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So, Spain is in dire straights. Massive debts and nearly one in four unemployed. A new government may be about to take charge but who knows. People are hurting!

And so, apparently is Juan Carlos, the King of Spain – but not for any of the above reasons.

While his fellow countrymen are wondering how to make ends meet, the King was adventuring in Bostwana hunting elephants (without his moral compass).

What? Yes, the picture of the King (with white hunter) standing in front of a magnificent bull elephant, slumped dead against a tree, has shocked millions of people for a variety of reasons.

Shouldn’t the King be setting an example and working to help lift his fellow citizens out of the mess they are in?

Shouldn’t the King be setting an example and, as elephants face annihilation across much of Africa, join efforts to protect a species under threat (poaching and the illegal ivory trade are rampant across many parts of the continent – see www.bloodyivory.org for details).

Newspaper and media reports in Spain are highly critical of his lifestyle and his pursuit of threatened species. In an attempt to justify his ‘sport’, it has been claimed that trophy hunting of elephants in Botswana (which is legal) is a method of controlling elephant numbers. Poppycock! It is nothing of the sort. It simply terminates a number of the most magnificent (and possibly the most genetically significant) bulls while doing nothing whatsoever to control numbers (if numbers need to be controlled in the first place).

Apparently, the King suffered an accident while on his sojourn of slaughter – requiring hip replacement surgery. Maybe his time convalescing will give him the opportunity to reflect on just how badly his actions are viewed both at home and internationally. His hip may heal but the elephant is dead, gone forever.

A modern monarch should be in touch with the people.  Juan Carlos seems to be all at sea.

Blogging off (in disgust),

Will

PS – An interesting article on this story can be found here – http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-04-18/king-s-elephant-hunt-is-disgrace-to-humanity-commentary

Dear Friends of Wildlife

So I watched Panorama – Ivory Wars: Out of Africa last night (12th April 2012) and maybe it’s just because I am immersed in this issue (and have been for so long) that despite a very impressive presentation by Rageh Omaar and a lot of travel to different places, a number of  key elements seemed to be missing.

The tragedy of the loss of life suffered by rangers and wildlife wardens across Africa at the hands of organised criminal syndicates and their henchmen.

The lack of accountability of the British Government and the other members of the CITES Standing committee who approved Japan and China as ivory trading nations (in 2006 and 2008 respectively) and the subsequent legal sale of more than 100 tonnes of stockpiled ivory to those two nations – which has led directly, in my view, to the massive increase in the price of ivory, the massive increase in illegal shipments and the massive increase in elephant poaching levels.

The burning question is not ‘What’s going on?’

It is “What are we going to do about it?” and quite clearly the British Government, the European Union, the international community should, without delay, revoke China and Japan’s ivory trade nations’ status.   There should be no accommodation of any more legal ivory trade – no more stockpile sales, no more ‘one-off sales’ – nada, niente, rien, nichts, nothing.

A ban should mean a ban.  Individual countries should amend their legislation to make it illegal to sell ivory in the airport in Cairo, in the markets of Bangkok and on the street-stalls of Kinshasa.

Only then will the message be loud and clear – as it was twenty years ago.  That ivory is not desirable, it is destructive.  That the ivory trade doesn’t support livelihoods, it steals away life. That ivory, far from being white gold is stained with blood.

Blogging off.

Will

PS  Born Free is trying to help some of the poorest elephant range State countries to protect their elephants and if you would like to help, please check out and donate via www.bloodyivory.org

The next few weeks could be critical for animals in Europe’s zoos and for wild animals kept as ‘pets’ and I will need your help!

Please contact your MEP (if you don’t know who your MEP is then see website details at the end of this blog) and seek their involvement and support  - these dates are top priority:

April 20th – The European Parliament will consider and vote on the EU’s revised  Biodiversity Strategy. Born Free has worked hard to make sure that there are new restrictions placed on the trade in, and private keeping of, wild animals. These restrictions have been agreed by the Environment Committee but we must make sure they are not lost when it comes to the full Parliamentary vote!

April 24th – Born Free and ENDCAP will host an exhibition on the findings of the EU Zoo Inquiry (three years’ work assessing over 20,000 enclosures in 200 zoos in 20 EU countries – see www.euzooinquiry.eu for details) highlighting the plight of wild animals kept in zoos. The week-long exhibition will be launched at a special Reception on 24th at 6.30pm (I’ll be there with Virginia). Please encourage your MEP to attend and ask them to contact Jayney Caspar (jayney@bornfree.org.uk) for details.

