Mara Triangle
Tipping over Ethics
from the Leslie Street Spit, Toronto's urban wildlife park (and my favourite place)
posted December 18, 2008
I've started another wordpress blog over at
Tipping Point Blog
It will cover more diverse topics than this one and I think you'll find it to be a worthwhile site to visit. A few of the more choice pieces here are being moved over to tippingpoint such as Les Schobert's insightful zoo myth-debunking articles on zoo elephants and some others that don't deserve to disappear into the ether when I hit the delete button.
Thank you to subscribers for hanging in there so long with Ethics and Animals.
The Bottom Line: Conservation Costs
The Colobus Trust is a not-for-profit organization established in 1997 on the southern coast of Kenya to promote the conservation, preservation and protection of primates, in particular the Angolan Black and White Colobus monkey (Colobus angolensis palliatus).
Please read their urgent appeal below and help.
To donate to the Colobus Trust, click here.
For information on volunteering opportunities, send an email to:
volunteers@colobustrust.org or download a brochure.
Canada engages in usual barbarism against marine mammals by slaughtering 500 helpless narwhal whales caught in ice floes
Canada must be granted a distinct reputation for its particular crimes against animals and the earth. Just to name a few:
- The seal hunt (the largest annual slaughter of marine mammals in the world.)
- Fast becoming the horse slaughter capital of the world
- Worse federal animal welfare legislation than many third world countries
- Refusing to sign a moratorium on bottom trawling that even Bush signed even though Canada doesn't bottom trawl
Now we have taken our lack of mercy to another extreme by slaughtering 500 helpless endangered narwhal whales caught in ice floes off Baffin Island.
Did we get out our many ice-breakers and try to save them? No. Instead we filled the air with the tormented screams of agony of these gentle mammals.
Please read the Sea Shepherd release:
The Canadian Slaughter of the Unicorns
I think we have to heed Captain Watson's words about Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans:
"The Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans is the most evil, insidious, incompetent and dangerous bureaucracy in Canada. Nothing in our oceans is safe from the cold, calculating, greed motivated bureaucrats that control Canada's most destructive governmental department."
I hope a worldwide campaign against Canada's barbarism will begin as truly that is about the only thing that will wake up the Canadian people from their complacent slumber. Meanwhile the country is too incompetent at the moment to even figure out how to form a government so don't hold your breath for this story to be reported responsibly by the nation's media. But for now, please write the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and express your contempt.
I personally believe that only a boycott of the entire country, tourism and products and services will make any dent on the psyche of this nation. Come on world! Make this country accountable for its crimes!
"The greatness of a nation, and its moral progress, can be measured by the way its animals are treated."
M Gandhi
Namibia: Conservation co-operation spares Ugab elephants life
An elephant bull, known as Voortrekker and regarded as the founding father of the Ugab elephant herds, has been spared being killed for trophy hunting. Thanks to the ten women from the UK, US, Ireland and Canada who signed up, and walked 130km through Damaraland over five days to raise the money needed to buy the last permit. Unfortunately, the hunter who bought the permit will satisfy his client through selecting a “problem” bull somewhere else in the country.
Elephant-Human Relations Aid will be offering this trek again next October so please contact them if you are interested in participating.
Read the Press Release below from Elephant-Human Relations Aid, Nov. 11, 2008 (or link to it here)
“Elephant-Human Relations Aid (EHRA) realized that one of this years three trophy hunting permits issued for elephants in the western Kunene regions, which was to be shared by two conservancies, Sorris-Sorris and Otjimboyo which border the Ugab River, have only one resident breeding bull large enough to be regarded as a trophy.
This bull is locally known as Voortrekker and is a well-known character in the area around the Ugab wetlands. Voortrekker is regarded as the founding father of the Ugab elephant herds, as he led the four residential herds there around ten years ago.
