Powerful Photo Series Shows the Future for Wildlife if We Don’t Act … and It’s Pretty Bleak. When photography was first invented back in 1839, people were unsure what to do with this marvelous new invention. At first it was a novelty, but over time, photography has become an essential way for humans to document the changing world around them. In his powerful photo series Inherit the Dust, famed wildlife photographer Nick Brandt takes an introspective look at the changing face of the African landscape, at this key moment in our history. He documents the effects of habitat loss and poverty, as well as the appalling plight of Africa’s endangered species. With these photographs, he makes a powerful statement about the precarious times that we are living in. If we keep this up, our children will inherit the dust. Because dust is all that will remain.
Here, a photograph of a life sized elephant roams through a trash heap, which is all that remains of their former habitat. All around the animal, people are scavenging, hoping to find food or valuables among the human waste.
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It's hard to believe it's already been one year since you made it
possible for Lakhi and Asha to join the Herd of Hope. Although they
didn't know one another before they were rescued, these two bonded quickly, and
now appear to love one another dearly.
For these two fast friends, the last twelve months have been spent
healing, relaxing, and having fun.
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Lakhi - before
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Before you helped us rescue Lakhi, her life was
filled with the pain of frequent beatings -- one of which left her blind! -- and
tremendous suffering due to neglect. She had endured the life of a
begging elephant for 6 decades, with no relief.
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Asha - before
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And poor Asha had withstood
untold misery herself. Years of servitude hauling tourists in
oppressive heat at the Amber Fort, and ultimately chained up as a begging
elephant living in a garbage heap.
These elephants needed help, and you
came through for them!
The before pictures are hard to look at... but just look at
these two friends now! No more chains, old wounds healed, days spent together,
side by side.
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| Lakhi and Asha - after |
Lakhi
and Asha are thriving under our care, which is only possible with your ongoing
support.
Please
consider joining the Wildlife SOS Freedom Team today. The team is
comprised of a special, dedicated group of people who have committed to give
monthly to Wildlife SOS.
Here
is what your monthly gift can do:
Your
donation supports our efforts to protect, rescue and care for India's
wildlife.
Africa loses 35,000 elephants a year to the ivory trade. Even as populations have crashed, trophy hunting and wild capture to stock zoos continue. In Asia, elephants are beasts of burden, riding stock and amusements for tourists, and objects of veneration. They suffer mightily whichever role they play.
March for Elephants (MFE) and Global March for Elephants and Rhinos (GMFER) and other elephant allied scientists, conservationists, and organizations. MFE, GMFER, and others have been busy on social media and by marching in the streets, advocating for elephants by calling for the end of the ivory trade, trophy hunting, and wild capture and export for life in captivity. We work to educate the public about cruelty in training and captivity circumstances. We know that the exploitation of elephants and their bodies must come to an end before we human beings make an end to elephants.
However, we all have the power to improve the lives of these remarkable and sensitive creatures living their lives in captivity. Here are seven ways you can help them:
1. Get Educated
Learn how elephants come into captivity — whether they are captured in the wild, or bred in captivity. Spend some time exploring where and how these elephants live. Some of the things you learn may be disturbing, but accurate information is vital so that you can be of the greatest possible help.
“Cute” elephants on social media can be seen painting, swaying to music, frolicking at the beach, or in unexpected places behaving in unexpected ways. Don’t ignore the “elephant in the room!” Chances are very high that this imagery was obtained because elephants were under duress, in a state of great depression, or shown purely for the amusement of tourists to earn the trainer money. Fact check the behavior and the source of the image. This is NOT about the elephant’s “joy.”
Your knowledge allows you to be the elephant’s voice, alerting others that this is not normal elephant behavior and the posted imagery was made possible because the elephant was forced to behave in unnatural ways. Be polite, and be accurate. This is a teaching opportunity: everyone can learn something important about elephants in captivity. It is likely they had absolutely no idea of the pain inflicted to obtain the “happy elephant” image. The goal is to increase numbers of captive elephant advocates, not shaming people into silence when their only crime is ignorance.
