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If a child can understand the importance of raising awareness… I wish YOU could too
The day, which was first celebrated in 2012, is observed to increase conservation efforts and create awareness about poaching.
Though they are adored by many, elephants face several threats including loss of habitat and poaching. The animals are mainly poached for ivory, which is used to make jewelry, religious ornaments and items for decorative purposes. In the black market, ivory price starts at $1,500 and the rate increases depending on its size. The sale of ivory has been banned in many countries.
The two well-known species of this animal are the African elephant and the Asian elephant. They are both in danger. The African elephant is the largest land mammal on Earth.
Twitter: The Guards @the5Guards ·Approximately 10-15,000 African elephants are killed each year by poachers. At current poaching rates, elephants are in danger of being wiped from the continent. Our recent deployment to Mali to train and educate is a small step to making a massive difference. #worldelephantday
Look at me ! Stop being indifferent !
Your species is killing mine just for money !
Look at me ! Stop being indifferent !
We have something in common, your species and mine need forests to survive !
Tweet #WorldElephantDay to spread the word about the plight of elephants and visit our Press Room for Facebook cover photos, sample blog posts, tweets, and more!
Sign the World Elephant Day Pledge to show your support.
Tweet #BeElephantEthical to promote safe, ethical elephant tourism. Do not support organizations that exploit or abuse elephants and other animals for entertainment and profit.
#10DaysForElephants. You can protect elephants and their homes. Take 10 actions in the 10 days leading up to World Elephant Day, August 12.
Do not buy ivory or other wildlife products. Be an elephant aware consumer. Currently it’s not legal in California, New Jersey, New York, Hawaii, Oregon, Nevada, and Washington State. Ivory ban legislation is also currently being considered in Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Massachusetts.
Study elephants in their “keystone” role in the environment and interrelationships with plants and other animals because all of nature is interconnected.
Visit elephants in countries where they live in the wild – tourism benefits the economy, provides needed jobs, deters poachers and abuse, and gives you the opportunity to experience the beauty, intelligence, and emotional capacity of these magnificent giants.
If you wish to experience elephants in their natural environment, choose eco-tourism operators who support local elephant conservation projects and who treat elephants with respect and dignity.
Learn about and support organizations that are working to protect habitat for wild elephants and finding solutions for human-elephant conflict.
Support organizations that are working to stop the illegal poaching and trade of elephant ivory and other wildlife products.
Support organizations that are building natural sanctuaries and alternative habitat for domesticated elephants to live freely.
Support healthy, alternative, sustainable livelihoods for people who have traditionally relied on elephants, wild animals and natural resources. Learn about indigenous cultures that have traditionally lived in harmony with elephants.
Be aware of elephant habitat. Do not buy coffee that is not fair-trade or shade-grown, nor products with palm-oil. These commercial crops are grown in plantations that have decimated elephant habitats. Only buy wood products that have been certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, which promotes responsible management of the world’s forests – the natural habitat for elephants and other wildlife.
Talk about elephants at your school. Initiate an elephant study group to share knowledge and ideas about the plight of elephants and what can be done to ensure their survival into the future.
What do you love about elephants? Their intelligence, empathy and caring for one another are just a few of their qualities. Embrace these qualities and live them in your own life.
Use your love of elephants and World Elephant Day, August 12, to start a conversation with the next person you meet. Tie a string around your finger right now so, like an elephant, you don’t forget!
Meet Hanako, the oldest elephant in Japan. She lives a sad life in a tiny cement enclosure with no other elephants and nothing to play with except a rope.
Hanako has lived at the Inokashira Park Zoo in Tokyo for 61 years. That means tens of thousands of people have seen her concrete prison and done nothing to help her.
One visitor to the zoo said that she was heartbroken to observe Hanako just standing there, appearing almost lifeless. The poor elephant doesn’t have anything in her enclosure to provide stimulation – not even grass or trees to create a more natural environment.
To make matters worse, decades of depression and boredom have made Hanako temperamental. After a few recent incidents where she lashed out against humans, zookeepers began feeding her through a barrier. Already deprived of contact with other elephants, she doesn’t even get comfort from interactions with people anymore.
Considering that the lifespan of captive Asian elephants is about 30-40 years, it is amazing that Hanako is still alive. But at 68 years old, she has lost most of her teeth, is going deaf, and has digestive problems. Her life is not a happy one.
