would ever again be inspired by their strength, struck by their beauty, impressed by their power, or revel in their grace. I ask you, is that the world you want to live in? Do you want to be a part of making that happen? Because if we continue on the course we are on that is where we are heading. But there is still hope.

            

            We have not yet reached the tipping point and every big cat species can still be saved, but it is going to take dedication, hard work, and perseverance. Best of all everyone can help. It is going to take millions of dollars spent in hundreds of programs in many countries over decades. Sounds like a daunting challenge and I know you’re thinking how can you help that. What could you possibly do to affect such a complex, global problem? Well put simply you can talk. As I said before people aren’t talking about this issue and giving it the attention it deserves but if every one of us were just to talk about it people in positions to make a difference would feel compelled to do so. That’s what happened with the save the whales campaign. People who cared about whales got the topic on the tips of peoples tongues and governments around the world felt the pressure and acted. Granted whales once again are facing increased pressure but that’s why we need to make the topic a part of peoples every day lives and keep it there. I personally hope to one day gather all the companies, corporations, colleges, sports teams, and anyone else who uses a big cat as its logo to form a coalition and start a campaign to spread the word and sponsor projects globally to save big cats. Imagine if on every box of frosted flakes there was information about the plight tigers face or how to save them. Or if on every Detroit Lions jersey sold there was a removable tag with the same kind of information. Or if after the credits of every MGM movie there was a little two or three minute video with info on the topic. Big cats have permeated our culture so deeply that these reminders would be everywhere and once the topic is one the tip of our tongues change is soon to follow. The way I see it these companies, organizations, sports teams, etc. have been banking on the majesty of these animals without giving anything in return, this is a way they could do that. Please join me in my quest to save big cats. Please bring this topic up with your friends and have them do the same with theirs. Please join me! People we can do this!!!!

Open Season on Wolves

 

            

           From 1995 to 1997, after decades of absence, Gray Wolves were reintroduced back into the Yellowstone wilderness. From that initial group of fewer than 30 animals a thriving population of around 1,700 has spread throughout Yellowstone and its neighboring states. The reintroduction of wolves has been a resounding success and one of the greatest achievements in the worldwide battle for animal conservation. Not only has it raised the population of an endangered species but also the wolves’ presence has resurrected their entire ecosystem. All of these incredible achievements, however, are about to be erased. The Gray Wolf, under political pressure, was removed from the Endangered Species Act in the spring of 2011 giving state governments the power to reinstitute wolf hunting as they see fit, and reinstitute wolf hunting is exactly what they’ve done. The gains that have been achieved through decades of work and taxpayer dollars are about to be wiped out through the barrels of hunters’ guns. 

            To get the most up to date information on this matter, as a bill is currently being fast tracked through the Wyoming State Congress and the situation is in flux, I attempted to contact the Wyoming U.S Fish and Wildlife Service field office and the lawyers for the Earth Justice Organization’s Northern Rockies local office. The U.S.F.W.S has not returned my call as of yet but I was able to speak to the lawyers at Earth Justice. Earth Justice has been fighting for the Gray Wolf since 2003 and for a detailed explanation of who they are as well as an outline of the Gray Wolf’s inspiring story up until now go here.

Victims

            Earth Justices’ lawyers were able to inform me of the current hunting laws regarding the gray wolf across various states. Currently in Idaho and Montana anyone can kill wolves without hunting tags and there are no quotas as to how many animals that can be taken. This is called open season and the wolves in these states, numbering just under 1,300 individuals at the beginning of 2012, can be slaughtered for any reason and by any means. In just the one season of hunting since the gray wolf was delisted from the ESA 512 of the approximately 1300 animals from these two states were killed by hunters and trappers. That is just under 40% of the population in just one year, and this years hunting season is set to begin in a mere 9 days. The bill that is currently being fast tracked through the Wyoming State Congress, which will be passed this week according to the Associated Press, will grant hunters the same capability to kill as many wolves as they want in an open season format. Once the law is passed it can be instituted 30 days later meaning in Wyoming wolf hunting season will begin right around October 1^st.  Wyoming’s population of wolves numbered only around 343 as of January 1^st, 2012. Those figures account for the major populations of wolves in the Northern Rockies, all population figures are off of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services’ official website and all harvest data are off the respective State Fish and Wildlife Services of Idaho and Montana.

