Raising the awareness about the human impact on the lives of animals

Killing for pleasure...please watch this to see what's happening around the world...the same goes for any other type of wild animals...hunters are psychopaths.

http://legalaction4animalrights.net/2012/03/06/honduran-government-makes-historic-commitment-to-protect-jaguars/

[b]HONDURAN GOVERNMENT MAKES HISTORIC COMMITMENT TO PROTECT JAGUARS[/b]

A significant victory was made for the future of the jaguar last week in Tegucigalpa with the establishment of Honduras’ first ever National Jaguar Conservation Plan by the Honduran government and wild cat conservation group, Panthera.

On March 1st, Panthera’s CEO and jaguar expert, Dr. Alan Rabinowitz, and the Minister of Honduras’ National Institute for the Conservation and Development of Forests, Protected Areas and Wildlife (ICF), José Trinidad Suazo Bulnes, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) launching the National Jaguar Conservation Plan and initiating a stronger commitment to conserving jaguars in Honduras and securing the Jaguar Corridor. Located in the heart of Central America, Panthera’s scientists recently confirmed that Honduras serves as a crucial link in the Jaguar Corridor, which seeks to connect and protect jaguar populations from Mexico to Argentina to ensure their genetic diversity and future survival.

At the ceremony, after a two-week tour of Panthera’s jaguar conservation projects in Honduras, Dr. Rabinowitz stated

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2110465/One-foot-grave-The-bizarre-shoes-dead-animals.html

The bizarre shoes made from dead animals

This bizarre range of shoes may make the owner feel like they have one foot in the grave.

Crafted from dead animals, Iris Schieferstein's outlandish designs fetch up to £3,900 and have proved a hit with extreme dressers such as Lady Gaga.

Some of the most controversial pieces include a pair of sandals sporting stuffed doves with their wings spread wide and a collection of heels fashioned from hollow horse hooves.

http://buav.org/article/951/buav-releases-review-of-primate-research-carried

BUAV releases review of primate research carried out in the UK

A BUAV review of primate research carried out in the UK has revealed that nonhuman primates are being used in invasive experiments that cause extreme distress and suffering despite the so-called ‘special-protection’ granted to them. The review of 118 papers published by UK establishments between 2008 and 2010 was carried out by the BUAV.

The UK is the largest user of non-human primates in the EU. In 2010, at least 2,649 primates were used in some 4,688 experiments (some primates were used more than once). Primates used include new world monkeys (such as marmosets and tamarins) and old world monkeys (such as rhesus and long-tailed macaques).

The BUAV Report has concluded:

• Extremely distressing, invasive and harmful experiments are being conducted on primates despite the ‘special protection’ afforded to them under UK legislation.

• Primates are still being used in experiments that are clearly frivolous or superfluous.

• Primates are being used where alternative approaches would better address the same or similar questions.

• Primates are often used to demonstrate the apparent validity of the research rather than illuminating new information directly related to humans. At times, researchers and their sponsors are choosing to validate new primate ‘models’ rather than develop alternatives to primates.

Furthermore, surprisingly, 72% of the published experiments did not report where the primates came from, 85% did not explicitly state where the experiment was conducted and 46% did not state what happened to the primates at the end of the experiment; 22% did not even report the number of primates they had used.

Primates are highly intelligent beings with complex behavioural, social and psychological needs. Confining them to cages in laboratories, depriving them of most of their natural behaviours, and subjecting them to stressful environments and painful interventions causes significant suffering. There is growing concern about their use in experiments.

The BUAV Report lists examples of experiments, explains the problems of using primates in such research and discusses the alternatives. Examples of recent research carried out in the UK include:

1. Researchers at the MRC/University of Edinburgh Centre for Reproductive Biology carried out experiments to see if exposing unborn baby marmosets to phthalates via the mother would have effects on their sexual organs in early or later life. Pregnant female marmosets were force-fed high doses of phthalate during pregnancy. Some of their babies were then were killed at 1-5 days old while the remaining were killed at 18-21 months old. Studies of human populations have already looked at the effects of phthalates on development.