3. Do Not Visit Circuses or Amusement Parks with Elephant Acts
Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus has said it will “retire” its elephants from circus shows, due to public outcry against the circus’s treatment of its elephants. However, many wild animal attractions continue to use these amazing beings for entertainment. Six Flags Animal Kingdom, as well as a variety of smaller scale ventures such as Have Trunk Will Travel (which supplies elephants for parades, rides, weddings, and a variety of “special events,” Nosey, the famously unfortunate elephant owned by Hugo Liebel, and of course, zoos, all continue to hold these animals in cages. Speak out by ensuring that you are not supporting ticket sales to these facilities.
4. Work to Ban Bullhook Use in Your Community
The bullhook, also known as “ankus,” with its sharp metal points at the end of a sturdy rod, is designed to inflict pain and instill fear as a means of guaranteeing compliance in elephant training and performance. These points get applied to sensitive portions of an elephant’s anatomy. They are implements of animal cruelty. There are other, proven, ways available to interact with elephants.
Pat Cuviello and Deniz Bolbol of Humanity Through Education have advocated for elephants and spoken out against the bullhook for over 20 years. The City of Oakland passed a landmark ban on bullhook use in December 2014.
5. Help Improve the Lives of Captive Elephants Near You
If there is a zoo in your community, learn about its elephant residents, their health, treatment, and living conditions. How much room do they have? Is there a heated barn against cold weather? Where did they come from? Is there a breeding program?
There may be a group devoted to the well-being of elephants associated with your zoo. See what activities individuals are organizing to educate the community about captivity and your zoo’s elephants’ well-being in particular. Prior to their Oklahoma City Zoo relocation, Chai and Bamboo found advocates in the Friends of Woodland Park Zoo Elephants. In Edmonton, the Friends of Lucy are very active trying to change local laws and improve the zoo’s conditions for Lucy with the goal of retiring her to a sanctuary.
6. Support Efforts to Improve Lives of Captive Elephants Everywhere
Draft and sign petitions, support legislation, donate money, volunteer, create groups: All efforts are valuable! Support organizations like the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee; and Performing Animal Welfare Society—PAWS, which exist to offer a decent environment with increased range and properly specialized care for elephants “retired” from performance and/or display. Another remarkable organization, Elephant Nature Park near Chiang Mai Thailand releases working elephants and gives them a better, kinder retirement. Contact these sanctuaries and ask what they need to maintain or even expand their population.
You can also lend your voice to the efforts to get the Ringling circus elephants to a sanctuary instead of the Feld’s “Center for Elephant Conservation” crowding 43 elephants on 200 acres. Sign the petition here.
There are also documentary filmmakers who need support in getting the word out about conditions for captive elephants. One of them is Sangita Iyer, who made the award-winning Gods in Shackles. Do what you can to help this film make it to as many screens as possible.
7. Share Your Knowledge and Your Resources
Join a group devoted to elephant welfare, whether wild or in captivity. If there isn’t a group near you, contact Global March for Elephants and Rhinos to learn more.
Once you have a group, spread the word about the herd! Go to local Farmer’s Markets, give short presentations at schools, picket circuses and amusement parks with elephants, write letters to the editor, create projects that connect with other people and groups working to better the lives of elephants currently living in captivity all over the world. And last, but not least, the elephants have many friends on social media. Let’s leverage all of the means we have available to help elephants in captivity live better lives. Trumpet on behalf of those who cannot speak with words! Lead image source: March for Elephants
Report Finds Over $1.2M Worth of Illegal Ivory Goods Being Sold Online in Hawaii.
One of the most critical threats facing endangered African elephants is the illicit ivory trade. During the 1970s and 1980s, the population of African elephants dropped from 1.3 million to 600,000, leading to an international ban on the commercial ivory trade in 1989. Following this, African elephant numbers began to stabilize and recover. In 1997, however, a limited amount of stockpiled “antique” ivory was permitted to leave Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe, ending up in China and Japan.