Massacred

 

            The largest population of wolves in the lower 48 is the Western Great Lakes population spread throughout Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan. According to the U.S.F.W.S this population numbered around 4,406 animals on January 1^st, 2012. Over 2,900 of these animals reside in Minnesota and the state is set to begin its first hunting season on November 3^rd. Minnesota will sell 6,000 permits for wolves but once the quota of 400 animals is reached the season will be closed. That is still, however, over 13% of the states population in just one year. Currently in Michigan, whose population is around 700, there is no set wolf hunting season however a bill was just introduced to the state legislature last week and a hunt this fall seems likely. Wisconsin will also have its first wolf hunt since the delisting beginning in October with a quota set at 201 animals. There are only around 782 gray wolves in the state, however, meaning that in just 4 ½ months (the length of the wolf season) over 25% of the states population will be killed. 

            What disgusts me the most about this senseless slaughter are the idiotic reasons behind it. For the most part wolves have been delisted and hunting reinstituted simply because people want to kill them. That’s all; they just want to put a bullet through one of these beautiful animals just to say they could. Ranchers are spreading the lie that wolves are problem animals that take cattle rather than hunt wild game but there is no evidence of this. The truth is that ranchers just don’t want to have to put up fences around their cattle and just let them roam free. Wolves are not the problem; it is man’s misguided sense of entitlement thinking that just because we are here we should be able to treat the land however we want and if an animal gets in the way of that then it’s a pest and we should kill it. Man’s selfishness and greed may once again drive the Gray Wolf to extinction in the lower 48 if nothing is done and done soon. 

            Furthermore I am outright appalled at the methods being used and proposed to eradicate wolves. Ranchers are gassing wolf dens to kill cubs ensuring that there can be no annual population rebound. Trappers are laying jawed traps that either hold the animal by the paw until the hunter arrives to kill it or cuts the paw off so even if the animal does escape the odds are that it will die either of a painful infection or a long, drawn out starvation. Just as despicable is the proposed method currently going through Congress by which dogs can be taken from the pound and staked out in the woods as bait for wolves and when the wolves come in they can be shot. This method is not only cruel to the wolves but the poor strays that are cruelly used as bait. How is this method not illegal under laws preventing animal cruelty?! Then there is also aerial hunting in which people shoot wolves from light aircraft or helicopters. The killing of wolves is nothing more than a heartless cull designed for the sole purpose of once again eradicating them from the lower 48 and must be stopped.

A wolf trap

            The reintroduction of wolves to the Northern Rockies hasn’t just been a success for the wolves; it has literally saved the entire ecosystem. Before the wolves were reintroduced the ecosystem of the Northern Rockies, especially that of Yellowstone National Park, was in dire straights. Decades without the threat of predation led to an elk population that was destroying the ecosystem. Without wolves to keep them on the move the elk were grazing areas bare affecting countless species of plants and wildlife. A great info-graphic to explain the devastation the elk caused and the vast improvement the wolves have caused can be found here. The wolves saved Yellowstone; their presence improved the populations of countless species of plants and animals including beavers, grizzlies, pronghorn, songbirds, aspen, willow, ravens, magpies, and many others. Wolves, quite simply, were the missing link in Yellowstone’s ecosystem. They are unknowing caretakers of Yellowstone’s by keeping other species in check and as such the park is healthier now than at any point since the 1940’s. The Northern Rockies need the Gray Wolf and killing them off is more than ignorant, it is flat out irresponsible. 

            So how can you help? First off you can sign petitions that intend to stop the cull, some can be found here, here, and here as well as countless others on the web. Second you can call or write the congressmen, senators, governors, and U.S.F.W.S members of the states and districts in which wolves are being slaughtered. Third do not but wolf products. Many of these hunters are looking to make money by selling the pelts of the innocent animals they kill, don’t let them. Most importantly the way you can help is by raising your voice. Tell your friends, families, coworkers, tell everybody that these magnificent animals are being killed. Somehow this topic hasn’t hit the national media at all, I only learned of this tragedy through a friend of mine and must admit I was astonished. Raise your voice with us! Lets end the massacre once and for all. 

