Here now is the second letter that we ask you to send – this time to all those in Serbian embassies located around the world. If ‘your’ embassy is not listed below, then use this link to find more – but be careful – only go for Serbian embassies; others are also shown:
We hope the content of the letter is self explanatory – it asks the CRC to intervene in the killing of the dogs in Serbia using very dangerous chemicals.
This letter (No 2) is more directly aimed at Serbia, and its embassies; asking questions about the use of such nerve agents on the streets of Serbia. Again, we hope it is self explanatory. Please copy and sent this letter far and wide if you can – Thanks.
You and those involved with the endless murder of animals never seem to learn, do you ?
For over 2 months now there have been mass poisoning of dogs and other animals in over 50 cities located within Serbia.
The murders have been undertaken using the poison Carbofuran. This is one of the most toxic carbonate pesticides; and exhibits toxicity mediated by the same mechanism as that of the notorious V series nerve agents and presents a risk to human health – fatalities occur with exposure to tens of milligram quantities via inhalation or absorption through skin; It is more potent than Sarin; another nerve agent with a similar mechanism of action. On such exposure, these agents severely disrupt the body’s signaling between the nervous and muscular systems; leading to a prolonged neuromuscular blockade; causing paralysis of all the muscles in the body including the diaphragm, and leading to death by asphyxiation, or a condition of deficient supply of oxygen to the body.
Carbofuran usage has increased in recent years because it is one of the few insecticides effective on soybean aphids; but as a nerve agent it presents a risk to human health. It is classified as an extremely hazardous substance in the United States; and it usage and storage are rigorously monitored and controlled.
Further, Carbofuran is forbidden by International Act of the Chemical Review Committee- banned in Canada and the European Union. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a ban on Carbofuran because reports showed that this chemical compound killed more wildlife and animals overall than any other poison.
Are the shinters and local authorities who allow / use this aware of the destruction it can do to humans ? – are you prepared for claims and financial compensation that may be directed at you by individuals ? It can kill dogs and wildlife in a terrible way; but also humans.
If the Serbian public knew that you were undertaking the usage of this nerve agent and putting them at a health risk; or even the possibility of death; would you allow its use to continue ? As you are currently a ‘Candidate Country’ for EU membership; would the EU view your actions as good for human safety ? – I doubt very much; but regardless; they must be informed of your actions using nerve agents.
Ways in which you are undertaking the elimination of dogs is barbaric; especially as there are no kill options available, including a national sterilisation policy. But for some, adopting this strategy would mean an end to the corruption that I / we know exists in your system at present.
Poisoned dogs, cats and other animals are dying on the streets and in the parks of Serbia; children also play in parks – remember that.
Who is in direct control; and has overall responsibility for this operation and the use of nerve agents ? – the Republic Public Prosecutor and the Police Directorate do not appear to want to respond, despite having been approached about this.
As a concerned citizen I feel it is my responsibility to go ‘global’ with this and inform the world about what is being done to living things in Serbia.
Stop all killings now; and adopt a sterilisation, no kill policy.
Regarding the issue that we know ‘Carbofuran’ poison is being used to poison dogs and other wildlife throughout Serbia; we have serious concerns. Here is why; just a basic summary that we uncovered today via research:
The poison Carbofuran is one of the most toxic carbonate pesticides; and exhibits toxicity mediated by the same mechanism as that of the notorious V series nerve agents and presents a risk to human health – fatalities occur with exposure to tens of milligram quantities via inhalation or absorption through skin; It is more potent than Sarin; another nerve agent with a similar mechanism of action. On such exposure, these agents severely disrupt the body’s signaling between the nervous and muscular systems; leading to a prolonged neuromuscular blockade; causing paralysis of all the muscles in the body including the diaphragm, and leading to death by asphyxiation, or a condition of deficient supply of oxygen to the body.
As this is a nerve agent which can be deadly to both animal and human species; should it be put into parks or on the street where humans are; especially young children ? – we will produce our Sample Letter to the Serbian authorities tomorrow – it is done in draft form but we need to get checks undertaken.
In the meantime, Slavica has produced a letter (below) which you can copy and send to the CRC in Switzerland; expressing concerns.
The Chemical Review Committee (CRC) Rotterdam Convention
United National Environment Programme (UNEP)
Avenue de la Paix 8-14
1211 Genève 10, Switzerland
Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00153 Rome, Italy
EMAIL: pic@fao.org , brs@brsmeas.org
Secretariat of the Rotterdam Convention – UNEP
Office address: 11-13, Chemin des Anémones – 1219 Châtelaine, Switzerland
Postal address: Avenue de la Paix 8-14, 1211 Genève 10, Switzerland
LETTER TO SEND: COPY/PASTE IN YOUR EMAIL, ADD FEW OF YOUR OWN WORDS IF YOU WISH / SAYING WHAT YOU FEEL ABOUT THIS SITUATION
Letter (to copy and send):
REQUEST FOR INTERVENTION
We are reporting about mass poisoning on streets of Serbia.
We reported about it to Serbian Government, Police and Sectors for control of chemicals, but no one has reacted in response.
Through our investigation of poisons it is confirmed that chemicals found on the scene (streets) are two banned components but still they are spreading uncontrollably on the streets and are continuously killing both wildlife and domesticated animals.
Named chemicals are;
The technical or chemical name of FURADAN, Carbofuran is 2,3-dihydro-2,2-dimethyl-7-benzofuranyl methylcarbamate, and its CAS Number is 1563-66-2.
Mass poisoning cases of dogs, cats and birds that happened from January to February 2020 and current counts of at least 350 cases are found and reports of poisoned animals are incoming while we are just reporting to you about this case..