2. Researchers at the Health Protection Agency, Porton Down, looked at the benefits of a new imaging technique to determine the degree of lung damage caused by tuberculosis. Macaques were infected with the tuberculosis bacterium and observed for clinical signs. The monkeys became ill, showing a shortness of breath, loss of weight, cough and fever. Their chests were repeatedly tested with the new machine. Animals who did not die from the disease were killed at the end of the study (some 12-13 weeks later). There did not seem to be any scientific or ethical reason why this non-invasive machine could not have been assessed using human TB patients.

3. At the University of Oxford, researchers wanted to investigate whether the source of ‘afterimages’ is in the eye or in the brain. In this shocking experiment, they used two monkeys who were anaesthetised and then kept paralysed with a poison throughout the study. Their skulls were sawn open and electrodes were inserted into their brains to record brain activity. Their eyes were forced open and focused on images on a TV screen for testing. They were kept in this paralysed state for five continuous days during which they were kept alive through intravenous fluids. At the end of the experiment, the monkeys were killed. This study was apparently done to confirm data already obtained humanely from humans.

Dr Katy Taylor, BUAV’s Senior Science Advisor stated: “This review of published UK research shows how it is still far too easy to use primates in extremely cruel and destructive experiments, which are wasteful and even frivolous in their design. The legislation introduced 25 years ago designed to give primates ‘special protection’ is clearly failing. It is time to end this shocking abuse of nonhuman primates.”

What is it that should trace the insuperable line?… The question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?
—Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832)

Nine Shocking Fur Facts


http://www.peta.org/features/nine-shocking-fur-facts.aspx

http://greenanswers.com/news/277588/pangolins-quietly-being-driven-towards-their-extinction#ixzz1omA8acNf

Pangolins: Quietly Being Driven Towards Their Extinction



The pangolin is a scaly anteater found in Southeast Asia and several African countries. These nocturnal mammals are often found burrowing or feeding on ants and termites with their incredibly long sticky tongues (up to sixteen inches in length). Pangolins are known for their vibrant and nearly impenetrable armor-plated scales. When they are threatened, they roll into a ball and use these sharp scales to protect them. This defensive mechanism works very well against most predators, but illegal poaching and trading have been killing off these fascinating creatures at an alarming rate.

There are currently eight species of pangolin in the world; three are found in Southeast Asia and the other five are spread throughout Africa. Two of the Asian pangolin (the Sunda pangolin and the Chinese pangolin) are listed as “endangered species” according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. Pangolins are being illegally hunted at such a fast rate that some species will likely be facing extinction in the near future. Pangolins are poached for several reasons, as their coat of armor is a very unique and sought after commodity in Southeastern Asia. Some people use pangolin armor to make jewelry and clothing, while others use their scales and blood to make medicine to help treat many illnesses. However, perhaps the most common cause for pangolin poaching is that their meat is considered a delicacy at restaurants in China.

Due to their extremely high demand and tall price tag, the pangolin has been inadvertently involved in very large-scale black market trading. While not a whole lot is currently known about the illegal trades, ships have been found containing thousands of dead and frozen pangolins near Vietnam. In 2010, a logbook was discovered that recorded a single criminal syndicate’s illegal trafficking of Sunda pangolins. In a twenty-one month span, this one illegal organization had killed and traded over 22,000 pangolins.

Possibly even worse than these mass-shipments of frozen pangolins is their usage in some restaurants. According to an article from “The Guardian”, a chef from the province of Guangdong in southern China revealed shockingly brutal accounts of pangolin treatment in a recent interview. He stated that “we keep them alive in cages until the customer makes an order. Then we hammer them unconscious, cut their throats and drain the blood. It is a slow death.” Then they slice them up, boil them, and add them to a number of different dishes to be served to the customer—often times also giving the remains of the blood to take home afterwards. Even if pangolins are treated like the fascinating animals that they are, they are notorious for being difficult to keep in captivity. Even when live pangolins are confiscated, conservationists have a difficult time nursing them back to health before they can reintroduce them back to their natural habitat.

Read more: http://greenanswers.com/news/277588/pangolins-quietly-being-driven-towards-their-extinction#ixzz1ookVI7yt

The Killers Among Us - by Jinkyung



"In continuing to kill dogs and sell their meat, I began to develop a blood lust"

These are the words of the serial killer Ho-soon Kang. He slaughtered and sold dogs as a dog farmer. But he also killed dogs by starving them and leaving them out in the cold during winter. Then he turned his appetite for abuse and cruelty onto humans. This is a man who earned a living with and caused only death and pain wherever he went.

