Saturday, July 12, 2014

More than 35,000 African elephants were slaughtered for their ivory in 2013



I had a hard time getting to sleep last night. Fluctuating feelings of anger, sadness and despair kept me tossing and turning until, finally, I said a prayer asking for peace of mind and fell asleep.






I’ve been following news of elephant poaching for some time, so the latest, coming from Thailand, should have been no great surprise. But for some reason, it was the final straw. Seeing that image of a 50-year old elephant that lived in the protection of a sanctuary sent me flying all over the internet to share the awful news and, hopefully, create awareness of the terrible plight of the world’s fast-dwindling elephant population.



More than 35,000 African elephants were slaughtered for their ivory in 2013. The Asian elephant, whose habitat ranges over 14 countries across Asia, is also an endangered species with less than 40,000 remaining worldwide. See complete article here. In northern Mozambique, up to 900 elephants have died in the past three years, the victims of poaching. Read more. Thailand is part of the problem, a big part of the problem. “The wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC said in a report earlier this month that Thailand has the unenviable reputation as home to one of the world's largest unregulated ivory markets." See more about this in Huffington Post



I met an elephant once, while on a visit to Sri Lanka. What struck me most about the elephant was its gentleness; how careful it was to not tread on my feet while I was standing close to it. That’s when I fell in love with the gentle giants. I’m heartbroken and outraged by their slaughter. What a terrible price for a bunch of trinkets.

JOIN THE MARCH IN 100 CITIES WORLDWIDE!


If you're not able to march, please help by supporting protesters against elephant and rhino poaching by going to hashtags like #elephantpoaching #rhinopoaching and retweeting their protests. Share wherever you can on social media. Let's stop this outrage.



4 comments:

  1. I don't know whether you received my last comment on this post. Let me know.

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    1. No, Niamh, I'm sorry I didn't. There seems to be some snag because you're not the first person who's asked if I've seen their comment. I reported the first one to Blogger help, but obviously it hasn't bee sorted out.

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  2. I posted how I am heartbroken to see images such as this ine. Elephants are my all-time favourite creatures. They make me happy and they make me cry ~ even just to see one of them. I don't know why. Thank you for trying to do something about this atrocity.

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    1. Thanks so much for going to the trouble of posting your comment again, Niamh. Yes, what's being done to the elephants is heartbreaking. This is the only time I've ever thought I'd love to have lots and lots of money so I could fund drones and manpower to monitor the parks. If all those desperate people were given good paying jobs as park rangers what a difference that could make. Unfortunately, the innocent animals are the victims of poverty on one side and greed on the other.

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