April 25th – Parliament’s Environment Committee will discuss zoos and their lack of commitment to conservation. If your MEP is on the Environment Committee then ask him or her to require zoos to make a meaningful and measurable contribution to the conservation of biodiversity and the care of their animals.

April 25th – On the same day the Environment Committee will discuss the EU Strategy on Animal Welfare. If your MEP is a member of the Environment Committee ask him or her to ensure that the interests and welfare of wild animals in zoos and those kept as ‘pets’ are fully discussed and included in the strategy.

April 27th – The EU Parliament’s Environment Committee will vote on the issue of Animal Welfare. If your MEP is a member of the Committee, ask him or her to vote for the highest possible welfare standards and protection for animals, including wild animals in zoos or kept as ‘pets’.

May 19th – The Agriculture Committee will vote on the content of the Parliamentary Report on the EU Animal Welfare Strategy. We need ‘wild animals in captivity’ to be included!

Details of MEPs

Environment Committee go to  http://www.europarl.europa.eu/committees/en/envi/members.html

Agriculture Committee go to  http://www.europarl.europa.eu/committees/en/agri/members.html

All MEPs go to http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/full-list.html

Strong positions and full participation by MEPS, both at the committee level and at the Parliamentary level, can make a real difference but they need to hear your voice.

So please do get in touch with your MEP and ask for their support – and resend this blog far and wide to anyone you know who cares about animals, wherever they live in the EU, and ask them to help too by contacting their MEP!

Blogging off!

Will

Born Free Foundation

I am shocked (somewhat) and saddened (greatly) by breaking news of an elephant massacre in Cameroon, Central Africa, where at least 480 elephants have been killed in recent weeks in Boubou Ndjida National Park, a park official told Agence France-Presse on Thursday.

The reason I am not more surprised is I have seen this kind of poaching perpetrated countless times since I began campaigning for elephant protection a quarter-century ago. The magnitude of this slaughter, however, is on a scale not often seen.

It is the ivory killing fields all over again. Clearly these criminals will stop at nothing to get hold of elephant ivory because they know there is a thriving black market for it. I would not be at all surprised if China is the intended end destination for this bloody ivory.

In 2008, China and Japan were permitted to purchase 102 English tons of ivory annually — a move recklessly sanctioned by governments across the world who naively (or disingenuously) contended the sale would meet the demand and stop the killing. They played Russian roulette with the lives of elephants. Their gamble did not pay off.

Unless all legal ivory trade is stopped, and the black market is strangled, these massacres will continue. China and Japan must have their status as legal ivory trading partners revoked immediately. Otherwise, future generations will find themselves living in a very sterile world, with animals such as elephants and rhinoceroses surviving only in tiny, heavily fortified pockets. The forests and savannahs will be devoid of life.

Born Free campaigns vigorously against the reprehensible ivory trade and for the welfare of elephants. Find out more and what you can do to help by visiting bloodyivory.org.

Blogging off,
Will

China has 1.35 billion citizens. That is a lot of consumers, and their appetite for shark fins, ivory and bear bile — resources that are extracted in excruciatingly cruel manner throughout the world, placing the survival of some of the planet’s most distinguished species at great risk — cannot continue to grow. In fact, it must decrease soon, and preferably disappear altogether.

Traditional Chinese medicine, ingrained cultural appetites and the emergence of middle and upper-middle classes have contributed to the toll China is taking on far-flung wildlife. Getting such a massive and tradition-bound country engaged in the animal protection movement is a tall order.

Which brings me to 7-foot-6 Yao Ming.

(Photograph from topnews.in)

The former Basketball star has been speaking out for animals in his homeland, most recently by visiting a bear sanctuary in the Szechuan province last weekend. Yao clipped the nails of an anesthetized bear and toured the grounds at a site run by our friend Jill Robinson of the Animals Asia Foundation. For many years, Jill has been working tirelessly to save bears and raise awareness of their plight.

Yao also has spoken out against the mass slaughter — a common estimate is 70 million per year — of sharks so that their fins can be used in soups. Mere soups! He’s also made a video against the ivory trade.