But he is not alone in perpetrating such evil against animals and then progressing onto humans. It is an all-to-common phenomenon.

"If I had not been caught, I would have killed about 100 people more."

"I practiced killing on dogs... then ate the flesh after the crime.”

These are the words of Yoo Yong Chul (as reported in the Chosun Ilbo), another serial killer caught a few years ago, who killed 20 people.

In the Kukmin News (2004.08.13), those related to the prosecution pointed out that,

At the time of Yoo’s arrest in June 2000, he said he planned and copied the serial killer, Jung Du Yong’s crime after reading about it in an article of a monthly news magazine. It was further revealed that just prior to his first murder last November, he had practiced killing on a dog.

Ho Soon Kim, Yoo Yong Chul, Jung Du Yong (who killed elementary school students in Anyang) were all animal abusers.

In the case of Kang Ho Soon, who killed dogs to sell their meat, we have an example where the patterns of abuse that occur in the dog industry are mirrored in the pattens of pathological behavior behind murderous acts against humans. We can see the progression where abuse crosses over from the animal to the human world, where all a killer has done is change the species he (yes, usually it is a he) has chosen to abuse and kill.

* * *

In light of these revelations by these Korean serial killers, the apathy in Korean society concerning animal abuse--of merely disregarding dogs and cats as simply for humans to use as a commodity for food, tonics and fur--should raise alarm bells. The abuse of animals is a wider problem than just what a few sick individuals get up to.
We have a milieu in which many people regard the eating of dog meat or tonics, and all the suffering that entails, as perfectly natural. It is seen as the right of humans, as all part of normal society. Out of this perverse foundation emerges the mentality behind other abuses, including those against the environment, where people continue to go out and kill anything they find in the mountains and parks.

The problem, then, does not concern a minority of individuals, it is a problem inherent in Korean society. And because of such a society, the depravities of individuals go unnoticed and are not remarked upon or seen for what they are: symptoms of a pathological character.

Where is the protection to stop the abuse? The Animal Welfare Act that should be protecting the animals rights to life does nothing, for example, for cats or dogs that are beaten to death, or to stop restaurants that kill stray animals for food. The government does little to change prevailing attitudes and ordinary people are allowing abuses to continue.

Unfortunately, where protection is needed the most is where it is missing the most.

Innocent animals, such as cats and dogs, were easily caught by these maniacs and tortured and killed, as they can be by anyone in this society and, because there is no adequate protection, such crimes go unpunished or ignored. That freedom to kill emboldens the killers and supports their delusions.

It is the innocent and weak that need most protection because they are invariably the victims. Animal abusers prey on and attack those who are weaker than themselves, and that pattern continues when they begin attacking humans. As is evident in the serial killers' actions of venting their rage and madness against children and women.

Those that look upon dogs or other animals as nothing but a hunk of meat with no value were behind these serial murders. This should be cause for reflection, that animal abuse is a sign of antisocial and perverted character, and it should be acted upon by authorities to prevent future violent crimes.

There is a deep connection in the strategically planned serial killings of animals and humans by serial killers like Ho-soon Kang--there are clear patterns in the serial victimizations these people commit, and the citizens of our society must raise their voices and do something about it.

* * *

The following are two of the many studies that have been done into the connection between animal abuse and pathological behavior leading to human murders. In other words, they show that animal abuse is a symptom of deviant personality traits.

1. Animal Cruelty and Psychiatric Disorders

The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law
Volume 30, Number 2, 2002

Roman Gleyzer, MD, Alan R. Felthous, MD, and Charles E. Holzer III, PhD

Abstract:
Animal cruelty in childhood, although generally viewed as abnormal or deviant, for years was not considered symptomatic of any particular psychiatric disorder. Although animal cruelty is currently used as a diagnostic criterion for conduct disorder, research establishing the diagnostic significance of this behavior is essentially nonexistent. In the current study, investigators tested the hypothesis that a history of substantial animal cruelty is associated with a diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder (APD) and looked for associations with other disorders commonly diagnosed in a population of criminal defendants. Forty-eight subjects, criminal defendants who had histories of substantial animal cruelty, were matched with defendants without this history. Data were systematically obtained from the files by using four specifically designed data retrieval outlines. A history of animal cruelty during childhood was significantly associated with APD, antisocial personality traits, and polysubstance abuse. Mental retardation, psychotic disorders, and alcohol abuse showed no such association.