We are appalled at this and are asking for regulatory bodies of Rotterdam convention to intervene please.
Our report is reflecting the NOTE requested by Rotterdam convention committee.
According to the criteria for listing banned or severely restricted chemicals in Annex III to the Rotterdam Convention, Annex II, paragraph (c)(iv), indicates that the Chemical Review Committee should consider whether there is evidence of ongoing international trade in the chemicals it reviews.
In line with the process for collecting information on ongoing international trade adopted by the Chemical Review Committee at its first meeting, countries and other interested parties are invited to submit information on ongoing trade and use of the above-listed chemicals.
CRC-12/1 Carbofuran 16.16 K36.81 K
The Chemical Review Committee,
Recalling paragraphs 1 and 2 of Article 7 of the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade
I am very concerned about this situation, I will recall my visit to Serbia until this alarming situation of mass poisoning of animals is stopped. I am very appalled with the Government of Serbia because they are not taking any responsibility for what is being put into the public domain, and are not taking any action to stop this horrific situation. Additionally, they are NOT replying nor taking action on complaints that citizens of Serbia sent to them.
I am informed that there are more than 10 protests on the streets by concerned Serbian citizens and the government is playing deaf to their pleas which is shameful and should not be the case in Europe 2020 or from a ‘Candidate Country’ wishing to join the EU as a Member State in the near future.
Please send a warning note to the Serbian Government to stop the mass poisoning of animals, which could also affect humans; and please make an intervention that is guaranteed by Rotterdam Convention..
Joaquin Phoenix, Amazon Watch & Extinction Rebellion: ‘Guardians of Life’
We partnered with Oscar nominee Joaquin Phoenix, and Extinction Rebellion for a short film urging action on the climate and ecological emergency!
Phoenix is joined in the film, entitled Guardians of Life, by an array of Hollywood stars including Rosario Dawson, Matthew Modine, Q’orianka Kilcher, Oona Chaplin, Adria Arjona, and Albert Hammond Jr. of The Strokes.
Right now, indigenous peoples and their lands are increasingly under threat from vast economic exploitation across the Amazon — a rainforest vital for the health of our planet. The Amazon removes about 5% of total emissions caused by human activity. Without the Amazon, the planet would be warming faster than scientists already observe.
But, the Amazon rainforest is at RISK.
Just last year, over 11.2 M hectares in the Brazilian and Bolivian Amazon burned. New analysis of extensive satellite imagery revealed that many of the fires were actually burning the remains of areas that were recently deforested.
In Brazil, the threats are escalating: Bolsonaro’s Administration recently announced plans to hand out indigenous lands to the very industries responsible for deforestation. In the Brazilian Amazon, those industries are land speculation, mining, and agribusiness, specifically soy and cattle. Companies in these industries are bankrolled by global financial institutions like BlackRock,JP Morgan Chase, HBSC, BNP Paribas and Vanguard. They too, are responsible for the Amazon’s destruction.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. According to scientific studies, indigenous lands are “currently the most important barrier to Amazon deforestation.” Indigenous peoples are the best protectors of the Amazon rainforest, so protecting indigenous rights is instrumental.
The Amazon Rainforest is known to be a home to millions of different species, from plants, to animals, to even some indigenous tribes. It’s been referred to as the Earth’s lungs, because it produces 20% of the oxygen in it’s atmosphere.
About half the size of the United States of America, the Amazon Rainforest has a huge impact on slowing down global warming, and the world as a whole.
But recently, wildfires have gotten so out of control, cities have been completely blacked out, with smoke from the fires covering their skies. It seems as of now, the Brazilian government and president Bolsonaro isn’t stepping in to slow down the fires, and up until quite recently, news stations weren’t covering the story either.
In hopes of raising awareness about how important the Amazon Rainforest really is, we decided to answer the question: What If The Amazon Rainforest Burned Down?
My Comment: While the fire in Amazonas destroyed the lives of animals and humans, Bolsonaro specifically advised all presidents not to interfere in the internal affairs of his country.
“My country, my forest,” he said demonstratively against his critics.
It is by no means “his forest”, not even that of his corrupt party.
There are also many people in Brazil who are interested in the conservation of the rainforest.
It is the forest of the Brazilians and above all of the aborigines and animals that have protected areas there and whose livelihood is being illegally destroyed in favor of some private profit bandits.
But above all isthe human forest, which is based on this “green lung” and thus ensures our survival.
There, animal and plant species are irrevocably eradicated. These are missing from now on and will never come back. Part of our common heritage is lost just because some powerful fascists want to enrich themselves.
The rainforest in the Amazon region has also been cleared in the past, but never to the same extent as under the fascist and traitor Bolsonaro.
Humanity has nothing more than adaptation anyway, and it is feared that we can no longer save anything from now on, it is simply too late.
We just have to try to live with the damage we have caused ourselves and that will make our lives and the lives of the next generations hell.
Groups to Host Screening of Documentary Film that Exposes the Shadowy World of Wildlife Killing Contests
First Gentleman of Colorado Marlon Reis will give remarks
DENVER, CO – The Institute for Human-Animal Connection, Sturm College of Law, and DU Media, Film & Journalism Studies, in partnership with Project Coyote, will host Banning Wildlife Killing Contests in Colorado on Wednesday, Feb. 26, at the University of Denver. This free event will raise awareness about wildlife killing contests in Colorado — where participants compete to kill wild animals, including coyotes and prairie dogs, for entertainment and prizes. For information and to RSVP, click here.
The event is part of the 2nd Human-Animal Coexistence Catalyst Series Event and will feature a screening of Project Coyote’s award-winning documentary KILLING GAMES ~ Wildlife In The Crosshairs. The event will include remarks by First Gentleman of Colorado Marlon Reis and a discussion session with Project Coyote Executive Director (and KILLING GAMES Director) Camilla Fox and Project Coyote Science Advisory Board member and Professor Emeritus at the University of Colorado Marc Bekoff.