The resurgence of the Gray Wolf has been one of the greatest achievements in animal conservation. It has taken decades of work, thousands of people, and millions of dollars to save this beautiful species in the lower 48. The fact that those achievements and progress are now being erased is heartbreaking to me. These animals deserve so much more from us and we need to give it to them. Wolves are the most valuable animals to their respective environments. A healthy population of wolves keeps the whole forest healthy. We have seen what the forest looks like without wolves and we cannot allow those days to return. Please raise your voice for these innocent animals; they need us now more than ever.

Dolphin Slaughter in Taiji

           

           Every year in the small Japanese town of Taiji, thousands of dolphins are brutally killed in scenes like the one above from September to March in the annual dolphin hunt. The main purpose of killing the dolphins is for consumption, however, in recent years an increasing number are spared death for the worse fate of being captured and sold off to live in a tank for the rest of its life as a show dolphin. This slaughter is brutal, unnecessary, and should be considered a crime against nature not only in the moral sense but in a legal sense as well.

            The manner in which the dolphins are killed or captured is horrific. Boats called go out and find a pod of dolphins then proceed to harass them with the boat in order to drive them where they want to go (in the same way cowboys and horseback herd cattle).  The boats push the dolphins close to shore close to the killing cove where a group of smaller boats takes over. These boats, called bangers, then drop metal poles into the water, which they “bang” repeatedly scaring the dolphins further and further into the cove At this point the boats use nets to block the dolphins from escaping back out to sea. Once the dolphins are far enough into the cove men in the water and on the banger boats tie ropes to the dolphins’ tails and drag them up to the shoreline. This process is violent and many dolphins drown before they are pulled to the shoreline, for those who don’t however an even more horrific and painful death waits. The killing method is exceptionally heinous; a metal rod is plunged deep into the back of the fighting dolphins head to make a wound the dolphin will bleed out from without affecting any of its meat. The process of bleeding out takes minutes and is incredibly painful for the victims. No creature deserves such a horrific end. The link below is to a video of a dolphin hunt caught on tape. By seeing the process play out it is far easier to understand the treachery of the process over just reading about it. It is hard to imagine the fear and pain these animals, these families, endure in their final minutes and these murders must be stopped. Fair warning: there is a shot in the video of a dolphin being killed in the manner I outlined above and it is extremely graphic and hard to watch. It is one of the hardest things to watch that I have ever seen but I feel it is necessary to post here so you can understand how terrible this brutal killing method is.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pPZlA2c1HQ&feature=related

            Some dolphins are selected to be spared from the slaughter so they can instead be sold into slavery as show dolphins. The percentage of dolphins caught in the fishermen’s trap that are sold as a show dolphins has rapidly increased over the past few years. While the fishermen get around  $600 USD per dolphin killed, they can receive up to $300,000 USD for each bottlenose dolphin sold alive. Life in captivity for show dolphins is awful. Animals such as whales and dolphins should not be held in captivity, they are far too intelligent and putting them in a tank for their entire lives should be equated to torture. These beautiful animals are incredibly similar to humans in the fact that they need space. They need to be able to swim at top speed, have stimulating surroundings to investigate. Their minds are incredible and keeping them in tanks is cruelty. 

            Plain and simple this yearly tragedy needs to be stopped. Dolphins are far too important to their ecosystems to be taking them from the oceans. Multiple species depend on the dolphin’s success for them to survive. Also eating dolphins is actually hazardous to the consumer. Dolphins have high levels of mercury and PCBs in their meat due to our pollution of the oceans and the process of bioaccumulation. Bioaccumulation is the process of pollutants being concentrated the higher up the food chain you go meaning that the higher you are on a food chain the higher the concentration of pollutants in you’re body.  Dolphins are apex predators meaning they are at the top of their food chain and as such they have very high concentrations. Another reason killing dolphins should be illegal is their intelligence. They are not just among the smartest animals on the planet they are also self-aware. Self-awareness is an incredibly rare trait in animals and only a few species possess it. Dolphins are brilliant and there is even evidence that the communication of bottlenose dolphins may be a language. There is compelling evidence alluding to such a conclusion and many biologists are finding the concept more and more likely. Dolphins are treasures and need to be protected, not slaughtered for meat or kept in tanks for our entertainment. The annual dolphin hunt starts in less than two weeks, lets get our voices out there and bring this heinous crime to an for good.