Younger nomadic bulls do also visit this area, but none of them are of breeding age yet, with the eldest one, a bull called Longshanks, still about eight to ten years too young for the cows to allow him to breed. The loss of Voortrekker would have been a heavy blow for the resident cows, and a sad loss as a tourist attraction for the area and the surrounding community.
On the other hand, EHRA is also fully aware that the two concerned conservancies are both in desperate need of the sort of income that a trophy hunt can generate, and have so far seen little to no benefits arising from tolerating elephants in the area.
After consulting with the Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET), and with the full support of Mr. Ben Beytell, Director of Wildlife and Parks, EHRA decided to make an offer to the two conservancies to financially compensate them if they would waiver their rights to this trophy.
Both conservancies showed the same concern upon realizing the situation at hand, and the effect it could have on the future of the Ugab elephants, if the only breeding bull is to be hunted. The conservancies decided to sign a memorandum of agreement with EHRA to waiver their rights to the trophy, based on an offer from EHRA to financially compensate the conservancies for their loss of income and the meat they would have received.
The conservancies already had a contract signed with a professional hunter, Mr. Hentie van Heerden, who had a client booked for the hunt. Mr. van Heerden agreed that it would not be feasible or sustainable to shoot a bull in the Ugab, and graciously decided to not use the permit, sending it back to the MET permit office as unused. The MET helped Mr. van Heerden find an unused trophy hunting permit in another area of the country where there was a specific problem elephant bull, to honour his contract with his client.
Last month EHRA launched a fundraising trek through the desert in order to raise the money required to buy the trophy. Ten women from the UK, US, Ireland and Canada signed up, and walked 130km through Damaraland over five days. They raised a total of N$140 000 in their plight. This money will be divided between the Sorris-Sorris and Otjimboyo conservancies. N$60 000 each for the fee they would have earned from the trophy hunt, and N$10 000 each in the form of game meat for the community members, instead of the elephant meat they would have received.
EHRA would like to thank the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, especially Mr. Beytell, the Professional Hunter, Mr. van Heerden, and the communities of Sorris-Sorris and Otjimboyo for their commitment to the sustainable conservation of such an important species. This case has proved that through a deep understanding of the situation on the ground, and personal dialog between concerned parties, effective conservation decisions can be made.
EHRA, and the diverse communities of the Ugab River, would also like to extend their sincere gratitude to the 10 matriarchs from all over the world that rose to the challenge, and bought the life of Voortrekker.”
Johannes Haasbroek
Operations Director
Elephant-Human Relations Aid
Related Post
Elephant-Human Relations Aid hopes to save Namibian bull from being trophy hunted (Sept. 24, 2008)
Bull elephant confiscated from circus owner on his way to The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee
posted November 8, 2008
The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee has just issued a press release that a severely underweight, twenty-one year old Asian bull elephant named Ned has been confiscated from Florida-based circus trainer Lance Ramos, aka Lancelot Kollman, by the USDA and is en route to the sanctuary to arrive tomorrow.
Ned is only the second elephant to ever have been confiscated by the USDA in U.S. history, Delhi being the first.
The Sanctuary's Press Release can be found here.
Follow Ned's progress on the Elephant Sanctuary's Diary page
Help Ned by contributing whatever you can. Click here for his Wish List.
update November 12, 2008
Press Release from PAWS
PAWS Agrees to Build Permanent Home for Seized Bull Elephant, Ned
Richard Leakey Statement: Ivory Auctions a Disservice to Conservation
November 5, 2008
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Samuel Maina
+254-20-3865120
WildlifeDirect Inc.
I am deeply concerned about the ongoing one-off ivory auction that started on 28 October in Namibia and ends on Wednesday, 6 November 2008 in South Africa.
I have spent many years looking at issues of elephant conservation and ivory trade and played a major role in successfully eliminating the massive ivory poaching that characterized what is considered the darkest period for African elephants in Kenya in the late 1980s, I believe that auctioning the ivory stockpiles would cause poaching to increase particularly in the central, eastern and western African elephant range states where poaching is not yet properly controlled.