Thousands of wild animals are killed in wildlife killing contests every year throughout the nation. There have been at least 18 contests in Colorado over the last five years, primarily targeting coyotes, bobcats and prairie dogs. Public scrutiny has caused many contest organizers to take their events underground, so the actual number of contests may be much higher. In Pueblo this year, teams paid $100 to enter the High Desert Coyote Classic. Teams who killed the “biggest,” “littlest,” and “ugliest dogs” won prizes.
“Given the myriad benefits of wild animals and their habitats to our beautiful State, I am excited to highlight the need for reforms to wildlife killing contests,” said Marlon Reis, First Gentleman of Colorado. “We can and must do better for the humane treatment of wildlife throughout the nation.”
In 2019, a coalition of organizations — including the Animal Legal Defense Fund, the Animal Welfare Institute, the Humane Society of the United States, Project Coyote, and WildEarth Guardians — submitted a citizen petition asking the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission to consider revising current regulations to ban wildlife killing contests for small game and furbearing animals. Colorado’s current regulations allow each contest participant to kill up to five animals per species over the course of one contest. The Commission may hear that petition at its next meeting in March. If the Commission decides to advance the petition, CPW staff will begin to develop proposed regulations, which will be open for public comment.
“Not only do wildlife killing contests undermine the moral fabric of our society, they are ecologically destructive,” said Marc Bekoff, professor emeritus of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, co-founder with Jane Goodall of Ethologists for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, and member of Colorado’s Governor’s Coalition for Animal Protection. “In short, there is no credible evidence that wildlife killing contests serve any beneficial wildlife management purpose.”
Contest organizers frequently claim that killing contests reduce coyote population numbers long-term, increase the abundance of species like deer, and protect livestock from coyotes. The best available science does not support these claims. Indiscriminate lethal control of wildlife including coyotes and prairie dogs is harmful to ecosystems. Randomly killing coyotes can even increase their numbers and increase conflicts with livestock.
“Project Coyote produced KILLING GAMES ~ Wildlife In The Crosshairs to shine a light on this bloodsport,” said Camilla Fox, founder and executive director of Project Coyote and director of the film. “We’re working with our coalition partners, ranchers, hunters, Native American tribal leaders, and community members to relegate these brutal events to the history books, just as advocates did with dogfighting and cockfighting.”
Wildlife killing contests have been outlawed in five states. Arizona and Massachusetts banned killing contests for predatory and furbearing species in 2019; New Mexico and Vermont abolished coyote killing contests in 2019 and 2018, respectively; and California prohibited the awarding of prizes for killing nongame and furbearing animals in 2014.
To learn more about wildlife killing contests, visit the National Coalition to End Wildlife Killing Contests website here and read this Op-Ed in The Colorado Sun here.
Animal trade in spotlight as China seeks source of coronavirus
Authorities believe new strain of coronavirus came from a market in Wuhan where wildlife was sold illegally.
Officials in China are searching to uncover the origin of the coronavirus outbreak, amid heightened scrutiny of the country’s poorly regulated animal trade.
Authorities believe the new strain of coronavirus came from a seafood market in Wuhan where wildlife was sold illegally. The World Health Organization has stated that an animal appears most likely to be the primary source, with experts suggesting it may have been carried by bats, badgers, rats or snakes.
The virus is from the same family of viruses as Sars, which was passed to humans from bats by the masked pam civets, and Mers, which was carried from bats to humans by camels.
Ian Jones, professor of virology at Reading University, said it was likely that the Wuhan virus had also been transmitted in the same way – passed from bats to humans through an intermediate host. “Something in the local area will have picked up this virus and it’s this something that would have been on sale in the wet market,” said Jones.
Though the 2002-03 Sars outbreak, which killed nearly 800 people, prompted efforts to regulate the wildlife trade in China, the tradition of eating endangered wild animals, or using wildlife to produce medicines, remains popular. Conservationists and health experts warn that such animals are being sold in unhygienic and cramped markets, allowing viruses to thrive.
Media reports suggest that about 50 wild animals, including endangered pangolins, were on sale at the market in Wuhan before it was closed at the end of last year. Photographs taken before its closure show snakes, porcupines and foxes crammed into cages. The sister of a vendor infected by the virus told China Business Journal, a state-owned paper, that snakes, ducks and wild rabbits were common at the market.
“The animal welfare part of this is obvious, but much more hidden is this stashing and mixing of all these species together in a very small area, with secretions and urine mixed up together,” Christian Walzer, executive director of the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, told Reuters.
The environment creates a perfect system to spread viruses, he said: “You couldn’t do it any better if you tried.”
Research published on Wednesday in the Journal of Medical Virology, which used analysis of the protein codes favoured by the new coronavirus, suggested it may have been snakes at the market that passed the virus to humans.
Some argue that the virus is more likely to have been passed on by a mammal. “In my view it’s very unlikely to be a snake because the jump from a reptile to a person is evolutionarily quite a long way,” said Jones, who added that while snake handling is common in the region, he is not aware of any individuals contracting this kind of virus after direct handling of snakes.
Identifying the origin of the virus would not only enable officials to prevent its circulation, but could also allow scientists to understand if the virus has further evolved after infecting people.
On Wednesday, China’s national health commission vice-minister Li Bin told reporters there was evidence of respiratory transmission of the virus from patient to patient. Among those infected are 15 medical staff.