Awareness of needless animal suffering, and how it must end, is growing slowly on this planet. Too slowly, for sure. But with high-profile (no pun intended, this time!) celebrities such as Yao Ming speaking out for compassion, there is added hope.

Blogging off,
Will

PS You can help Born Free support the work of Animals Asia Foundation by adopting Ginny the moonbear who was rescued bear farm where she was ‘milked’ for her bile.

The withdrawal of Yang Guang (Sunshine) from public view with a bout of colic, just weeks after his long flight from China with Tian Tian (Sweetie) as part of a controversial ‘rent a panda’ programme, is a cause for concern we all share but must be of particular worry for the powers that be at Edinburgh Zoo.

Should anything more serious happen to the animals at the centre of this ill-advised scheme then the future of the zoo could be in doubt.

With 10 years costs of more than £7 million pounds (what could that do for wildlife conservation and habitat protection around the world) and no guarantee that visitor numbers will receive a desperately-needed boost (they were down by 15% in the last reported year), the zoo may yet rue the day.

Few zoos that have rented pandas in this way report a happy experience, either from a visitor number or financial point of view.

Our immediate concerns must be for Yang Guang’s welfare. Is his painful discomfort a result of the change in climate, the new food supply, heightened levels of stress? More fundamentally, why was this project ever undertaken in the first place?

Blogging off

Will

PS You may have seen the BBC Natural World documentary highlighting the plight of the slow loris following a viral video on Youtube. It seems the video is fuelling the illegal pet trade and putting the endangered species at risk.

There is a petition calling for Youtube to remove the video here

Well it’s easy to be a Glass Half Empty person. Just look around. A tide of terror in Iraq; Syria in bloody turmoil; the Eurozone in crisis (again); the US limping out of recession; earthquakes; floods; unrelenting pressure on wild species and habitats; rampant rhino poaching; massive ivory trade; over-fishing; animal cruelty; political indifference..

But that, of course, is not the whole picture.

I’m a Glass Half Full person: South Sudan, a State born in relative peace; the Arab Spring; the optimism of a new Libya; the growth of philanthropy;  the empowerment of women in many previously oppressive societies; the establishment of more protected areas; the ban on seal skin imports by the EU; a new climate control treaty..

And then consider what we at Born Free have been doing too.

Rescuing lions in Ethiopia; exposing the barbarity of the trapping industry in the USA; building lion-proof bomas in Kenya; caring for our big cats in South Africa; investigating zoos in Europe; drawing the curtain down on wild animal circuses in England; supporting wildlife law enforcement in Central and West Africa; helping the Kenya Wildlife Service fight the ivory trade; protecting wild tigers in India; working with local communities in more than half a dozen countries through Global Friends;  rescuing dolphins in Turkey; saving and homing over 100 primates in Texas. I could go on (and on).

I’ve celebrated, raged, laughed, cried, championed, decried in equal measure.

But is that why I am an optimist – is that why my Glass is Half Full?

Not quite: For me it’s because wherever I look, despite all the horrors, I see the innate goodness of so many people. People who will spend their Christmas serving others less fortunate; who will cross the road to alleviate suffering; who care for all life and, in their own way, do what they can to help; who find the time when others are ‘too busy’; who give and expect nothing in return; who stand up to be counted when others sit; who speak out against injustice when others remain silent.

This is what I admire, respond to, am inspired by. The wellspring of humanity (or should that be humane-ity) that, out of a deep-seated and profound sense of compassion and justice, believes in a better world for all living beings – and is prepared to play their part in making that dream a reality.

To you all, I raise my Glass Half Full (which, by the way, is running over).

Happy New Year!

Will

Edinburgh Zoo predicts up to 2 million more visitors over the next 10 years, following the arrival of 2 Giant Pandas ‘Sweetie’ and ‘Sunshine’ from China.

But will it all be financial ‘sweetness and light’ as the zoo hopes - or are there hard financial lessons to be learned from the past?

