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.
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.