Now we move to Vietnam; animal welfare aside for a second, just look at the state of the container in which the live frogs are being kept; shit black dirt all up the sides; workers taking not one glimmer of any hygiene controls – clothing; gloves, anything. It all looks like a super recipe for Coronavirus Mk2 from where we stand – see the images from the Chinese markets in our links above – notice the commonality ?. Are the Asians attempting to kill off the entire planet or what ? – no; only killing off innocent animals which are being abused for their selfish food fetish needs.
“We also saw the mangled bodies of dead or dying frogs scattered across the market floor – frogs who managed to jump out of these tubs while being sorted ended up squashed under the feet of passers-by or under the wheels of motorbikes speeding down the hectic market corridors. It was shocking.”
‘France is the biggest consumer, eating 4,000 tons a year, but America has been catching up, and they are also popular in Asian cuisine’.
‘Research shows that the mass movement of frogs for human consumption – often unregulated or mislabelled – also plays a role in ecosystem collapse and spreading disease’.
Watch the disgusting video by clicking on either of the following:
Live frogs are being crammed together in tubs and sold in food markets in east Asia, destined for painful deaths, an investigation has found.
Thousands of the amphibians were filmed being poured into large buckets at street markets in Vietnam, where workers frantically rifle through them, then stuff them into bags for sale.
Animal-welfare experts say the trade is not just “agonising” but also increases the risk of the extinction of the species, as creatures are taken from the wild.
Studies show the practice also damages natural food chains. And scientists say piling up live frogs in such conditions risks spreading disease among the amphibians.
In a joint investigation by the Moving Animals group and The Independent, bins full of living frogs were found in the seafood section of Binh Dien market.
“They are taken from stacked delivery crates and poured into buckets, where workers frantically grab them by hand to sort them,” said one investigator. “The sorted frogs are then stuffed into a bag, ready for sale – all while still alive.
“We also saw the mangled bodies of dead or dying frogs scattered across the market floor – frogs who managed to jump out of these tubs while being sorted ended up squashed under the feet of passers-by or under the wheels of motorbikes speeding down the hectic market corridors. It was shocking.”
It is estimated more than three billion frogs are eaten worldwide each year, which are mostly caught from in the wild in Indonesia, but they are also farmed. France is the biggest consumer, eating 4,000 tons a year, but America has been catching up, and they are also popular in Asian cuisine.
Fears of falling populations have long been raised, leading France to ban farming and capturing frogs in the country in 1979.
However, the EU still imports the legs of tens of thousands of the amphibians from Asia each year, to the dismay of conservationists.
Activists claim frogs are often “forgotten” in welfare laws. They are “often skinned, and have their snouts and rear legs cut off with scissors or a blade while still alive. Their torsos are then tossed aside in a pile of other bleeding frogs and they endure a slow, agonising death,” according to the Washington-based Animal Welfare Institute.
A 2011 report, Canapés to Extinction, by international animal groups, said scientists had found frogs’ pain perception was similar to mammals’ and when their legs were cut off they struggled “until they reach complete exhaustion”.
Other witnesses have reported that in many cases only the hind legs are used for food, with the body thrown away.
Worldwide, amphibians are already suffering “catastrophic population declines” from interacting pathogens, scientists say. Fungal disease chytridiomycosis is thought to have caused the extinction of 90 species and marked declines of at least 491 others. Globalisation and the wildlife trade have been given most of the blame for the pandemic.
Research shows that the mass movement of frogs for human consumption – often unregulated or mislabelled – also plays a role in ecosystem collapse and spreading disease.
Wiping out frogs leaves snakes starving and allows disease-carrying mosquitoes to multiply, new research has found.
Until 1987, India was the world’s primary exporter of wild-caught frogs, leaving populations heavily depleted and farmers dependent on large quantities of pesticides to control pests and mosquitoes. Ecologists fear that Indonesia, now the source of more than two-thirds of frogs’ legs in supermarkets worldwide, is heading the same way.
And keeping frogs in such cramped conditions, without water, allows them to succumb to viruses.
Jonathan Ball, professor of molecular virology at Nottingham University, said although the risk to humans was probably very small, there was certainly the risk of spreading disease among frogs.
The 2011 report said: “Due to the mounting evidence that the chytrid fungus and ranaviruses are distributed through frogs traded live, in 2009 the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), specified conditions for handling processed and live frogs (eg health certificates and risk mitigation measures) in its Aquatic Animal Health Code.”
A spokeswoman for Peta Asia said: “Not only is this cruelty and suffering abhorrent, but eating animals – whether it’s frogs or chickens – fuels the demand for live animal markets. The typically filthy conditions of these markets are hotbeds for deadly viruses to multiply and spread. For the good of all living, feeling beings – including humans – they must all be shut down immediately.”
We’re hearing that the Trump administration will soon issue its final rule to roll back lifesaving clean car standards — which, if left in place, would help save drivers billions at the pump and eliminate billions of tons of carbon emissions.
Americans overwhelmingly support stronger vehicle emissions standards. Yet, three major automakers — GM, Toyota, and Fiat Chrysler — recently sided with the Trump administration’s attacks on clean car standards.
NRDC and our allies are fighting back against these car companies’ attack on state safeguards — working hard to convince them to reverse course and support what’s best for our planet and our health, not their short-term profits.
NRDC’s attorneys are fighting this attempt to block state efforts — and stand ready to file a lawsuit against the broader rollback. Public pressure will help. The CEOs of GM, Toyota, and Fiat Chrysler need to hear from you that their actions are unacceptable.
Here we want to share a little more about these wonderful animals who, thanks to man; are either listed as vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered.
World Pangolin Day is an opportunity for pangolin enthusiasts to join together in raising awareness about these unique mammals — and their plight. Pangolin numbers are rapidly declining in Asia and Africa.