“We are not aware of any revenue coming in associated with our pandas. It is a common misconception about keeping pandas.” Christina Simmons San Diego Zoo. The Daily Record January 30^th 2011

“The four zoos (Washington, Atlanta, Memphis and San Diego) collectively spent $33 million more on pandas from 2000 to 2003 than they received in revenue from exhibiting them.” Washington Post August 2005

‘One reason zoos hope for births is monetary: “It helps us allay some of these costs”. Donald Lindberg San Diego Panda Conservation Team. Washington Post 2005

“It was astonishing too see, in most cases, how much more it was costing the institutions that [the panda exhibits] were bringing in.” David Towne. Giant Panda Foundation. National Geographic News 2006

“The loan agreements, most spanning ten years, have become a financial headache for the Nation’s zoo” National Geographic News March 2006

At Zoo Atlanta visitation levels shot up by 60%when pandas Lun Lun (femail) and Yang Yang (males) first arrived in 1999. After a few years, though, the crowds usually dwindle while costs remain high” National Geographic News March 2006

“For Edinburgh Zoo the pandas are a godsend after the most difficult period in its 102 year history. Last year, the zoo lost £1.5m, saw its visitor numbers slump 15% to just under 550,000 and had to be rescued with a £2m bank loan; while this year it has seen directors suspended for alleged misconduct. One was exonerated and reinstated, one was dismissed and its previous chief executive left”. The Guardian December 4^th 2011

Pandaesia: (Noun) A rare but serious affliction which sporadically affects millions of people generally in countries which have temporarily imported Giant Pandas from China as part of a vastly expensive ‘loan agreement’ to be placed on public display and commercially exploited for uncertain objectives. Often linked to panda-monium (Noun), a form of mass hysteria surrounding the arrival of said Giant Pandas (see recent outbreak in Edinburgh, Scotland – Dec 2011).

Usually accompanied by sounds of ‘oooh’ and ‘aaahh’. Both afflictions can, on rare occasions, lead to a panda-emic (Noun) where up to a million people misguidedly move en masse to the captive facility displaying the Giant Pandas in the often forlorn hope of witnessing captive-bred panda cubs (see pandalusional), not realising that these extremely rare births do little to enhance the conservation of the species which has doubled in number in its native China in the last 20 years. All such Giant Panda-related activities are usually associated with high level diplomatic interventions, ministerial photo-opportunities and even the endorsement of members of the Royal Family.

Fortunately these conditions subside relatively quickly after people come to their senses, following corrective information provided by organisations such as The Born Free Foundation (Noun) a UK registered charity working to keep wildlife in the wild.

After my last Rhino Blog (and the many comments – for which thanks)….. MORE RHINO NEWS!

So, a big day in Hong Kong (Monday 14th November): Customs’ officials intercepted over 758 ivory chopsticks, 127 carved ivory bracelets AND 33 rhino horns, weighing over 86 kilos. Astronomical prices and ludicrous claims that rhino horn cures cancer (from Vietnam) mean poaching pressure on wild rhino all over the world is relentless. Some say, let’s legalise the trade (particularly those who “own” rhino in southern Africa and who would stand to make millions of dollars). They contend that they could meet demand in China and that this would reduce poaching.

However, this idea is nothing new and legalisation of other high-value wildlife products in the past have completely failed to protect the species concerned. Attempts to meet the demand for ivory, for example, have been an unmitigated disaster. Since the 100 tonne ivory stockpile sale in 2009 to China and Japan, poaching levels have been distressingly high, nearly 30 tonnes of illegal ivory seized so far this year alone (so the full extent of the trade is likely to be four or five times higher), and the price of illegal ivory has shot up to around US$1,500 a kilo. No sign of demand being met there!

Pro-trade exponents claim that they can provide a sustainable supply of ‘ranched’ horn from their rhino and that this will reduce pressure on wild populations. That’s not what tiger conservationists believe. China has thousands of captive tigers whose ‘owners’ are pushing hard for the legalisation of trade (obviously to make a killing in more ways than one), again claiming that this will reduce pressure on wild tigers. However, conservation professionals and wildlife trade specialists believe that the poaching community will always target wild tigers because they are a ‘premium product’. I think that’s exactly what will happen with rhino.

Two measures are urgently needed:

1. Far more effective and well-resourced rhino protection in wild rhino range States with co-ordinated intelligence gathering and law enforcement across borders; and
2. A major public re-education programme in consumer countries such as China, supported at the highest possible political level.

Last year, Vladimir Putin hosted a Tiger Summit in St Petersburg to generate the international political backing for a global mission not just to save the world’s wild tigers but to double the number of wild tigers in the next ten years or so.

What about a Rhino Summit to deliver the political muscle, financial commitment and enforcement effort to turn this situation around?

Please forward far and wide if you can!

Blogging off

Will