Namibia auctioned its 9 tons of ivory on Tuesday, 28 October raising $1.2-million. Zimbabwe and Botswana have also auctioned their ivory to the exclusive Chinese and Japanese buyers making $480,000 and $1.1-million respectively. On 6 November, South Africa will auction the largest cache of ivory – 51 tons – to conclude this controversial sale. According to the Convention for International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and the parties to the auction, the funds generated from this sale will be channeled directly into conservation. I am skeptical and wonder if there is a way of knowing whether these funds will actually help conservation.
The entry of China into the legal trade is also a cause of concern for me. It is hard to believe that a country which in 2002 scored only 5.6 out of 100 points in the CITES Elephant Trade Information Systems (ETIS) ranking – which ranks countries on how effectively they tackle illegal ivory – could have scored 63 points this year. China has admitted loosing track of 120 tons of ivory from the government’s official stockpiles in the past 12 years.
Recently, Kenya saw the successful conviction of Chinese nationals accused of smuggling ivory that appears to have originated from 22 out of the 37 African elephant range states. The entry of China – the destination for most of the illegal ivory – is an ill advised move that will only serve to open up the illegal ivory markets.
Reports already indicate that poaching is increasing in most parts of Africa. The Kenya Wildlife Service – Kenya’s official wildlife authority – has reported that poaching is increasing in key elephant zones. Central and west Africa have also witnessed escalating poaching in recent times. The Democratic Republic of Congo, caught up in a complex civil strife, has become a haven for poachers.
Although CITES secretary-general Willem Wijnstekers says that southern African states have everything under control, it cannot be true for Zimbabwe. Reports by bloggers at WildlifeDirect.org and on independent media show that Zimbabwe is experiencing an unprecedented decimation of wildlife. Reports indicate that Zimbabwe may have lost up to 80% of its wildlife. There is reason to believe that a large percentage of this wildlife consists of elephants.
As the hammer falls for the last time in South Africa on Thursday, we cannot in any way say that this is a victory for conservation. It is indeed a great disservice to conservation.
I categorically denounce this auction and call on CITES to rethink how they run endangered species affairs. It should not be lost to CITES that they exist to protect the endangered species against trade malpractices, not to serve partisan interests that work against the species.
Link to Richard Leakey's Wildlife Direct blog
Historic vote: California becomes the fifth state to ban gestation crates, the third to ban veal crates and the first to ban battery cages!
from Farm Sanctuary
November 4, 2008: SUCCESS ON PROP 2!
Congratulations
to animal protection advocates throughout the country for getting the
word and the vote out for farm animals! In a historic victory,
California voters have approved Proposition 2, a landmark measure that
bans three of the cruelest factory farming confinement systems – battery cages, veal crates and gestation crates
-- in the state by 2015. By a a vote of more than 60 percent
Californians sent a clear message to big agribusiness that cruelty to
animals is unacceptable.
photo credit: Farm Sanctuary
With this historic vote, California becomes the fifth state to ban gestation crates, the third to ban veal crates and the first to ban battery cages!
While Prop 2 will curtail the suffering of millions of animals in California, the repercussions throughout the country promise to be even more profound: As California goes, so goes the rest of the nation. California’s new laws against farm animal cruelty hold the potential to spark an unstoppable precedent for change in the way farm animals are treated nationwide.
Read more!
Sarah Palin "chats with the French President"
A Quebec comedy duo notorious for prank calls reached Sarah Palin, convincing the breathtakingly brainless Republican vice-presidential nominee she was speaking with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Media coverage can be found at The Huffington Post . The comedian portraying Sarkozy also tackles Palin's love of hunting and invites himself on an aerial hunt with her.
Don't miss this youtube recording of the conversation, (or the stunning photographs of polar bears throughout).
Related
The Truth about Sarah Palin
Sarah Palin's contempt for wildlife includes ocean mammals
Palin as President
All in a day's work: Scandal and theft at the UN's Nairobi headquarters
The United Nation's Millennium Development Goals, MDGs, require that technological innovations, especially Information Communication Technology, be available to all.