The Inokashira Park Zoo should honor Hanako by sending her to an elephant sanctuary where she can find happiness in her final years. If it is not possible to get her to a sanctuary due to her old age and frail health, then the zoo should move her to a more natural setting where she would have other elephants to interact with and toys to keep her stimulated.
The WildAid Difference – WildAid: This is what we do
WildAid’s mission is to end the illegal wildlife trade in our lifetimes by reducing demand through public awareness campaigns and providing comprehensive marine protection.
The illegal wildlife trade is estimated to be worth over $10 billion (USD) per year and has drastically reduced many wildlife populations around the world. Just like the drug trade, law and enforcement efforts have not been able to resolve the problem. Every year, hundreds of millions of dollars are spent protecting animals in the wild, yet virtually nothing is spent on stemming the demand for wildlife parts and products. WildAid is the only organization focused on reducing the demand for these products, with the strong and simple message: when the buying stops, the killing can too.
With an unrivaled portfolio of celebrity ambassadors and global network of media partners, we are able to deliver high-impact, culturally-sensitive multimedia campaigns, leveraging well over $200 million (USD) in pro-bono media support, and reaching one billion people every week.
Peter Knights was formerly a program director working on illegal wildlife trade with Global Survival Network and a senior investigator for the Environmental Investigation Agency. He specialized in conducting global on-site investigations and campaigned against the trade in wild birds for pets and the consumption of endangered species in traditional Chinese medicine, such as bear gallbladder, rhino horn, and tiger bone. On birds, this work led to over 150 airlines stopping the carriage of wild birds and the Wild Bird Conservation Act, which cut imports of wild birds into the US from 800,000 to 40,000.
In 1996 while working across Asia, Peter created the first international program aimed at reducing demand for endangered species products. He received an Associate Laureate of the Rolex Award for Enterprise for this work. The program used sophisticated advertising techniques, donated airtime, and celebrity spokespeople with the message “When the buying stops, the killing can too” and has over 100 actors, athletes, and musicians appearing in its campaigns. In 2011 it raised $200 million in donated media in China alone. The campaign Peter started on shark fin is attributed with helping to reduce demand for fins by 50-70% in China in 2012 and helping to secure bans in a number of US states.
Peter has served as Executive Director of WildAid since its founding in 2000. He initiated the Marine Protection Program and currently leads the Demand Reduction Program for shark fin, manta ray gill rakers, ivory, and rhino horn. Peter holds a B. Sc. in Economics from the London School of Economics.
Executive Director
WildAid is a 501c(3) charity and all donations are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.
For decades she was kept alone, deprived of space, enrichment and the simple companionship of even a single other elephant while she was exploited in the circus.
In 2009, after extensive lobbying by SAFE, Mila was retired and released from the Loritz Circus, which had bought her from Ratcliffe, and sent to the Franklin Zoo, which took on sole responsibility for her care. There, she was able to play in the mud and learned to make her own decisions, while her confidence and health improved.
Tragedy, however, was soon to follow poor Mila. On April 25, 2012, she was involved in the crushing death of Helen Schofield, a veterinarian and operator of the zoo, who had bonded with her and wanted to help her move to a sanctuary in the U.S. where she could live out her days with other elephants.
No one’s sure what happened in Mila’s head the day she grabbed Schofield with her trunk. Some reportedly believe she finally snapped after spending all those years alone in the circus, while a few witnesses speculate she was frightened and acting protectively after being shocked by an electric fence.
While there was some debate about what to do with Mila following the incident, plans to have her moved to the U.S. progressed. In honour of Schofield’s dream of seeing Mila reunited with other elephants, the zoo’s staff and supporters raised $1.5 million to have her transported from New Zealand to the San Diego Zoo in November. She spent the holiday season in quarantine before being introduced to Mary, the herd’s matriarch, this month.
Although some of her advocates are disappointed she ended up at a zoo and not a sanctuary, they are pleased that her days as a performer are over and that she is at least being cared for in the company of her own kind.
While Mila and Mary’s bond grows and she’s introduced to other elephants in California, similar efforts are currently underway to help other elephants who have been left alone, including Tania, who is being kept in solitary at a zoo in Romania, and Lucky, who is being kept alone at the San Antonio Zoo by officials who arrogantly refuse to even acknowledge that might not be best for her.