This study showed that APD, antisocial personality disorder, involves violent actions perpetrated on both animals and people which ultimately led to the murder. Research also shows that three out of nine cases concerning adolescents that committed violent acts against animals derived some kind of sexual gratification and lived out delusional fantasies that led to killing people

2. Associations Among Cruelty to Animals, Family Conflict, and Psychopathic Traits in Childhood

Journal of Interpersonal Violence,
Volume 21, Number 3,
March 2006 411-429,
Sage Publications, 2006


Mark R. Dadds (University of New South Wales), Clare Whiting (Griffith University), David J. Hawes (University of New South Wales)

Abstract:
Previous research has produced mixed findings on the role of child and family factors in the genesis of childhood cruelty. The authors examined the relationships of cruelty to animals to a range of child and family factors. First, the authors test the idea that cruelty is a callous aggression that will be more strongly associated with psychopathic (callous or unemotional, CU) traits than general externalizing problems. Second, the authors operationalize family problems as open conflict rather than parenting problems as used earlier. Results indicated that for both genders, CU traits were associated strongly with cruelty. For boys, externalizing problems also added prediction in regression analyses. Family conflict was not associated with cruelty for either. These results suggest that cruelty to animals may be an early manifestation of the subgroup of children developing conduct problems associated with traits of low empathy and callous disregard rather than the more common pathway of externalizing problems and parenting problems.

In this study, CU personality traits were linked to feelings of insensitivity and apathy to violent crimes against animals.

Stop the animal slaughter







In just eight hours, the latter stamped on the body instead of a visa in your passport, began the journey to disappear, excuse me, the Easter tables of 2,500 lambs.

http://paneandov.com/јагнињата-стивнуваат-за-три-секунди/

Love Always
mudra

This is a nice story...from China

http://edition.cnn.com/video/?/video/world/2009/12/24/vause.china.dog.lady.cnn

Saving Animals in Fukushima 2/10/12 (Dr. Imamoto @ JCCCNC (full)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Py_omsvekQ


Love Always
mudra

Stop Animal Slaughter Part 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hs9DqX-4Ak


Stop Animal Slaughter Part 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7SDQTKhm8Y


Love Always
mudra

https://secure.peta.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=4051&autologin=true&utm_campaign=0312%20AF%20Investigation%20Action%20Alert&utm_source=PETA%20E-Mail&utm_medium=Alert


a lot of psychopaths are working in the farm industry

In late 2011 and early 2012, PETA conducted an undercover investigation at Adirondack Farms, LLC, a dairy factory farm that takes 180,000 pounds of milk—intended for their calves—from approximately 1,800 cows every day in Clinton County, New York. Adirondack Farms sends that milk to Massachusetts-based Agri-Mark, Inc., the self-proclaimed "largest supplier of farm fresh milk in New England." Agri-Mark makes Cabot and McCadam cheeses and had $900 million in 2011 sales.

During the course of the investigation, PETA's investigator found that workers routinely jabbed and struck cows with a pole and cane—on the face, udder, and hindquarters—when leading them into a room to be milked. When PETA's investigator brought these abuses to the attention of a farm manager, the manager admitted that the workers "get carried away with" striking cows.

This same manager—who failed to stop the abuse—was caught on video by PETA's investigator electro-shocking a cow in the face repeatedly. He also jabbed a fully conscious downed cow, whom he called a "dumb bitch," in the ribs with a screwdriver and used a small vehicle to drag her approximately 25 feet.

Some cows with bloody vaginal prolapses that became covered with pus and manure were left to suffer, untreated, for almost three months. A manager told PETA's investigator that the farm did nothing for cows in this condition.

There was no shortage of animal suffering as a result of the dairy industry's cruel standard procedures. With no pain relief whatsoever, calves' horn buds were burned off so as to stop their horns from growing. PETA's undercover footage shows one of the millions of young calves who undergo this mutilation every year in the U.S. as she thrashes about in agony, smoke rising from her seared flesh. Workers used "guillotine cutters" to "lop off" the horns of older animals—again without anesthetics or pain relief. PETA's undercover investigator also recorded a manager as he put his arm deep inside a cow's rectum to "rake" feces out before artificially inseminating her with a "gun," another standard practice on dairy factory farms.