Apparently the UN may have
interpreted the notion and methods behind "ICT available to all" rather too loosely, as it has
just been revealed that UN staff in Nairobi have
pilfered Sh 10 billlion (126
million U.S.) in procurement and administrative scandals over the past three
years.
Colluding with suppliers, they managed to swindle huge sums of cash on contracts for goodies including ICT.
You can read about it all in this article.
Scandal and Theft and Kickbacks at UN
Meanwhile, here is what the United Nation's Nairobi site (UNON) declares about itself:
"Since the early 1990s, the UN’s African headquarters in Nairobi has seen sustained growth, (do we now know why?)
both as
the global headquarters of the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP) and the
UN Programme for Human Settlements (UN-Habitat ), and as a rapidly expanding
regional development hub.
Both these offices are discussed in the aforementioned article
specifically...
"Some
of the employees reportedly have links to the companies which were given
contracts to do business with the Nairobi office which includes the United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and UN-Human Settlement
(UN-Habitat)."
UNEP is already the talk of the blogs for giving Kenyans practical solutions on how they may reduce their daily carbon emissions such as giving up their electric alarm clocks all while UN staff are seen about town driving their gas guzzling SUVs and Hummers.
"The current situation in the eastern DRC is a tragic part of Africa’s
contemporary history, despite international community’s pledge to never
let another chaotic situation happen again in this region. It is a
failure of governments, international organisations and the UN Security
Council to generate the necessary political will to protect the world’s
citizens. In this line, the United Nations Mission in the DR Congo
(MONUC), the biggest international peacekeeping mission, has been
criticised by an increasingly angry population for failing to prevent
the advance of rebels led by Laurent Nkunda. There are also reports
that hundreds of protesters had attacked the mission's headquarters,
saying the UN was not doing enough to protect them. Demonstrators are
angry that the 17,000-strong UN force has not better protected them
against an offensive by rebel forces.
Now I will go back to worrying about the crisis in Goma while digesting the words of Professor Joseph Yav Katshung in the Pambazuka News as he discusses the UN's attempts to protect civilians in the DRC (Congo).
Against this background, someone can ask if MONUC is really a ‘mission’
or an ‘omission’ in protecting civilians? It is therefore clear that
the development of law, norms and political mechanisms to allow
collective intervention in crisis situations is of little more than
academic value if it is not accompanied by a political will to protect
civilians."
Related Posts
Take the Log out of your Ass Please, June 12, 2008 by Dipesh Pabari
UN panel paves the way for elephant poaching and ivory laundering, July 15, 2008
The UN's Deliquency: A few examples to chew on, July 17, 2008
Namibia opens bidding on stockpiled ivory
Updates:
November 7, 2008
South Africa auctions fifty one tonnes of ivory in media blackout
November 4, 2008
Zimbabwe auctions four tons of ivory
November 4, 2008
Botswana auctions forty-four tons of ivory
posted October 28, 2008
Today the sale of stockpiled ivory sanctioned by CITES began with Namibia opening the bidding on nine tons of ivory.
Read this in-depth report and analysis from Wildlife’s Direct Baraza blog.
Namibia opens bidding in controversial ivory auction: locks out media, NGO observers
And as spelled out by Baraza regarding the lack of logic behind the pitiful arguments justifying the sale.
“The assertion that selling these stockpiles will help conservation is myopic. This sale will only keep demand for ivory alive. And when the southern states have no more ivory to sell, who will feed China’s growing hunger for ivory? Is it not the rest of Africa where elephants are not properly protected? Is it not poaching?
One Kevin C from Taipei commenting on the BBC article covering the sale puts things rather candidly:
Sounds like it is also a very good idea to sell drug stockpiles in police office. It will reduce the market value and make it less profitable to smuggle and produce it underground.”Read the post from Baraza
Related Post
ebay to ban ivory sales, Oct. 21, 2008