The demand for pangolins comes mostly from China, where pangolin scales are unfortunately believed to be a cure-all of sorts and pangolin flesh is considered a delicacy. In Vietnam, pangolins are frequently offered at restaurants catering to wealthy patrons who want to eat rare and endangered wildlife. There is no evidence to support claims regarding medicinal properties of pangolin scales or any other part of the pangolin.
Pangolins or scaly anteaters[2] are mammals of the order Pholidota (from the Greek word φολῐ́ς, “horny scale”). The one extant family, Manidae, has three genera: Manis, which comprises four species living in Asia; Phataginus, which comprises two species living in Africa; and Smutsia, which comprises two species also living in Africa.[3] These species range in size from 30 to 100 cm (12 to 39 in). A number of extinct pangolin species are also known.
Pangolins have large, protective keratin scales covering their skin; they are the only known mammals with this feature. They live in hollow trees or burrows, depending on the species. Pangolins are nocturnal, and their diet consists of mainly ants and termites, which they capture using their long tongues. They tend to be solitary animals, meeting only to mate and produce a litter of one to three offspring, which are raised for about two years.
The physical appearance of a pangolin is marked by large hardened overlapping plate-like scales, which are soft on newborn pangolins, but harden as the animal matures. They are made of keratin, the same material from which human fingernails and tetrapodclaws are made, and are structurally and compositionally very different from the scales of reptiles. The pangolin’s scaled body is comparable in appearance to a pine cone. It can curl up into a ball when threatened, with its overlapping scales acting as armor, while it protects its face by tucking it under its tail. The scales are sharp, providing extra defense from predators.
Pangolins can emit a noxious-smelling chemical from glands near the anus, similar to the spray of a skunk. They have short legs, with sharp claws which they use for burrowing into ant and termite mounds and for climbing.
The tongues of pangolins are extremely long and – like those of the giant anteater and the tube-lipped nectar bat – the root of the tongue is not attached to the hyoid bone, but is in the thorax between the sternum and the trachea. Large pangolins can extend their tongues as much as 40 cm (16 in), with a diameter of only 0.5 cm (0.20 inches.
Most pangolins are nocturnal animals which use their well-developed sense of smell to find insects. The long-tailed pangolin is also active by day, while other species of pangolins spend most of the daytime sleeping, curled up into a ball.
Arboreal pangolins live in hollow trees, whereas the ground-dwelling species dig tunnels to a depth of 3.5 m (11 ft).
Some pangolins walk with their front claws bent under the foot pad, although they use the entire foot pad on their rear limbs. Furthermore, some exhibit a bipedal stance for some behaviour and may walk a few steps bipedally. Pangolins are also good swimmers.
Pangolins are insectivorous. Most of their diet consists of various species of ants and termites and may be supplemented by other insects, especially larvae. They are somewhat particular and tend to consume only one or two species of insects, even when many species are available to them. A pangolin can consume 140 to 200 g (4.9 to 7.1 oz) of insects per day. Pangolins are an important regulator of termite populations in their natural habitats.
Pangolins have very poor vision, so they rely heavily on smell and hearing. Pangolins also lack teeth; therefore they have evolved other physical characteristics to help them eat ants and termites. Their skeletal structure is sturdy and they have strong front legs that are useful for tearing into termite mounds. They use their powerful front claws to dig into trees, ground, and vegetation to find prey, then proceed to use their long tongues to probe inside the insect tunnels and to retrieve their prey.
The structure of their tongue and stomach is key to aiding pangolins in obtaining and digesting insects. Their saliva is sticky, causing ants and termites to stick to their long tongues when they are hunting through insect tunnels. Without teeth, pangolins also lack the ability to chew; however, while foraging, they ingest small stones (gastroliths) which accumulate in their stomachs to help to grind up ants. This part of their stomach is called the gizzard, and it is also covered in keratinous spines. These spines further aid in the grinding up and digestion of the pangolin’s prey.
Some species, such as the tree pangolin, use their strong, prehensile tails to hang from tree branches and strip away bark from the trunk, exposing insect nests inside.
Threats to this wonderful little animal
Pangolins are in high demand for Chinese traditional medicine in southern China and Vietnam because their scales are Pangolins are in high demand for Chinese traditional medicine in southern China and Vietnam because their scales are believed to have medicinal properties. Their meat is also considered a delicacy. 100,000 are estimated to be trafficked a year to China and Vietnam, amounting to over one million over the past decade. This makes it the most trafficked animal in the world. This, coupled with deforestation, has led to a large decrease in the numbers of pangolins. Some species, such as Manis pentadactyla have become commercially extinct in certain ranges as a result of overhunting In November 2010, pangolins were added to the Zoological Society of London‘s list of evolutionarily distinct and endangered mammals. All eight species of pangolin are assessed as threatened by the IUCN, while three are classified as critically endangered. All pangolin species are currently listed under Appendix I of CITES which prohibits international trade, except when the product is intended for non-commercial purposes and a permit has been granted.
Pangolins are also hunted and eaten in many parts of Africa and are one of the more popular types of bush meat, while local healers use the pangolin as a source of traditional medicine.
Though pangolins are protected by an international ban on their trade, populations have suffered from illegal trafficking due to beliefs in East Asia that their ground-up scales can stimulate lactation or cure cancer or asthma. In the past decade, numerous seizures of illegally trafficked pangolin and pangolin meat have taken place in Asia. In one such incident in April 2013, 10,000 kg (11 short tons) of pangolin meat were seized from a Chinese vessel that ran aground in the Philippines. In another case in August 2016, an Indonesian man was arrested after police raided his home and found over 650 pangolins in freezers on his property. The same threat is reported in many countries in Africa, especially Nigeria, where the animal is on the verge of extinction due to overexploitation. The overexploitation comes from hunting pangolins for game meat and the reduction of their forest habitats due to deforestation caused by timber harvesting. The pangolin are hunted as game meat for both medicinal purposes and food consumption.
