Born Free Foundation - Keep Wildlife in the Wild

The Born Free Foundation, together with all members of ENDCAP, has joined a pan-European Alliance of animal welfare organisations to challenge the European dolphinaria industry. The European Alliance to End Dolphin Captivity (EAEDC) aims to raise awareness about the damage captivity often causes these intelligent animals, expose their unregulated wild-capture which is used to maintain an unsustainable industry, challenge the significance of Dolphin Assisted Therapy (DAT) and campaign to halt the numbers of new captive facilities being built in Europe and surrounding countries.

The Born Free Foundation, together with all members of the EAEDC need your help and support of this campaign. We want to ensure captive whales and dolphins have a voice and receive greater protection in Europe. Together, we aim to collect over one million signatures to help convince politicians and the Commission in Brussels that something needs to be done to help these beautiful, charismatic wild animals.

Click here for more information and to sign the petition

In March 2010, Tanzania and Zambia asked to reduce the level of protection their elephants afforded by CITES* (by downlisting their elephant populations from Appendix I, which bans commercial trade, to Appendix II, which allows regulated trade subject to certain conditions). They also sought approval for a one-off sale of over 110,000kg of ivory.  Born Free asked you to sign a petition to reject these proposals and we succeeded!

Our petition was just one facet of a well-researched and tirelessly promoted campaign – well, not tirelessly perhaps, our representatives seemed drained at the end of this CITES conference!

Will Travers, CEO of Born Free, was at the Conference, speaking out for the elephant and he had this to say: “In the face of overwhelming evidence of high levels of elephant poaching, massive international ivory smuggling, the involvement of organized crime syndicates, and the high price ivory can fetch in the global marketplace, CITES Parties had no choice but to reject the proposals to downgrade elephant protection. Many thanks to everyone who helped us secure this victory.”

For some species, including elephants, the meeting was a resounding success!  For others, including tuna, sharks and polar bears, the outcome was extremely disappointing. Read about the winners and losers here.

You can still have your say and read more - please sign our petition at http://www.bloodyivory.org/petition

*Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora

IS YOUTUBE KILLING THE SLOW LORIS?

Those of you who saw the disturbing documentary, ‘Jungle Gremlins of Java’, shown on BBC 2 on 25th January 2012, will have learnt how video footage on YouTube, showing ‘cute’ captive slow lorises, has resulted in a huge demand for these big-eyed, cuddly looking primates.

Featuring the work of primatologist Dr Anna Nekaris, the documentary reveals the sickening trade in slow lorises, illegally captured from the wild and sold as pets.
Slow loris are the only venomous primate and by raising their arms above their heads they can access the stinky oil in the venom glands in their arm.  The venom is activated by the saliva in their mouth, and by coating their teeth, they can deliver a toxic, painful bite.

Those illegally trading in slow lorises often clip their front teeth with pliers, nail clippers or wire cutters to reduce the impact of a venomous bite from the terrified loris.  Not only is this process excruciatingly painful, but infections of damaged teeth can lead to death from septicaemia. It also means that many rescued  lorises can never be released to back to the wild.

All five species of slow lorises are listed on Appendix I of CITES.  This means all international commercial trade is banned.  Local laws also prohibit domestic trade in slow loris and slow loris products, however they are still openly sold in local markets.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

1.  Sign the on-line petition calling for YouTube to ban footage of captive slow lorises.  http://www.thepetitionsite.com/318/--if-gte-mso-9xml-wworddocument-wviewnormalwview-wzoom0wzoom-wpunctuationkerning/

2.  Contact the Indonesian Embassy (details of the UK Embassy below). Politely ask the Indonesian Ambassador to relay your concerns to the Indonesian Government. Say you would urge the Government to take strong action to enforce the law and prosecute all those involved in the illegal slow loris trade.  Sometimes lorises will be confiscated but the vendors are rarely prosecuted.  Indicate how you feel about the cruelty inflicted on slow lorises captured from the wild. 

His Excellency, H.E. Teuku Mohammad Hamzah Thayeb
Indonesian Embassy
38 Grosvenor Square
London W1K 2HW
email: kbri@btconnect.com

Start letter “Dear Ambassador” and end it “Yours sincerely”.

Website of Dr Anna Nekaris  http://nocturama.org/

‘The Jungle Gremlins of Java’ is available on BBC iplayer for the next two months for those in the UK. www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01bcp7z/Natural_World_20112012_Jungle_Gremlins_of_Java/

Update: "Thanks to international pressure the Indonesian government has removed part of this important ecosystem from its concessions, but there is still a large area that is in danger of being deforested. Hopefully if we can keep up the pressure and continue to make our voices heard, this vital swathe of habitat can also be saved.”

The Bukit Tigapuluh (“Thirty Hills”) ecosystem located in Central Sumatra, Indonesia is a globally important ecosystem providing a safe haven for many species which are threatened by extinction or are extremely rare - including the critically endangered Sumatran orang-utan, tiger and elephant.

A proposal for forest clearing and destruction of over 33,600 ha of this vital rainforest has recently been put forward by a joint venture company, Asia Pulp & Paper/Sinar Mas Group.

Over 100 orangutans have been released to date via the Bukit Tigapuluh Sumatran Orangutan Reintroduction Project – the only reintroduction site for this critically endangered species. It took scientists decades to discover how to successfully reintroduce critically endangered orangutans from captivity into the wild and it could take APP just months to destroy an important part of their new habitat

Please sign the petition to help prevent the destruction of this vital habitat, click here

Documents made public had revealed a disturbing deal officials appointed by the Bush administration were attempting to make with Japan to legitimize and expand commercial whaling. They met in early March in an effort to push this compromise through.

However, we all brought this issue to President Obama's attention before this important meeting and the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) issued an official statement on March 6 stating that the Obama Administration will firmly oppose whaling and any measures that do not result in significant improvement in whale conservation.

On September 11th, the Chilean Congress unanimously approved a bill declaring Chilean jurisdictional waters to be a whale sanctuary. Referring to the petition action alert in support of the sanctuary which many of Born Free's supporters signed, Chilean marine charity, Centro de Conservación Cetacea, said, "We would like to thank the thousands of people that responded to our final call to have the project approved. Their signatures were fundamental to have a whale sanctuary in Chile today." So a big thank you to all those who signed this petition - it can make a difference!