Soaring demand in these two countries led the illegal wildlife poaching trade to kick off once again, reversing the previous, positive trend that had been witnessed in Africa’s elephant population. Today, one of these majestic animals is killed for their tusks every fifteen minutes – which amounts to around 100 every single day. Between 2012 and 2015, it was estimated that over 103,000 elephants met their deaths at the hands of poachers. Luckily, world leaders are beginning to sit up and pay attention to this problem. Last year, an important agreement was reached between the U.S. and China – the world’s two biggest consumers of ivory products – to curb the ivory trade and help save elephants.
Sadly, however, a new report carried out by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), Humane Society International (HSI), The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has just revealed that Hawaii has a “rampant” undocumented online trade in ivory products. A snap shot investigation by these groups, carried out on a number of online retailers in the state, painted a bleak picture. Over the course of six days, investigators found more than 1,800 online advertisements for ivory products, including jewelry, carved tusks, and even scrimshawed elephant toenails. Overall, more than 4,600 items – worth over $1.2 million – were offered for sale.
In recent decades, wildlife poaching has decimated the once-thriving population of African elephants. While a number of U.S. states have taken action to ban the sale of ivory within their borders, and President Obama last year proposed a monumental ban on ivory throughout the entire country, it is clear that more needs to be done to stamp out the trade for good.
“Dozens of flights and ships enter Hawaiian ports and airports daily from across Asia and the Pacific, making the state a potential illegal ivory trade hub,” said Elly Pepper, Wildlife Advocate for NRDC. “New York and California have passed ivory bans in the last two years, leaving Hawaii as probably the largest remaining black market in the United States. Hawaii should do its part to end the crisis and protect African elephants by shutting down the state’s ivory market.”
“The lack of documentation from these online retailers potentially allows recently poached ivory to be sold side by side with truly antique ivory, confusing law enforcement officers and consumers alike, said Jeff Flocken, IFAW’s North American regional director. “It’s far too easy for legal and illegal ivory to coexist in the market place. If elephants are to have a chance of survival, the ivory trade needs to go extinct.”
It is clear that cutting off the demand for ALL forms of ivory – instead of allowing an exception to be made for “antique” ivory, which can be so easily abused – is the only way that African elephants will be given a chance to thrive once more.
We can all make a difference for elephants by raising awareness for the trade and making sure that we are in no way contributing to it. When the buying stops, so can the killing!
To learn more about how you can help elephants, check out the posts below:
- 10 Simple Ways YOU Can Help Stop Wildlife Poaching Today
- 10 Groups Working to Protect Animals Targeted by Poachers
- Six Things You Can do Right Now to Save Wildlife From Extinction
- Every Day 100 Elephants are Poached for Their Ivory. Here’s What We Must do to Save Them
Lead Image Source: John Vetterli/Flickr
What Ricky Gervais Has in His Hand Could Change the World for Elephants. The world’s elephant population is in rapid decline. Due to the high demand for ivory, it is estimated that one elephant is killed every 15 minutes for their tusks. At this rate, elephants may go extinct from the wild within the next two decades. But, we have the power to change that. The future of elephants is in our hands, and it starts by raising awareness.
Comedian Ricky Gervais has a well-deserved reputation as a defender of animals. He’s a celeb who’s no stranger to using the power of social media to spread awareness about animals who need our help. So, when The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (DSWT) launched a social media campaign aimed at raising awareness for elephants, called #InOurHands, you can bet that Ricky was on board. With just one small action, he’s helped to inspire millions to stand up for this struggling population.
With the future for elephants laying in the balance, we are so pleased that Ricky Gervais is standing up to spread the word these animals need our help.