             

The Rapid Decline if the African Lion

             

In all of the animal kingdom the species this post centers around is the closest to my heart. I love all animals, big or small, adorable or ugly. The African lion above all however, ignites my spirit to fight for animals in a way I can’t describe. For as long as I can remember the lion has been my favorite animal. In fact the lion means so much to me that last Christmas a very dear friend of mine symbolically adopted a lion in my name and I can honestly state it is the best gift I have ever received in my entire life. Other than their obvious physical majesty and beauty, I find their social structure and behaviors to be truly fascinating and unique. I’m not alone in this fascination: throughout the ages many people have drawn inspiration from this magnificent creature, from Alexander the great to the countless European families, including my own, who have put the image of a lion on their family crest. The plight and outlook of the African Lion however, is looking increasingly bleak and I am terrified of the concept of a world without lions because we are well on our way to seeing lions becoming extinct in the wild within the next two decades. 

             In 1990, the year I was born, the population of wild African lions numbered around one hundred thousand; today, in the year 2012, the population of wild lions numbers somewhere between ten and fifteen thousand. The causes of this rapid decline are numerous include the following: loss of habitat, trophy hunting, poisoning by local populations, and recently poaching for use in traditional Chinese medicine (as a replacement for tigers because they are becoming exceedingly rare as well and harder to come by on the black market). Many people around the world have the misconception the African lion, being such a marquee animal, is impervious to extinction and safe. This notion, however, is mere wishful thinking and is a wholly uninformed opinion. Just because people around the world admire the lion does not mean that they are automatically protected; in fact it is this misconception that is preventing them from attaining the level of protection necessary to thrive and grow in number.

            The greatest threat the African lion currently faces is their continual and increasing loss of habitat. The greatest factor contributing to this loss is the expansion of human civilization. Cities and populations are getting bigger, demanding more and more farmland for cultivation and pasture for the raising of cattle. As people commandeer more land for human purposes lion populations are being forced into smaller and smaller areas. Not only is this pressure causing the loss of numbers, it is creating another danger for those few that survive. This danger is inbreeding. As their habitat dwindles, lion populations are becoming more and more isolated and inbreeding is increasing at an ever-higher rate due to the lack of genetic diversity in these fragmented populations. Although initially a population with a high incidence of inbreeding may seem healthy to the laymen due to its numbers, over time the lack of genetic diversity will increase the incidence of disease and physical deformity, wrecking havoc on that population’s possibility for a healthy future. If habitat loss is not halted soon there is very little hope for the existence of wild lions past the next two decades.

            The next greatest threat African lions are facing is a new one, and it is the threat of poaching to supply bones to the Chinese traditional medicine trade in replacement of tiger bones, which are even harder to come by due to the extremely critical situation they are in (a topic that will definitely be explored in a future post). Since tiger numbers are even lower than that of lions, they are hard to find on the black market. Those who follow the practices of Chinese traditional medicine (a practice that has been around for centuries, but has exploded and expanded in recent decades due to the recent interconnectivity of the planet) believe, erroneously, that the consumption of tiger parts has health or spiritual benefits. As tigers have become increasingly harder to obtain, Asian criminals have started to claim lions provide the same benefits as tigers (proving that this entire industry is based on lies and perpetuated for profit alone). Despite these lies, however, the incidence of lion poaching for the trade is increasing (just like the poaching of rhinoceros in recent years which has increased by over 3,000%). Money needs to be provided to police wild areas to stop and prosecute the poachers involved in the trade, and Asian nations, especially China, need to crack down on the illegal wildlife trade.

