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Posts Tagged ‘Africa’

History was made in Los Angeles last night. In the biggest circus demonstration the city has ever seen, 300 activists holding graphic signs and colorful banners and wearing elephant costumes and symbolic chains, encircled the Staples Center to protest the opening night of Ringling. Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

The mood was electric as energized activists handed out thousands of leaflets and stickers and educated the public about the suffering of animals in circuses, where they are chained and confined to cramped cages, shipped around the country for 50 weeks a year, and cruelly trained to perform unnatural tricks.

No matter what direction circus customers approached the venue from, they had to walk a gauntlet of protesters passing out descriptive flyers and telling them of the horrors animals endure for their “entertainment.” At least two families decided not to attend after learning the truth about the animals’ miserable lives with Ringling.

A mountain of evidence against Ringling Bros. Circus, including court transcripts, videos and still images, and the testimonies of former Ringling employees, clearly demonstrates that the cruelty has been going on for years and still continues today. The most recent video depicts Ringling workers hitting elephants in the face with bullhooks before performances and whipping tigers during training.

IDA and a variety of animal protection organizations were represented at the peaceful protest, and their message was united: It’s time to end the use of animals in circuses.

IDA has two new “Breaking News” items featured on www.HelpElephants.com that just by chance have a common thread (besides the fact they’re about elephants), and that’s the African nation of Zimbabwe.

We reported on an elephant named Nosey, who was traumatically torn from her family and shipped to the U.S. before she was even two years old – an age at which elephant babies are still nursing and enjoying the love and protection of their mother and herd. Nosey instead was sold into the circus, where she lost everything natural to an elephant: family, room to freely roam, companionship and freedom of choice. Since 1988, Nosey has endured a life of hardship and abuse, forced to give performances and rides with trainer Hugo Liebel and the Florida State Family Circus. (Though sometimes the circus and Nosey travel under different names.) Despite the fact that elephants are highly social and require the company of other elephants, Nosey has been held alone for 22 years.

IDA sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, detailing the abuse and negligent treatment to which Nosey has been subjected for more than two decades and called on the agency to confiscate her now. Read IDA’s letter to the USDA here. While it appears that the agency is more closely monitoring Nosey’s situation, historically it has waited far too long to remove elephants who are in dire condition and suffering greatly. Our question is: How much more “monitoring” will it take to persuade the USDA that Nosey’s lengthy history of neglect and abuse will continue only as long as they allow it? You can take for action for Nosey by clicking here. You’ll find an easy click ‘n’ send letter directed at the USDA.

On a happier note, we have a great victory to report. Two elephant calves from Zimbabwe have avoided a captive fate and will remain in their native country. The government has called off a wildlife sale that would have sent two wild-caught, 18-month-old elephants, as well as giraffe, zebra, hyena, monkeys and birds, to a zoo in North Korea.

We are told that the majority of the captured animals have been released back into the wild through the efforts of wildlife groups in Zimbabwe, with the support of the Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority. The two young elephants cannot be released immediately but will be integrated into a herd of other rescued elephants at the Wild Horizons Wildlife Trust and later released into the wild.

While many people were angered by news of the sale, it appears that the government’s intentions were to raise badly needed funds to cut critical fire-breaks in Hwange National Park, where many of the animals were caught. Reportedly, the Zimbabwean government does not intend to undertake another similar capture.

This blog may focus on elephants but I wanted to share a warm story about two young hyena who had been caught for the sale to North Korea. Though they had been confined for two weeks in a holding boma, their parents stayed near, calling for them. When it came time to free them, the youngsters were released directly into Hwange National Park and back to their waiting parents. While hyena may not appear as “warm and fuzzy” to people as baby elephants or other animals, this story shows the depth and importance of family ties to a range of species – and how easily man can destroy those relationships.

You can see photos and read more reports about the wildlife release at this link and this link.

Please be sure to thank Zimbabwe’s prime minister for stopping the export and urge him to permanently ban the capture of wild for captivity. Get more information here and send your thank-you by clicking here.