Man, as with everything; the ‘intelligent’ destroyer of everything that lives in this world !
In an accompanying post to social media, the group detailed the pod’s last moments as they were forced into what is known as the “killing cove” in Taiji, Japan on Tuesday.
“For sentient, self-aware, intelligent and intensely social animals, the level of suffering involved in the entire drive and slaughter process is unimaginable,” they said.
The pod of melon-headed whales huddled together before they were slaughtered. Source: Dolphin Project
“No lives were spared.”
The activists then captured the aftermath of the hunt, sharing images online of slaughtered dolphins with their tails tied together.
Dolphin Project founder Ric O’Barry told Yahoo News Australia he hopes the horrifying images will create change in Japan.
“(The hunt is) depressing, sadistic, but most of all unnecessary,” he said.
“This dolphin slaughter will end when the Japanese people rise up against it.
“Today’s exceptionally cruel event in Taiji is a good example of why it’s imperative to keep live streaming, why it’s important to keep a light on Taiji during the entire six months of the annual dolphin slaughter.”
Ric O’Barry is calling on tourists to stop visiting dolphin parks. Source: Dolphin Project
Japanese opposition to whale killing season
A growing number of Japanese nationals have been protesting against the hunt, and there has been a decline in the popularity of dolphin and whale meat.
At the beginning of the season each year, the dolphin hunt receives global attention, but as it continues on that coverage fades.
Mr O’Barry blames the continuation of the slaughter on the dolphin park industry, noting that many of them send trainers to the region to buy wild caught dolphins.
This year the dolphin drive quota is 1749, which includes 298 bottlenose dolphins and 200 melon-headed whales.
Once the trainers select the most prized dolphins for their theme parks the others are killed.
Most of the following dates back to 2014/15; and so the KaiBao Pharmaceutical ‘five year plan’ to develop and alternative to extracting bear bile should be reaching its end of its term now – 2020.
This is an old article from The Guardian newspaper in London; relating to bear bile farming.
KaiBao Pharmaceutical is a major outlet for industrial bear bile farms. But as public opinion has turned against the practice of bear bile farming, the company has developed a five-year plan to support alternatives and has even gained support from China’s Ministry of Science and Technology.
We have been looking into the 5 year plan to end bear bile farming and have not found much in the way of news. But this does not mean that things are not moving forward. The younger generation in the Far East areas where the bile is produced are without doubt, becoming more animal welfare conscious; which is great news as they will eventually stop this barbarity. Over the last year or so, here n England, we have been working with Animals Asia UK regarding alternatives to bear bile. We know that Jill has many of the ‘alternative plants’ located at the bear sanctuaries that AA operate. Much can now be reproduced using herbs and plants; so if people decide that they still need something of this type, cruelty free replacements are being researched all the time.
Positive results to help animal suffering often do not happen overnight – and so the fight goes on to stop this barbaric torment of beautiful bears.
Regards WAV.
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Is the end of ‘house of horror’ bear bile factories in sight?
After decades of activism against bear bile farms, a Chinese pharmaceutical company has announced it is developing a synthetic alternative
If we grant bears any modicum of intelligence or emotional experience, if we grant them the capacity to suffer pain or mental anguish, then bear bile farming – which houses bears in tiny cages for the breadth of their life in order to repeatedly extract their bile – poses a whole slew of ethical questions.
Indeed, for decades activists have been campaigning to stop the trade, which extracts bear bile for use in Chinese medicine.
But now, the industry that profits from it may succeed in doing it for them. Last year, Kaibao Pharmaceuticals, which supplies around half of the bear bile consumed in China, said it plans to develop a synthetic alternative to the popular curative using government funding.
“If the largest producer of bear bile is now looking into a synthetic alternative to their product, this can only be a good thing for the bears on the farms,” said Jill Robinson, the head of Animals Asia, a group that has been fighting bear farming in Asia for more than 15 years.
In a brief statement, Kaibao announced it was using poultry bile and “biotransformation technology” to create a substance chemically similar to bear bile, but without the bear in it. It intends to spend 12m yuan (£1.3m)of its own cash on developing the substance. In addition, Kaibao won a 5.3m yuan (£570,000) subsidy from China’s government and another 6 million yuan (£650,000) from the regional government. If successful, Kaibao would own the intellectual rights to the new poultry-based, but bear-like, bile.
“This is an opportunity for practitioners and consumers to make a shift from using threatened species, to legal and sustainable alternatives, illustrating the [Traditional Chinese Medicine’s] community’s commitment to conservation of wildlife and legal trade,” said Chris Shepherd, a bear bile trade expert and the conservation group, Traffic’s regional director of Southeast Asia.
“The shift, however, must come from within this community,” he added.
The most important component of bear bile is ursodeoxycholic acid, which has been shown in research to be effective against some ailments, such as select liver diseases. Yet, traditional practitioners prescribe bear bile for much more, including everything from a sore throat to epilepsy.
There are two ways to acquire the bile today: either kill a bear in the wild and cut out its gall bladder or in the case of the so-called bear bile farms (though factories may be a more apt word) repeatedly drain the gall bladders of captive animals.
Inside the bear bile factory
Robinson, who has visited a number of bear bile facilities, describes them as a house of horrors.
“[Bears] are constantly thirsty and hungry, get little or no veterinary care and essentially are tortured their whole lives,” she said. “Today… thousands of moon bears lie in constant pain and anguish in cages that are no bigger than coffins. A number of crude and brutal methods are used to extract their bile – rusting catheters, barbaric full-metal jackets with neck spikes, medicinal pumps and open, infected holes drilled into their bellies.”
