World Animal Protection released footage of an elephant training process called “the crush.” In this method, baby elephants are exploited to make them submissive to tourists. Baby and adult elephants are used in entertainment around the world, including giving rides to tourists or performing tricks. “The Crush” is designed to break animals spirits, and according […]
Tag: COVID-19
Four Oregonians charged with poaching 27 big game animals could face $162,000 in fines
Four people have been charged in connection with poaching 27 big game animals over the past two years, according to Oregon State Police Fish and Wildlife division. Police said the poaching took place in the Mid-Willamette Valley and Coast Range and included illegal take of buck deer, bull elk, black bear, bobcat and cougar, according […]
Horrific scale of SA’s live wildlife trade to China exposed
Chimpanzees, Bengal tigers, wolves, wild dogs and lions are among thousands of endangered wild animals exported, sometimes in contravention of CITES regulations, often in shameful conditions. At a time when the entire globe is reeling from a deadly disease that originated in wild animals and many species face the risk of extinction, a new report […]
Rhinos Are Also Coronavirus Victims
As Africa’s national parks and game reserves have emptied of tourists and reduced ranger patrols amid the coronavirus pandemic, conservationists say a troubling trend has taken root. Opportunistic poachers, taking advantage of the lull, are maiming and killing rhinos and other endangered creatures in areas usually considered safe from such attacks ― and there are […]
Did China really ban the pangolin trade? Not quite, investigators say
In early June, it was widely reported that the Chinese government had banned pangolin scales in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), and that all pangolin species now had the highest level of protection within China. This news grabbed headlines around the world, and conservationists hailed the move as a positive step toward halting the illegal trade […]
‘My land is now owned by lions’: Maasai Mara farmers offer Kenya’s wildlife a lifeline
Parsaloi Kupai’s home, situated on the edge of Ol Kinyei conservancy near the Maasai Mara game reserve, is no different from any other Maasai homestead – oval-shaped huts with an almost flat roof and walls plastered with a mixture of water, mud and cow dung. At the centre of the homestead is a cattleboma, an […]
Namibia’s last wild horses face a perilous future
(CNN) —It’s still debated exactly how the Namibian desert became home to a herd of wild horses. One theory is that diamond prospectors brought horses more than a century ago to since-abandoned mining fields. Another theory, says author and historian Manni Goldbeck, is that they arrived with South African soldiers, who in 1915 landed in […]
Python skin jackets and elephant leather boots: How wealthy Western nations help drive the global wildlife trade
Three-quarters of new and emerging infectious diseases in humans originate in wildlife. COVID-19, SARS and Ebola all started this way. The COVID-19 global pandemic has drawn new attention to how people think about wild animals, consume them and interact with them, and how those interactions can affect public health. Any activity that puts people in […]