Saturday is the International Day of Action for Elephants in Zoos, when activists around the world will be sending a message that elephants just don’t belong in cramped, unnatural displays that shorten their lives by decades.

This year, everyone can help the elephants, no matter where you live, by participating in our first-ever virtual demonstration on Facebook and Twitter. It’s easy to do and a great way to spread the word that it’s time to stop the elephants’ suffering.

Here’s how it works:

Facebook Instructions – Speak up for Elephants in 3 easy steps!

1. Make sure you have your protest “sign“. All you have to do is right click on the “Elephants Suffer” image and choose “Save” to get this “sign”. Replace your profile photo to your “sign” and keep it up all weekend!

2. Go through the zoo list and “Like” the promotional pages for these zoos. This will allow you to post comments on their pages:

• Albuquerque Biological Park, Albuquerque, NM
• Audubon Zoo, Audubon, LA
• Baltimore Zoo, Baltimore, MD (Maryland Zoo in Baltimore)
• BREC’s Baton Rouge, Baton Rouge, LA
• Bronx Zoo, Bronx, NY (phasing out)
• Brookfield Zoo, Chicago, IL
• Buffalo Zoological Gardens, Buffalo, NY
• Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, FL
• Buttonwood Park Zoo, New Bedford, MA
• Caldwell Zoo, Tyler, TX
• Cameron Park Zoo, Waco, TX
• Central Florida Zoological Park, Lake Monroe, FL (may not replace elephants after they die)
• Chaffee Zoological Gardens, Fresno, CA
• Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, Colorado Springs, CO
• Cincinnati Zoo, Cincinnati, OH
• Cleveland Metro Park Zoo, Cleveland, OH
• Columbus Zoo, Columbus, OH
• Dallas Zoo, Dallas, TX
• Denver Zoo, Denver, CO
• Dickerson Park Zoo, Dickerson, MO
• Disney Animal Kingdom, Lake Buena Vista, FL
• El Paso Zoo, El Paso, TX
• Fort Worth Zoo, Ft. Worth, TX
• Greenville Zoo, Greenville, SC
• Hogle Zoo, Salt Lake City, UT
• Honolulu Zoo, Honolulu, HI
• Houston Zoological Gardens, Houston, TX
• Indianapolis Zoo, Indianapolis, IN
• Jackson Zoo, Jackson, MS
• Jacksonville Zoological Gardens, Jacksonville, FL
• Kansas City Zoo, Kansas City, MO
• Knoxville Zoo, Knoxville, TN
• Lee Richardson Zoo, Garden City, KS
• Little Rock Zoo, Little Rock, AK
• Los Angeles Zoo, Los Angeles, CA
• Louisville Zoological Gardens, Louisville, KY
• 37.  Lowry Park Zoo, Tampa, FL
• Marine World, Vallejo, Vallejo, CA
• Memphis Zoo, Memphis, TN
• Miami Metro Zoo, Miami, FL
• Milwaukee Zoological Garden, Milwaukee, WI
• Montgomery Zoo, Montgomery, AL
• Nashville Zoo, Nashville, TN
• Niabi Zoo, Coal Valley, IL
• North Carolina Zoo, Asheboro, NC
• Oakland Zoo, Oakland, CA
• Oklahoma City Zoo, Oklahoma City, OK
• Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo, Omaha, NE
• Oregon Zoo, Portland, OR
• Phoenix Zoo, Phoenix, AZ
• Pittsburgh Zoo, Pittsburgh, PA
• Point Defiance Zoo, Tacoma, WA
• Reid Park Zoo, Tuscon, AZ
• Riverbanks Zoo, Columbia, SC
• Roger Williams Park Zoo, Providence RI
• Rosamond Gifford Zoo, Syracuse, NY
• Saint Louis Zoological Park, St. Louis, MO
• San Antonio Zoo, San Antonio, TX
• San Diego Wild Animal Park, San Diego, CA
• San Diego Zoo, San Diego, CA
• Santa Barbara Zoo, Santa Barbara, CA (phasing out)
• Sedgwick County Zoo, Wichita, KS
• Seneca Park Zoo, Rochester, NY
• Smithsonian National Zoological Park, Washington, DC
• Toledo Zoo, Toledo, OH
• Topeka Zoological Park, Topeka, KS
• Tulsa Zoo and Living Museum, Tulsa, OK
• Virginia Zoo, Norfolk, VA
• Wildlife Safari, Winston, OR
• Woodland Park Zoo, Seattle, WA
• Zoo Atlanta, Atlanta, GA
• Calgary Zoo (Alberta)
• Toronto Zoo (Ontario)
• Granby Zoo (Quebec)