                

            Another large contribution to the decrease in lion numbers is trophy hunting. Rich bastards pay thousands of dollars to go out and kill lions for the sole purpose of hanging them on their walls. Somehow these hunters have convinced the international community (or the international community doesn’t care enough to actually check the facts) that by paying thousands of dollars to kill one lion they are ensuring the future of all lions. This idea however, completely neglects lion society and what it means to kill a pride male. Lion prides usually consist of one or two males and a larger amount of related females. The males are either loners or brothers who come from a different family and the females are all submissive to the males whom reproduce with all of them. When males take over a pride they kill the cubs the pride females currently have because a lack of cubs causes the females to ovulate, thus enhancing the new male’s chance at proliferating its genes. A male’s time in charge of a pride is usually very short, three to four years on average. By killing the cubs and causing the females to ovulate immediately, males ensure they can produce the most generations possible in their often-short reigns. When males are murdered ahead of their time, however, their lives are not the only ones lost. Their cubs, that under human-less conditions would’ve been able to grow up and thrive, are killed by the next group of males to take over. The repeated killing of pride males not only kills those males, but also, prevents entire generations of lions from coming of age. Thus it is not hard to see why the murder of lions for trophy hunting must be stopped.

           

            Lions are in serious danger. If nothing is done soon, lions are expected to disappear from the wild within the next 20 years. Lions desperately need our help. Imagine a world where you watch The Lion King with your grandchildren and have to explain to them why lions are no longer the kings of the jungle, and why the only way they can see one is in a zoo. I beg you to raise your voice with me. Lions are incredibly important to their ecosystems. They are apex predators that keep prey populations in check. Hundreds of communities rely on tourist dollars from people looking to come and see the king of beasts. Lions are in trouble; please raise your voice with me.

Sharks on the decline

A Great White Shark

            The global population of sharks is in drastic decline. Every year over 100 million sharks are killed for sport or human consumption. Many millions of the dead belong to critically endangered species and far to many of the rest also belong to endangered or severely threatened species. The number slaughtered is increasing every year and shows no signs of slowing as new markets continue to open and established markets expand.  There are three main fisheries that are causing the decline; commercial fishing for consumption, commercial fishing for just the fins, and sport fishing that includes trophy and tournament fishing. There are species of shark whose numbers have fallen by more than 90% in a mere decade and without any global quotas for legal fisheries the problem is only getting worse.

            

            The greatest and cruelest threat to sharks is the practice of shark fining to provide fins for shark fin soup to Asian nations. Every year around 75 million of the 100 million sharks killed are for this practice and the harvesting method is particularly cruel. As with all commercial shark fishing the method of hooking the shark is long lining. Long lining is when a fisherman sets a string of hooks, miles long with anywhere from a few hundred to thousands of hooks depending on the size of the enterprise, into the sea and waits overnight for the hooks to catch its quarry. The next day the fishermen go out, reel in the line one hook at a time to see if it has hooked anything. If it has and it isn’t a shark they simply unhook the animal, which usually dead or dying, and toss its corpse back into the sea. Millions of animals are killed as bi catch in this fashion yearly and many of the species caught accidentally are endangered: a notable example of which are endangered species of sea turtles. If the victim is a shark the fisherman hack off all of its fins as quickly as possible and toss the rest (95% of the animal) back into the sea. Far too often these sharks that have just had their fins cut off are still alive when their now finless bodies are tossed back into the sea and spend hours dying a slow and painful death on the bottom. The bodies are tossed and wasted rather than harvested because the fins are far more profitable than the rest of the body and fisherman don’t want to waste room on the boat. The level of cruelty in this practice simply cannot be overstated.

 Shark fins from a days killing

 Corpses of sharks which have been cruelly tossed back into the ocean after their fins were hacked off

            Once the fins have been brought to shore and dried they are ready to be made into shark fin soup. You would imagine that considering how expensive they are and the level of cruelty involved in their harvest shark fins would taste incredible, but you’d be wrong. Shark fin is tasteless and the flavor in shark fin soup comes from the chicken broth used in it. All shark fins add to the soup is a little bit of texture. So every year around 75 million sharks are killed so a few people can have a bit of texture in their chicken broth. Shark fin soup is a status dish, it is served either to impress company or on special occasions. Its sole purpose is to bolster a person’s ego. Making the situation worse still is that the rarer the species of shark the fin comes from the more expensive it is, so the ultra rich in the market for shark fin soup want the fins to come from great whites, tiger sharks, or other apex sharks, all of which are critically endangered. Shark fining is among the cruelest and most wasteful of ways humanity is decimating the global population of sharks.