In order to make milking easier, calves' tails were docked by tightly binding them with elastic bands. This causes the skin and tissue to rot and die, eventually sloughing off. Not having a tail deprives animals of the fundamental ability to swat away flies and causes them acute and chronic pain.

To increase milk production, workers injected cows every two weeks with bovine somatotropin (BST, a.k.a., bovine growth hormone, or BGH), which contributes to mastitis, a painful inflammation of the udder for which cows tested positive virtually daily at the farm. And as at every dairy farm, calves were torn away from their mothers—who are known for their maternal instincts and whose pregnancies last for nine months, just like human pregnancies—almost immediately after birth, causing both mother and calf extreme distress.

PETA has notified Adirondack Farms' owners of the behavior of the managers and workers responsible for the abuse and neglect and asked that they take appropriate disciplinary action—including termination—as well as notifying all managers and employees that no form of cruelty will be tolerated.

However, we need your help now to ensure that this cruelty is stopped at all Agri-Mark member farms!

Please send a quick e-mail to Agri-Mark CEO Dr. Richard Stammer and politely urge him to implement PETA's recommendations immediately to help end the most egregious abuses of cows on cooperative members' farms and to improve the animals' welfare. Also, please remember that the best way to end the suffering of calves and cows in the dairy industry is to go vegan now.

http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2012/02/superbug-bred-farms

t's long been suspected that administering large amounts of antibiotics to livestock promotes antibiotic resistance.

Now a new paper in mBio describes how a particularly nasty strain of MRSA—the CC398 strain found primarily in pigs but also in cattle and poultry—likely did that.

Sequencing the genomes of 88 closely-related strains of S. aureus, the researchers found the CC398 strain likely originated as a harmless bacterium living in humans, which acquired antibiotic resistance only after it migrated into livestock. From there it migrated back to humans, where it now causes skin infections and sepsis, mostly in farm workers.

So far the strain has not evolved the ability to transmit between humans.

Good news!!!

Panama bans bullfights

The Congress of Panama approved uesterday (15/03/2012) a law that bans bullfights and dogfights.
The law establishes fines up to $1.000
The law excludes cockfighing and races with animals.
The article in Spanish can be read here:
http://ecodiario.eleconomista.es/internacional/noticias/3825262/03/12/panama-aprueba-ley-que-multa-a-agresores-de-animales.html

For the Animals
Maria Lopes (Coordinator)
International Movement Against Bullfights
www.iwab.org

http://legalaction4animalrights.net/2012/03/18/too-late-military-intervention-fails-to-halt-elephant-slaughter-in-cameroon/

Too late – military intervention fails to halt elephant slaughter in Cameroon

With up to 400 elephants already butchered for their ivory, soldiers were in a deadly battle with poachers last week to prevent further killing in Cameroon’s Bouba Ndjida National Park.

A team from the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW – www.ifaw.org) reported heavy fire between the two sides last Monday as poachers targeted a herd of elephants.

At least 63 gunshots were heard during the clash that killed 10 elephants. One poacher and one soldier were killed, and two soldiers of Cameroon’s BIR (Rapid Intervention Battalion) were injured.

“The fight against poaching is a war and like any other war there will be casualties,” says Céline Sissler Bienvenu, Director of IFAW France and in charge of projects in Francophone Africa.

Field reports said that the elephants killed were mostly young with small tusks, and that the poachers had fled without having time to remove them – later five horses, bags with ammunition and small tusks, as well as eight pairs of tusk were seized.

IFAW visited the park last week to assess an unprecedented killing spree that has taken the lives of hundreds of elephants since mid-January.

Sissler Bienvenu said it seemed that Cameroon’s soldiers were no match for the heavily armed poachers who have been active in Bouba Ndjida National Park in remote northern Cameroon, along the Chad border.

“These poachers are working in gangs. We found shells indicating they are armed with military-issue automatic or semi-automatic weapons. They have been riding through Bouba Ndjida on horseback since early January and are perfectly familiar with the terrain. Villagers who have come into contact with the poachers were told of their plans to collect as much ivory as they can until the end of March,” she said.

Sissler Bienvenu said the poachers seemed undeterred by the presence of the Cameroon military which appeared inexperienced with bush warfare and lacked an intervention strategy.