3. Starting on Saturday June 19th, start posting your comments! Remember that your comments will be seen by followers of all ages and comments that include profanity or can be interpreted as “abusive” will probably be removed before the general public gets a chance to read them and may result in your profile being reported and/or deleted by Facebook. IDA is not responsible for any comments you may leave or action that results.

Twitter Instructions:

1. Make sure you have your protest “sign“. All you have to do is right click on the “Elephants Suffer” image and choose “Save” to get this “sign”. Replace your profile photo to your “sign” and keep it up all weekend!

2. Go through the zoo list above and “Follow” these pages. This will allow you to send them direct messages and Tweets using the @. here’s an example of how this works – you Tweet : @ZooAtl Elephants need more space than urban zoos can provide. It’s cruel to keep elephants in zoos!

And that Tweet goes directly to the Zoo Atlanta Twitter page.

3. Encourage your friends to join your Twitter Demo! Tweet to them to also change their profile image to their “sign”. Here is an example of a Tweet you can use to encourage them to Tweet the zoos you are Tweeting: FF! Follow these zoos ( Then list a bunch of Twitter pages for zoos with elephants and put a @ before their address. Example : @ZooAtl ) & Tweet about what you think of zoos!

4. Starting on Saturday June 19th, start sending direct messages and Tweeting to the zoos you are following using the Reply function. Here is are some examples of a great Twitter Demo Tweet: @ZooAtl is no fun for the Elephants who live there. OR Elephants belong in the wild not @ZooAtl

5, You can run your Twitter Demo all day – Rain or Shine! But remember messages and Tweets that include profanity or can be interpreted as “abusive” may result in your profile being reported and/or deleted by Twitter. IDA is not reasonable for any messages or Tweets sent or action that results.

Here are some quick messages you can send (but feel free to create your own):

Elephants are suffering and dying prematurely in zoos.

Zoos are entertainment, not education, and elephants should not be used for our entertainment.

Elephant captivity does not equal conservation!

No one has the right, or the need, to see elephants in person, especially when keeping them in zoos causes them so much suffering.

Elephants need more space than urban zoos can provide.

It’s cruel to keep elephants in zoos.

Elephants in zoos suffer painful foot disease and arthritis that cripple and kill them, infertility, high infant mortality and stillbirth rates.

The repetitive rocking and swaying you see elephants doing are signs of psychological distress. Elephants don’t do this in the wild.

Misery, disease and early death: what an elephant gets in a zoo.

Think about it: Elephants have a natural life span of 50-60 years, yet more than half of elephants who died in zoos didn’t live to age 40. You call this conservation?

Elephants in zoos live on a few acres at best; in the wild they live in enormous home ranges of hundreds of square miles. It just isn’t right!

Time to ban the bullhook in zoos! Stop cruel, circus-style training.

Think about it: U.S. zoos will spend close to half a billion dollars on enlarging exhibits that still are too small for elephants. This money could protect entire elephant populations of animals in Africa and Asia.

Think about it: Annually, zoos spend more than $16 million to display fewer than 300 elephants. This money could protect entire elephant populations in Africa and Asia.

Some of the world’s leading elephant experts say elephants don’t belong in urban zoos. Why aren’t zoos listening?

Think about it: Scientists have found that elephants in zoos are dying far younger than those in relatively protected wild populations.