The conditions are indeed alarming, according to many who follow the trade. Bears are kept in “crush cages,” which are deliberately too small for animals to stand or move much. In order to extract the bile – often daily – workers make permanent holes or fistula into the bear’s gall bladder. The bile is extracted, or ‘milked’ in the industry nomenclature, via metal tubes or other methods. Conditions are often so unsanitary, and bears so sick, that experts have raised public health concern about consuming bile from these places.
“Some bears are put into cages as cubs and never released,” said Robinson adding that “most farmed bears are starved, dehydrated and suffer from multiple diseases and malignant tumours that ultimately kill them.”
If the bears live long enough – and life-spans are short here – they can be bile milked for decades. However, usually after 10 to 20 years, bears stop producing enough to pay for their room and board. They are then commonly killed and their body parts sold.
Animal rights activists contend that these conditions cause massive psychological harm to the bears. In one rumored incident, a mother bear reportedly broke out of her cage while her cub was being milked. Reaching the cub, the mother suffocated it to death. Then the mother bear bashed her head against a wall until she perished. Some animal rights activists called it a murder-suicide, though the incident has never been substantiated.
Other observers have reported bears refusing to eat until they simply wasted away and died.
Still, not everyone views bear bile farming as cruel.
“The process of extracting bear bile is like turning on a tap: natural, easy and without pain. After they’re done, the bears can even play happily outside. I don’t think there’s anything out of the ordinary! It might even be a very comfortable process!” said Fang Shuting the head of the Chinese Association of Traditional Chinese Medicine in 2012.
Shuting’s comments were in defence of another bear bile company’s, Guizhentang Pharmaceutical, plans to go public on the Hong Kong stock exchange. By going public, Guizhentang hoped to triple its number of captive bears from 400 to 1,200.
But the company’s proposal was met with a passionate, grassroots campaign by Chinese activists that eventually derailed the listing, while Shuting’s comments were derided in social media and condemned by bear bile experts.
In all, experts estimate that there are at least 12,000 bears in bear bile facilities today. The bulk of the bears are housed in China, though Vietnam, Laos, Burma, South Korea also sport facilities. While there is significant demand for bear bile in China, it is also sold across Southeast Asia as far south as Malaysian Borneo.
Conservation concerns
Despite what it has become, the origins of bear farming was, at least rhetorically, in part to save wild bears. The Chinese have been consuming bear bile for over a thousand years. But before the rise of these farms, practitioners simply went into the woods, killed a bear, and then removed its gall bladder with the lucrative bile inside.
Over the centuries, not surprisingly, bears began to vanish. It’s a similar story to many other animals targeted by the Chinese medicine trade, such as tigers, pangolins, Sumatran and Javan rhinos, Asian turtles, and more. Like bears, these have all faced relentless hunting for purported curatives. This over-hunting, combined with massive habitat loss, has led to the complete destruction of some populations and declines in others.
The main target of the bear bile trade – the Asian black bear (Ursus thibetanus) also known as the moon bear – is today listed as vulnerable by the IUCN Red List. Little is known about its total population, although as few as 25,000 may survive in the wild and it has certainly vanished from much of its former range and is in decline where it persists. The trade, however, has also targeted the sun bear (Helarctos malayanus) – also vulnerable – and various subspecies of brown bear.
But solely from a conservation perspective – setting aside ethical concerns – the start of bear bile farms in the 1980s was initially hoped to relieve some pressure on wild bears. The idea was if bear farms raised a self-sustaining population of productive animals than poachers would have little impetus to capture or kill bears in the wild.
But experts say that hasn’t happened and there are a number of reasons why. For one thing, breeding bears isn’t cheap, and in most cases it’s probably still less expensive and easier to steal bears from the wild to repopulate farms with high turnover. For another, experts believe that more bear bile on the market has pushed practitioners to prescribe the substance more freely and for a broader array of ailments, many not connected to traditional use. Finally, there are those consumers that appear to prefer bear bile from wild animals, either viewing it as more authentic or concerned about the sanitary conditions – or lack thereof – on bear farms.
Illegal metal jacket had just been taken off by the farmer in Weihai in eastern Chinese province of Shandong, and flung into a corner at a bear bile farm in Weihai city, east Chinas Shandong province. Photograph: Imaginechina/Corbis
Robinson says the proof that bear farms are still stealing animals from the wild is as easy as looking at their mangled charges.
“Approximately 30% of rescued bears at our sanctuary in Chengdu are missing limbs or have obvious snare or trap wounds indicating that they were wild caught,” she said, adding that wild-caught bears are often more aggressive as well.
Yet, the paucity of oversight from the government – and the fact that much of the trade occurs underground – means it’s up to NGOs to make guesses.
“We almost have to take on a detective role, working through the injuries and wounds on the bears’ bodies and piecing the evidence together to continue the case against the industry,” Robinson added.
She said some bear facilities certainly do breed animals – and parade the cubs around to prove it – but “we believe that their breeding is not as successful as they would maintain, and it is clearly easier and cheaper to bring in wild caught bears than spend funds on denning pens and the extra food the females require during the breeding season.”
The fact that bear farms have not mitigated threats in the wild is outlined by a 2012 International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) resolution calling for a phasing out of bear farms, including shuttering any illegal facilities and not establishing new ones. The motion said evidence was “lacking” that bear farms had lessened killing of wild bears.
Given this, a paper in Oryx last year suggested that we rename bear farms – which gives the sense of domesticated bears breeding freely – to “bile extraction facilities”.