“The authorities I met from Cameroon during this mission are fully aware of the crisis, but do not seem to realize the magnitude of the tragedy because the elephant poaching problem in Bouba Ndjida raises another sensitive issue: that of national security and the porous border shared by Cameroon and Chad,” she said.

IFAW’s visit to Bouba Ndjida documented the extreme violence with which the elephants had been slaughtered. In some cases it appeared the elephants were chased before being gunned down. Their trunks were then severed and their tusks removed with a machete.

Veterinarian Sharon Redrobe, who travelled with the team, said it appeared the elephants were probably still alive when their tusks were hacked out.

“These elephants would have suffocated and experienced a long, agonising death,” she said.

In addition, IFAW found that the killing was indiscriminate – nearly all the elephants in a herd were slaughtered, regardless of sex or age. The IFAW team saw the bodies of several very young animals aged a few months to several years that either would not have had tusks or would have had very small ones if at all. Some bodies showed markings of senseless cruelty.

“In some groups, the state of decomposition was different suggesting that poachers waited until surviving elephants came back to ‘mourn’ their dead before shooting them as well,” said Sissler Bienvenu.

Finally, the poachers took a trophy from each dead elephant’s ear. This practice, unknown in Cameroon, is however common in Sudan, where fragments of elephant ears are worn on necklaces. It reinforces the likelihood that that these heavily armed horseback poachers are from Sudan, though Chadian nationals may also have taken part.

Sissler Bienvenu said it was time that Cameroon, Chad and the Central African Republic cooperated to preserve their elephant herds and to develop a coherent strategy to fight poaching.

“This tragedy could have been averted if authorities had listened to the alarm bells earlier this year, especially since what is happening today in Bouba Ndjida is an exact repeat of what happened in Chad’s Zakouma National Park between 2005 and 2009. The skill and determination of these gangs of poachers is no longer in question,” she said.

“At the same time, the only way to stop these bloody attacks perpetrated against elephants in Cameroon and Africa as a whole is to eliminate the demand for ivory at the international level. To do this, a complete and unambiguous international ban on the sale of ivory is the only and best solution,” she said.

In 2008, an exceptional legal sale of 108 tons of ivory stocks from Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, and Zimbabwe to China and Japan was allowed. This sale boosted demand and provided an ideal cover for illicit ivory sales. In 2009, this resulted in a dramatic increase in seizures which culminated last year with a record-setting 23 tons of seized ivory. Unfortunately, this only represents a small portion of all the ivory sold illegally around the world.

IFAW works at various levels to combat ivory trafficking by providing anti-poaching support for park rangers and police, particularly in West and Central African countries where elephants are most vulnerable. IFAW is working with customs and law enforcement officials to prevent exports of ivory from Africa and aims to reduce demand in China through awareness campaigns so people understand that each piece of ivory comes from a dead elephant. IFAW also works with CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) to end these exceptional legal sales of ivory, which invariably result in increased demand and more dead elephants and park rangers who try to protect them.

IFAW has recently signed a memorandum of agreement with Chadian authorities to support the fight against poaching in Sena Oura National Park which borders Bouba Ndjida.

In addition to its political action and support provided to park rangers and patrols to fight against poaching, especially in the Tsavo (Kenya) and Liwonde (Malawi) national parks, IFAW has formed a mobile anti-poaching assessment and training team.

About IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare)

Founded in 1969, IFAW saves animals in crisis around the world. With projects in more than 40 countries, IFAW rescues individual animals, works to prevent cruelty to animals, and advocates for the protection of wildlife and habitats. For more information, visit www.ifaw.org. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

NOTE: In November 2008 China and Japan bought 108 tonnes of ivory in a “one-off” sale from Botswana, South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe. These legal sales provide the cover necessary for the illegal trade in ivory to flourish. IFAW runs anti-poaching projects to protect elephants where they live.

Besides policy work and supporting wildlife rangers and anti-poaching patrols in Kenya’s Tsavo National Parks, Malawi’s Liwonde National Park and elsewhere, IFAW has established a roving anti-poaching assessment and training team.

We focus on Central and West African countries with serious elephant poaching problems and a desire to solve them. Our expert anti-poaching assessment team first undertakes an anti-poaching needs assessment at a specific site to identify capacity constraints and equipment needs. Prior to sending in the team, IFAW negotiates an agreement with the government that outlines the terms of IFAW’s intervention and grants government permission.