A President Plans to Celebrate His Birthday by Eating Elephant and Lion Meat
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s decadent celebration includes slaughtering and serving some of the country’s imperiled wildlife.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe; an African elephant. (Photos: Philimon Bulawayo/Reuters; David Fettes/Getty Images)
Some of Africa’s most iconic animals are being plucked from Zimbabwe’s rugged plains to be killed and cooked up for President Robert Mugabe’s birthday celebration.
Menu items include two elephants, two buffalo, two sables, five impalas, and one trophy lion, all worth about $120,000 and donated by a wealthy farmer, according to a report in the Zimbabwe Chronicle.
The slaughter is part of Mugabe’s lavish 91st birthday celebration, dubbed the “21st February Movement,” with a guest list numbering 20,000.
Tendai Musasa, the Victorian Falls farmer who is donating the animals for the dinner, told theChronicle he is working with wildlife officials to have them killed in the days leading up to the event.
“This is our way of supporting the function and to ensure a celebratory mood in our community as well,” Musasa told the paper.
The move has angered conservationists, who are still fuming over Zimbabwe’s practice of selling the country’s elephants—including babies—to zoos in China and France.
“I am not in favor of anyone donating wild animals for a celebration or for any other reason,” Johnny Rodrigues, chair of the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force, told The Guardian. “Every time there is a celebration or on independence day, several elephants and buffalo are killed for the celebrations. This is totally unethical and should not be allowed.”
Zimbabwe’s elephant population dropped by almost half between 2007 and 2012—from 84,000 to 47,000—a similar decline to that of elephant numbers worldwide. The main reason? Poaching for the animals’ ivory tusks, which are mainly sold to China.
Lions aren’t faring much better. Habitat loss and poaching have halved the big cat’s numbers in just the past three decades. Biologists believe that at the present rate of killing, both animal species could be extinct in 20 to 40 years.
The president’s decadent party details emerged at the same time a national survey was released showing that half of Zimbabwe’s adults make less than $100 per month, and 44 percent of the population had to skip a meal in 2014 because they couldn’t afford food.
In previous years, the presidential birthday party was rumored to cost around $1 million.
Petitioning The State of Colorado - This petition will be delivered to: The State of Colorado
Elephants need your help. And they need it now!
Rather than retiring this poor elephant, her owners sold her to become a “begging” elephant across the country to Indore. Asha’s new owner kept her chained up at all times, using harsh spikes to keep her from moving. Because she was viewed as a prop to elicit cash from tourists, Asha was never given the proper care or treatment that she deserved.
Ban the sale of ivory within Colorado
Elephants need your help. And they need it now!
A hundred years ago five million African elephants roamed the wild. Today, there are fewer than 500,000 African and fewer than 40,000 Asian elephants remaining; 100,000 were killed by poachers in the last three years alone. At this rate, elephants will likely be extinct in the wild within 10 to 15 years.
Poachers are slaughtering these majestic creatures for their tusks, which are used to make ivory trinkets for a rapacious world market. More than 35,000 African elephants are being killed for their ivory every year; 96 elephants a day.
Appalling as the slaughter of innocent, highly intelligent animals for trinkets, is, the impacts on people are equally horrific. Money from illegal poaching and illicit trade directly funds terrorist organizations such as Al Qaeda, Al Shabaab, the Janjaweed, and the Lord’s Resistance Army who kill, enslave, and terrorize thousands of defenseless people and destabilize vulnerable nations. As elephant populations dwindle, the price of ivory rises, and so will the terror the ivory trafficking engenders. To stop the senseless slaughter of elephants and the rising tide of terror and destabilization, the world needs an international ban on ivory trafficking.
Two simple questions are before us:
1. Is a world with wild elephants better than a world without them?
2. Do we want to be the generation that stood by as elephants were driven into extinction or do we want to be the generation that stopped it?
Ivory Free Colorado calls on the State of Colorado to do its part and ban the sale of ivory within Colorado by 2016. By doing so, Colorado not only joins with the states of New York and New Jersey in banning the sale of ivory, but also sends a strong and clear message to Congress to do the same.
Please sign this petition! Get everyone you know to sign it as well!
Thank you – by taking action at the state level, you are forging change at the national and international levels! You are helping to save a world with elephants and for our children and grandchildren, and you are also taking direct action against terrorism.
Asha, the Abused Street Elephant, Makes Her Way to Her New Sanctuary Home!
Wildlife SOS has done it again! At the beginning of 2015, this amazing India-based animal rescue organization vowed to save 67 elephants from captivity and they are well on their way to reaching this goal. Just a few weeks ago, they rescued Suzy, the former circus elephant and we are thrilled to announce that they have also saved Asha, an abused street elephant as well!
Before Asha was rescued by Wildlife SOS, she spent 46 years working on the streets of Amber Fort, Jaipur, giving rides to paying customers. Between carrying the weight of tourists and having to trek up the steep hills of this popular destination, Asha was injured and could no longer work in this capacity.
Rather than retiring this poor elephant, her owners sold her to become a “begging” elephant across the country to Indore. Asha’s new owner kept her chained up at all times, using harsh spikes to keep her from moving. Because she was viewed as a prop to elicit cash from tourists, Asha was never given the proper care or treatment that she deserved.
Asha suffers from arthritis which makes it difficult for her to walk and even lie down on her right side. Her toenails are far overgrown and dig into her feet. Given the fact that lameness is the leading cause of death for elephants, these injuries are extremely troubling. She also has a number of abscess wounds that have gone untreated, indicative of her abuse.
Thankfully, these days are over Asha! Wildlife SOS was able to win Asha’s freedom with the cooperation of the Chief Wildlife Wardens of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. After a period of waiting for paperwork and permits to go through, Asha is on her way to the Wildlife SOS elephant sanctuary.
“At her new home, Asha will no longer be abused with spikes or beatings and will have her own enclosure to walk in freely sans chains with access to a fresh water pool,” says Geeta Seshamani, co-founder Wildlife SOS, “She will also have the company of nine other elephants and learn to be part of a social group, something which is very important in the emotional life of an elephant.”
After spending the past 46 years in chains, this will certainly be a welcome change for Asha. We cannot thank Wildlife SOS enough for the amazing work they are doing to help free elephants from captivity, and wish Asha the best of luck in her new home!
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| Asha |
Our
elephant program has been focused lately on rescuing all of India's 67 circus
elephants. However, even as we launched the circus campaign, we knew that there
would be times that other suffering elephants would need our help... and that
when those pleas came, we would not turn our backs.
When it
rains, it pours, and a plea for help came not once, but three times this week!
And instead of agreeing to take only one downtrodden elephant, we have
agreed to take all three! Sounds a bit crazy, but we did this
knowing you would stand by us to make these rescues
possible.
Elephant #1 is Asha: Currently disabled, she stands and walks with great
difficulty. Oozing wounds from bullhook beatings cover her body. Thankfully, we
have already picked her up and she is on her way to our rescue
center!
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Mohan
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Elephant
#2 is Mohan: He has been
shown little mercy is his life. Chained, beaten and sad... his life is similar
to what Raju experienced before we rescued him.
Elephant #3 is
Lakhi: She is blind, but in her
darkness is forced to walk busy streets in Pune as a begging
elephant.
We have
asked for your support many times already, and we are grateful for what you have
done so far to bring freedom to needy elephants like Suzy and
Raju.
Your support will go towards providing them
what they need to be free and healthy: a new chain-free shelter, veterinary care
and a life of happiness. They deserve that and so much more. Thank
you!
P.S. The
donation links above work internationally, but...Supporters from the UK can also donate in British pounds
here.