Justice for Queenie: Tell the USDA It’s Time to Protect Elephant Welfare Instead of Zoos’ Interests

The International Day of Action for Elephants in Zoos (IDAEZ) takes place this Saturday, with more than 30 events in five countries. You can help the elephants, even if you don’t live near a zoo, by sending a message that the USDA must put animal welfare over zoos’ interests.

The first step is to ensure the USDA is held accountable for its actions in sending Queenie to the San Antonio Zoo, which does not have the space needed to properly care for elephants. If you’ve been following this elephant’s tragic story on www.HelpElephants.com and this blog, you know that IDA has been fighting for Queenie for the last three years, and that we’re not giving up the battle for her life. Thanks to the thousands of you who have called and written so many times on her behalf, hope remains alive.

But it’s time to use our voices again for Queenie, who is the victim of an apparently all-too-cozy relationship between the USDA and the zoo and circus industries.

Consider the facts: After multiple violations of federal animal welfare law; having two elephants, Tina and Jewel, seized because they were in grave condition; and after having federal charges pressed against him, Queenie’s former circus trainer, Will Davenport, ended up $20,000 richer and paid no fines! That’s just not right.

Yes, we wanted Queenie freed from her misery, but the USDA failed in its mandate to protect animal welfare by directing her to the wrong place. An elephant who has suffered abuse and neglect for more than 50 years, purely for the sake of public display, should have been sent to the peace and solitude of a natural-habitat elephant sanctuary, where she could get the special rehabilitative care she needs.

At a time when the American public is fed up with the lax oversight of federal agencies that are far too enmeshed with the industries they’re meant to regulate, we need to speak out and demand justice for Queenie.

You can take action now. Send a quick message to your elected members of Congress by clicking here.

Stay tuned this week for information on more ways you can help elephants even if you don’t live near a zoo with an IDAEZ event on Saturday, including a secret action to be announced later this week.

Two wild caught eighteen-month-old baby elephants will be sent from Zimbabwe to North Korea, as part of a sale that includes a variety of wildlife, including pairs of giraffe, zebra, antelope, hyenas, monkeys and birds. News sources are also reporting that as many as five other countries, including Japan and Mozambique, are requesting similar purchases of wild animals from Zimbabwe.

According to experts, the elephant calves may be too young to endure the cruel trauma of capture, separation from their mothers, and the 7,000-mile trip to North Korea. If they do survive, they almost certainly will not be held in conditions that meet their physical and psychological needs, ensuring a lifetime of suffering and a premature death. Other wild animals involved in the transfer are not expected to fare any better, compounding this unnecessary tragedy.

Elephants’ profound social bonds make separation of calves from their mothers highly traumatic for the baby and remaining family members, causing enormous suffering. In the wild, elephant mothers fiercely protect their young, whom they nurse until they are four years old. Calves never stray far from their mothers, and they enjoy the nurturing attention of other females in the family who help care for and rear them. Female offspring remain with their mothers for life.

IDA is a signatory, along with conservation groups, elephant experts, animal protection groups and biologists around the world, in support of a letter sent by world-renowned elephant authority and ElephantVoices co-director Dr. Joyce Poole to Zimbabwean leaders. In it she states:

“We urge you not to underestimate the impact on world opinion of the distressing sounds and imagery of elephant calves and juveniles being forcibly separated from their families, captured and then undergoing inhumane taming and training methods, and a lifetime of captivity in a country that is not known for its adherence to international standards and norms. These practices are totally unacceptable for an enlightened public and continuation is bound to lead to public petitions, campaigns, and increased negative publicity for Zimbabwe.”

Please help stop Zimbabwe from transferring these elephant calves and other wildlife to North Korea by writing a polite letter to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, urging him to do the right thing and cancel the sale. Tell him that you strongly oppose the export of baby elephants and other wildlife from their natural habitats, and urge him to show that Zimbabwe truly cares about preserving and protecting its wildlife heritage by halting the sale. Respectfully let him know that the world is watching.