A bowl of shark fin soup

            The west’s biggest contribution to the global cull is sport fishing.  Every year people kill millions of sharks simply to say they could. Whether through the multitude of tournaments, in which the goal is simply to kill the largest shark possible, or through private charter trophy fishing, each and every casualty to this purely ego driven practice is a tragedy.  Making the practice even more heart breaking nearly all of the sharks killed for sport are just wasted and dumped. The killer may take the trophy of the shark’s jaws but other than that the body is simply thrown away. 

 Corpses thrown away after a tournament

 A large Tiger Shark murdered for sport

            The existence of sharks in the oceans is necessary for nearly every species that calls the deep home. Sharks are apex predators: they prevent any one species from becoming to dominant and thus keep ecosystems in balance. As more and more of these stewards of the sea are taken out of the equation the predicaments the already fragile ecosystems throughout the world face are becoming more and more dire. If sharks go so does the ocean, everything in the sea is connected and sharks have been the most importantly influential group of animals in the sea for hundreds of millions of years having undergone very few changes in those eons. They are masterpieces of evolution and are necessary if any restoration of the world’s oceans is going to take place.

           

The Illegal Trade of Ivory

          The poaching of elephants and rhinoceros is on the rise to feed the expanding illegal trade of ivory throughout the world.  In 1990 the international trade of ivory was banned with the exception of all ivory that had already been harvested and was on the market and animals legally killed by governments from culling herds (leading to loopholes for criminals to sell illegal ivory on the open Markey guised as pre ban ivory which I will discuss later). At the time of the ban the decline rate of elephants due to poaching was around 7.4% per year of a population that was estimated at being just north of one million animals: approximately 70,000 a year. The current rate in 2008 was 8% per year killed of a population numbering under 470,000: approximately 37,600 animals per year. And since then the situation has drastically escalated since then. Ivory is used around the world mostly for three main purposes; art, medicine, and as ornamental decoration.

            Humans, mostly for art such as sculptures and carvings, have used ivory for millennia. In Japan it has become popular to use the ivory of a tusk or horn to make a name stamp known as a Hanko. These items can easily and more inexpensively be made from other materials but since ivory is more expensive it is considered more prestigious. So basically thousands of elephants are killed for no other reason than a persons ego. In the art world Ivory is carved into thousands of objects and is used mostly for its beauty as a medium. Ivory for the art trade is still a major contributor to the decline of elephants and rhinoceros but new markets opening up around the world to use the illegal ivory for different reasons have drastically increased the slaughter.

Another major market is the trade for traditional medicines throughout Asia, most notably China. Millions of people wrongly believe that grinding up and consuming elephant or rhinoceros ivory can improve health. The imagined benefits are everything from curing cancer to being a natural Viagra. Studies have been done and have conclusively proved that the ingestion of ivory has no health benefits but despite this millions of people still insist on believing in these pipe dreams meaning thousands of animals are killed every year for the trade. A new market for South African rhino horn has exploded in Vietnam in recent years due to erroneous rumors that it affects male virility. This explosion in rhino hunting has put incredible pressure on already critically endangered species and if something isn’t done soon the outlook looks bleak. The simple fact is that Ivory has no medicinal value and every one of these beautiful creatures that is killed is wasted.

The United States has also become a major, maybe even second most damaging, market for ivory in the past decade. In fact a major bust of over 2 million dollars worth of illegal ivory just took place in July in New York City. Americans tend to use ivory for artistic and ornamental purposes. The latter of which is why the market is on the rise. Ivory is being shipped to America to be used in gun grips and knife handles.  They number of other substances that can be used for these items is extensive but like Hanko name stamps in Japan, ivory handles are just “cooler”.