Still, the Chinese government has recently challenged the IUCN resolution, according to Shepherd, claiming that the industry is capable of providing bear bile without resorting to wild bear capture or poaching.
This is a view echoed by Fang Shunting, “bear farming is the best way to protect wild bears. Given the market demand, how could we prevent wild bear hunting?”
Will traditional doctors get on board?
Now, let’s assume Kaibao Pharmaceuticals is successful in developing a synthetic alternative to bear bile, using poultry. Let’s also assume the company – which brings in more than $50m a year in net sales – aggressively pushes the alternative. The big question, according to Traffic’s Shepherd, is will traditional doctors accept that synthetic bear bile – made from poultry – is just as good as the real thing?
Convincing practitioners may prove quite difficult. For one thing, there are already a slew of alternatives available, yet bear bile remains in high demand. Indeed, ursodeoxycholic acid – the most important component of bear bile – has already been synthetically reproduced in the US and prescribed for very specific diseases.
“There are more than 50 herbal [and] legal alternatives that we would also strongly encourage practitioners and retailers to recommend to consumers,” said Shepherd. “If practitioners moves towards these alternatives, consumers would follow.”
So why would Kaibao’s synthetic alternative make any difference? Experts are cautiously hopeful because this version would come from one of the biggest sellers of bear bile today. Unlike Western synthetic versions, it would also be home grown. According to Shepherd, though, the most important thing for Kaibao is to convince traditional doctors.
“The key is the practitioners… people listen to, and trust, their doctor,” he said.
To this end, Animals Asia has long been asking practitioners to stop prescribing bear bile in a campaign they call Healing Without Harm.
“To date thousands of doctors have joined us in pledging never to use or prescribe bear bile,” noted Robinson.
What do animals experience
Of course, one of the ironies of Kaibao’s announcement is that their synthetic bear bile would still come from an animal. Although the company did not respond to repeated inquiries, it appears from their statement that they would likely be sourced from already-farmed poultry.
“This remains an ethical dilemma and the debate surrounding the use of all animal products continues and remains entirely worthwhile,” said Robinson. But, she added, “from the point of view of ending bear bile farming, and drastically reducing suffering of animals caged and mutilated for anything up to 30 years of their lives, this is a huge step.”
Bear torture?
In the meantime, more than 10,000 bears remain in these facilities where Robinson says they “suffer terribly”. But that brings us back to our first question. What do animals experience? Can we really know if the bears in these facilities suffer or are they “without pain” as Shuting argues?
“Bears, like us, are warm bloodied mammals with a central nervous system and pain receptors, indicating that they deserve the benefit of doubt, and indeed feel pain,” said Robinson.
Indeed, recent research has found that more animals experience suffering – or negative stimuli – than long believed. For centuries, scientists and philosophers have debated whether animals are generally automatons – driven solely by instinct and lacking thought or emotion – rather than distinct individuals with personalities and a rich emotional life. But the famous discoveries that chimps use tools, whales sing, and crows solve problems has largely crushed the automaton argument.
Recent research has even revealed that invertebrates – let alone mammals, birds, reptiles, etc – undergo suffering and have some level of what we call intelligence. For example, scientists have found that crustaceans – such as lobsters – feel pain and may even experience anxiety; wasps maintain long-term memory; bees are capable of counting; and even cockroaches have personalities.
Unlike these invertebrates, though, people have historically viewed bears as particularly clever and sensitive animals. For centuries, people have trained bears as entertainment. Now largely viewed as cruel, such training proved that these big mammals could learn new tasks quickly. Despite such displays of cleverness – and the fact that bears sport the largest brains relative to body size of any carnivore (bigger than your pet dog) – there has been surprisingly little research on bear intelligence.
One of the few studies came out last year when researchers found that bears could “count”. Researchers trained American black bears to select groupings of dots based on which was bigger or smaller. The bears performed as well in the study as primates. In 2012, another researcher documented a wild brown bear carefully selecting barnacle-covered rocks to scratch itself, possible evidence of tool use.
“[Bear] intelligence is often said to be equal to that of a dolphin or a three-year-old child. But I feel that this description really doesn’t do justice to their individuality, and intelligence that we have yet to properly define,” said Robinson, who points to her years of experience working with hundreds of rescued bears at Animals Asia facilities.
“They learn very quickly and work things through. They have pre-emptive and anticipatory behaviour that allows them to improve or benefit their own lives,” she said, noting that bears are particularly choosy about making comfortable beds – maybe Goldilocks was based on real observation – and that her rescued bears quickly learn to sleep during employees’ lunch break because “this is a quiet time at the sanctuaries and that little happens… just before our team return to work, the bears will start to rouse too.”
Robinson also said that rescued bears’ behaviour clearly changes over time. In the beginning, the bears shrink away as people approach and even moan aloud – anticipating that they will be harmed, according to Robinson, as they were in the bile factories – or become aggressive. But after months in the sanctuary, bears become more relaxed, more social, and maybe even, as one could describe it, psychologically sane.
“Bears that previously exploded in anger at the mere presence of a human are calm and trusting, and slowly they comprehend that the approach of our staff is a positive addition to their lives,” Robinson said, adding they are “no longer violently stereotypic, or aggressive”.
Animals Asia’s two sanctuaries – one in China and one in Vietnam – now houses around 500 bears, all rescued from bear bile facilities. If Kaibao synthetic alternative works, though, Animals Asia may have to take on the care of many more bears, though it doesn’t seem they would mind.
“[Rescued bears] ultimately prove to be fun-loving, trusting and forgiving of the species that caused them indescribable pain,” noted Robinson.
But can bears forgive? Are they capable of granting absolution – and even if they are would they really choose to forgive us? Perhaps we may never know, but either way it may well be that we need it.
World Animals Voice 