To contact Prime Minister Tsvangirai, please:

1. Go to the website www.zimbabweprimeminister.org

2. On the horizontal menu near the top of the page, click on “Contacts” at the far right.

3. Send an email to the Prime Minister.

We are very pleased to report that proposals by Tanzania and Zambia that would have allowed one-off sales of ivory and weakened protections for elephants were defeated today at the 175-nation Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Doha, Qatar.

Tanzania and Zambia were seeking to sell more than 100 tons of ivory worth more than $20 million and to downlist elephants to a lesser degree of protection, despite charges that the countries have failed to stop poaching and combat the illegal ivory trade.

At one point, Zambia withdrew its controversial request for an ivory sale in hopes of winning the downlisting of elephants, which would have conferred them less protections and allowed live exports and a regulated trade in elephant parts – the first step toward the sale of ivory in the future. We are dismayed that the U.S. supported this revised proposal, which failed to win the required two-thirds vote.

There is a clear link between one-off ivory sales, the last of which occurred after the 2007 CITES meeting, and a serious increase in elephant poaching. Even elephants in relatively protected areas such as the Amboseli National Park in Kenya have come under serious attack. AP reports that such sales revive dormant markets by sending consumers the message that it’s okay to again buy ivory; it also makes it difficult to differentiate between legal and illegal ivory. Had the sales been granted, the ivory would have been sold to China and Japan, the only countries requesting to purchase it. Ivory is mainly used for jewelry, carvings and personal seals.

The global ivory trade threatened to wipe out Africa’s elephants in the 1970s and 1980s, reducing the continent’s population of elephants by half – from an estimated 1.3 million to fewer than 600,000 individuals – before a ban on ivory sales in 1989. Even with the ban, an estimated 38,000 African elephants are killed each year for their tusks, though the number may be as high as 60,000. Conservationists believe that, without intervention, elephants could be nearly extinct by 2020.

This victory was possible due to the efforts of the 23-nation African Elephant Coalition, which also sought a 20-year moratorium on the sale of ivory that was unfortunately rejected at the conference. Contributing invaluable scientific evidence against the proposals were Dr. Joyce Poole of ElephantVoices and the Amboseli Elephant Research Project, Iain Douglas-Hamilton of Save the Elephants, and Dr. Sam Wasser of the University of Washington, who presented compelling data detailing the problems behind the proposals, the detrimental effects of poaching on elephant society, and the DNA evidence implicating Zambia and Tanzania in multiple ivory seizures around the world.

IDA thanks everyone who contacted Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and their elected officials, urging the U.S. to take a position against the proposals by Zambia and Tanzania.

On March 13, 2010, delegates from 175 countries will take part in the 15^th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Amongst dozens of proposals concerning imperiled species worldwide, they’ll be considering dangerous petitions from Tanzania and Zambia to sell more than one hundred thousand kilograms of elephant ivory and to decrease protections for elephants in those countries. Such “one-off” sales in the past have been disastrous for elephants and led to widespread poaching across Africa. Please read our action alert and send a letter today to Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, your senators and representative, urging them to ensure the U.S. votes “no” on these lethal proposals.

It is with rapt fascination that a photograph of a deceased chimpanzee being visibly mourned by dozens of chimpanzees looking on as the body is being wheeled for burial has transfixed viewers across the Internet, on television, and in countless publications, with its soul-piercing sadness. The image of the matriarch Dorothy, lying still amid orphaned chimpanzees at Sanaga-Yong Chimpanzee Rescue Center, in Cameroon, Africa, is something wondrous to behold. The Sanaga-Yong Center, which provides sanctuary for nearly 70 orphans, victims of the illegal bushmeat trade, is a project of IDA Africa, the creation of In Defense of Animals’ Dr. Sheri Speede. who first traveled to the country to volunteer her veterinary skills. She made friends with three chimpanzees, Becky, Jacky, and Pepe—who had suffered decades in small cages at a resort hotel and, in 1999, became the first adult chimpanzees who had been rescued in Cameroon. In 2000, IDA Africa organized a forced confiscation of adult chimpanzees Dorothy and Nama, and eight monkeys, the first armed confiscation of illegally held primates in Cameroon.

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