            The greatest challenges facing conservationists is the lack of enforcement of the laws in place to prevent it, the lack of exposure the subject gets in western media, and the various loopholes by which criminals can get illegal ivory into the legal market. The 1990 ban was the result of worldwide outrage after the situation had been reported. Now however most people wrongly believe that the problem has been fixed. When the law was originally passed poaching of elephants and rhinoceros was almost stopped overnight. Money and interest poured in from around the world and the culling of poaching was one of the major conservation success stories of the 20^th century. Four years after the law however people wrongly believed that since everything had settled down money was no longer needed to prevent the problem and thus most foreign aid was halted. In the ensuing 18 years poaching has constantly increased and in the last 5 it has done so exponentially. The situation is only getting worse and needs desperate attention. Few agencies devote resources to investigating the trade of illegal wildlife; news agencies seem to be on a blackout of all things environmental, and hundreds of tons of illegal ivory has been and continues to be smuggled into the legal market making it ever more profitable. Measures need to be taken now to put a halt to this treacherous trade if we intend to have elephants and rhinoceros on the plains for our children and grandchildren to see. 

hundreds of elephants tusks

ivory sculptures of the Buddha... ironic huh?

elephant victims

rhino victim

A little about me

          My name is Cody and I'm a 21 year old biology student from Shenandoah University in Winchester, Va. My entire life I've had a passion for animals of all types. The first thing most kids want to be is a firefighter or a policeman, but not me, the first thing i ever wanted to be was a paleontologist because I saw Jurassic Park and as 5 year old kid I thought I'd get to work with dinosaurs. Once my parents got me to realize that wasn't going to happen I immediately turned my attentions towards being a zookeeper. Now as a kid this ambition was purely selfish, I wanted to work with animals because sure, I loved them, but mostly just because the idea of hugging a lion is awesome!!! As I matured however the way I feel about animals changed. When at first as a kid I just thought animals were awesome I grew to love them, and feel for them. When I saw an animal in pain it started to tear at my heart. Finally one day when i was 14 I had one of those eureka moments that just sets your life on a certain course that there is no turning back from. It was a Saturday morning and I planned to go to the national zoo with some friends. I awoke, looked outside, and saw that...... the weather was absolutely terrible. It was icy cold and there was a constant misty drizzle. Obviously a day like that would normally put a stop to a day trip to the zoo but I just didn't care, I was going. I called my friends to try to get someone to come along but because of the weather they all declined. So I geared up for a day in the freezing rain and started walking to the metro. It was a short walk to the train but withing minutes I was drenched and cold to my bones. A normal person would've turned around but on this day something inside me just said keep going. When I got to the train things only got worse.... the cab was air conditioned. So there I was soaking wet and freezing cold stubbornly sitting on an air conditioned metro cab on the way to the zoo. I know...... crazy. It was only about ten stops on the red line but by the time I got to the Cleveland Park station I was probably borderline hypothermic. By then though I was only a short walk away from the zoo and there was no way I was going to turn back. When I got to the zoo the conditions were still atrocious so the only animal outside was a Przewalski's horse but all of the animal houses were open so I knew I was going to get some sort of reward for my stubbornness. I walked through the reptile, small mammal, crustacean and amazonia houses leaving just the great ape house left to see. So I went into the great ape house and walked through pretty quickly because I was freezing and ready to go home. However as I exited the building I looked immediately to my right. There was this tiny porthole window and just on the other side of it, staring at me, was an orangutan. Something about her eyes just caught me so I walked up to the window and just looked back into hers without even thinking. In that moment I lost track of time, I lost all sense of self, I was just completely entranced. There I was separated from this beautiful creature by a mere six inches of glass. I felt connected to her and at first that was exhilarating but the longer I stood there and the longer I studied her eyes I just felt pain. Her eyes were the saddest things I'd ever seen. I don't know if she was lonely or bored or what but those eyes showed only pain. I don't know how many minutes I stood there in the freezing rain but once I broke out of that trance I was completely overwhelmed. I immediately started the journey home but i don't remember it in the slightest. After I left that window the next thing I remember is sitting at home in my room, still freezing cold and in my soaking wet clothes just staring out the window. I knew from that moment what my goal and purpose in life was. I'm going to fight for the worlds wildlife with everything I have until the day I pass on. The animals we share this rock with don't have a voice but they do have emotions. They feel love, pain, sadness, and anger just like us and they need people to stand up for them. Humanity is destroying the worlds wildlife at an ever increasing pace and its time those of us who know whats going on to stand and make our voices heard. Please stand with me!!!!