Hopefully, Mila’s story will serve as a reminder about avoiding establishments that keep these giants in captivity, especially as performers, in addition to raising awareness about the decisions we’re making for those we insist on keeping captive: who comes, who goes, who’s bred, who lives and who dies.
bestofmvm.wordpress.com
I am not sure that reminders are enough for humans to understand, I am not sure how intelligent humans are in reality. According to evidence, humans destroy everything they touch without caring about the consequences and the effects they provoke for themselves and for all other living creatures around.
An Intelligence that humans have used to abuse other species, the planet, plants, other humans… (I say “they” because although I was born a human I do not want and I do not consider myself part of this, I feel really ashamed of being human in situations like the one described here). The only thing that seems to matter to most of them is “making money”.
As reminders may not suffice, it is important that you care, that you feel ashamed too so as to feel we need a change! Maybe, if we can do little things individually but synergistically, everyday, in the places where we are and anywhere at anytime, we could, together, generate a huge change to live a better life in a better planet.
This is the only planet we have and if we continue behaving in this way, hunting, cutting trees, deforesting the Amazonas, affecting the Ozone layer, changing the weather, abusing on animals, misusing natural resources, mining without control, running out of natural resources … soon the next endangered species … will be us.
There are little things we can all do to reduce abuse and increase dignity:
Do not attend circuses or ways of entertainment which use animals, animals are not human-entertainers!
Do not go hunting for “sports” ???, do not go hunting!
Do not kill animals with cruelty, if you eat animals to live, at least we can kill them without suffering.
Do not buy or wear fur-coats, do not wear leather accessories or items of clothing.
Do not misuse water or other resources.
Recycle.
Reduce the rubbish you generate.
Help rescue abandoned animals in the streets.
Help campaigns to rescue and help endangered species.
Help zoos and foundations that rescue animals and give them a better life.
Stop the illegal traffic of exotic animals to be kept unhappily as pets in a human house !!!
Do not buy animals… would you like to be bought-and-sold as a “good”? As slaves were in the past? Well, animals don´t like it neither !!!
If we do not trade nor buy horns, ivory tusks, fur, gorillas hands, bear skins, leather, alive animals… these types of “businesses” will stop and become “endangered business“.
Vocabulary:
The ozone layer is the common term for the high concentration of ozone that is found in the stratosphere around 15–30km above the earth’s surface. It covers the entire planet and protects life on earth by absorbing harmful ultraviolet-B (UV-B) radiation from the sun.
An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and invasive species.
Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds, usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point.
Trade involves the transfer of goods or services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market. The action of buying and selling goods or services.
Tusks are elongated, continuously growing front teeth that protrude well beyond the mouth of certain mammal species. They are most commonly canine teeth, as with pigs and walruses, or, in the case of elephants, elongated incisors. A long pointed tooth, especially one which protrudes from the closed mouth, as in the elephant, walrus, or wild boar.
An elephant’s trunk is actually a long nose used for smelling, breathing, trumpeting, drinking, and also for grabbing things—especially a potential meal. The trunk alone contains about 40,000 muscles. African elephants have two fingerlike features on the end of their trunk that they can use to grab small items.
After 37 Years, Mila the Elephant Meets Another of Her Kind
by Alicia Graef, February 24, 2014
The dream of a former caretaker at the Franklin Zoo in New Zealand is finally being realized with the sweet introduction of two elephants, Mila and Mary.
Mila, who is now 41, has spent almost her entire life alone. She was born in Namibia in 1973 and, like many others who find themselves in captivity, was taken from her home and her family shortly after.
Mary is the first elephant Mila has seen in 37 years.
The two meet through a barrier at the San Diego Zoo for the first time.
Mila and Mary’s introduction is as heartwarming as they come, and clearly part of an effort to do what’s best for Mila at this point. However, a more important part of her story is how she got here in the first place and why she spent so much time alone.
After being torn from her family, Mila was moved to a zoo in Honolulu where she was reportedly bullied by other elephants. When she was 4-years-old, Mila was bought by trainer Tony Ratcliffe and flown to New Zealand to join the Whirling Brothers Circus. There she was known as Jumbo and was taught tricks, with the use of a bullhook, that she would be forced to perform for crowds for more than 30 years.
During that time, she spent long periods shackled to a short chain in her trailer where she was observed swaying back and forth, which is a stereotypical behavior of an elephant who is suffering from psychological distress that has never been observed in the wild.
bestofmvm.wordpress.com
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