Save The Endangered Sumatran Elephant. Indonesia’s Sumatran Elephants are in trouble. Critically endangered, these majestic elephants could be wiped out if we don’t act soon. Massive industrial development for palm oil and paper plantations are destroying their habitat, 6.5 million acres of the Leuser Ecoystem.
Take urgent action now to demand protection for this critical ecosystem and the endangered Sumatran Elephant.
Don’t Use Baby Elephant as “Gift”.
Target: Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena
Goal: Find a more appropriate gift than a live baby elephant for New Zealand’s prime minister.
To solidify strengthening relations between New Zealand and Sri Lanka, a baby elephant by the name of Nandi is being gifted to Prime Minister John Key. However, New Zealand animal rights organization SAFE is “deadly opposed” to bringing another elephant into the country, their first of many reasons being that transporting and caring for an elephant in captivity is extravagantly more expensive than maintaining them in the wild. It is also shown through studies that elephants do very badly in captivity. However, the most important reason is that female elephants often never leave their mothers or mother figures. Even though Nandi was orphaned, she will be brutally ripped away from her family and sold to solidify foreign relations.
Just a short time ago, the world was applauding Sri Lanka for banning ivory and destroying confiscated ivory they had in storage. One would think, with this apparent show of support for the protection of elephants, that they would be more wary of shipping off their own. Even just one elephant, even an elephant from a so-called orphanage. Nandi is being taken from her home and shipped thousands of miles to a foreign land with foreign people and foreign environment to live in a cage as entertainment.
Elephants are living creatures, they are sentient, and they deserve better than being reduced to bargaining chips between politicians. Nandi is also not the first elephant to be sent to New Zealand from Sri Lanka, as another was sold to them last year.
Sign and urge President Sirisena to work with Prime Minister Key to find another token of strengthening diplomatic relations. Surely there are better things besides displaced animals that would suffice as a token of goodwill. Urge them not to force suffering on Nandi for political and monetary gain.
Dear President Sirisena,
After a visit from Prime Minister John Key of New Zealand, news came to light that Sri Lanka planned to gift a five-year-old elephant as a symbol of good will. While it is great to see countries coming together and strengthening positive political relations, those relations should not be solidified with the “gift” of another’s life. When Sri Lanka destroyed their stock pile of ivory and banned trade of the product, there was hope that support would be thrown behind preserving elephants. However, with the news of Nandi’s impending deportation to New Zealand that hope has dwindled.
So few elephants remain, and so many studies show how terribly they do in captivity, that it’s heart breaking to watch another one sentenced to this misery. She will be caged in a foreign land and foreign environment with capricious visitors gawking at her like a commodity. Not to mention the exorbitant price of shipping an elephant to New Zealand and then caring for her.
It is shown that elephants suffer when torn from their family groups, especially female elephants. Nandi has already suffered the misfortune of being an orphan, do not add onto her suffering by treating her as an object to be thrown to the wind for political relations. Seek out an alternative method of symbolizing this goodwill, something that does not involve treating another’s life so flippantly. Stand behind preserving elephants in the wild, rather than supporting the rampant abuse exorcised by zoos in obtaining wild animals to imprison for entertainment.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: NZ Herald
Baby Elephant Thanks Kind Woman Who is Working to Save Her Kind. Elephants have it rough. Between being poached for tusks, and captured to be made into working elephants, these beautiful giants need some incredible people who will stick up for them. One of those individuals is Lek Chailert, founder of Elephant Nature Park, located in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Running the sanctuary, Chailert has devoted her life to recusing elephants and educating the world about the horrors that they face in the tourism and logging industries. These working elephants are separated from their mothers as calves and “broken” through weeks of physical abuse so that they become submissive to their trainers. After this, elephants are forced to perform backbreaking labor from morning to night, taking tourists for rides through the forests or clearing trees in the logging industry. In Thailand half of all 3,000 to 4,000 elephants are domesticated for work.
Altogether, Chailert has helped free almost 100 elephants from abusive situations. The care given to the residents at Elephant Nature Park is often the first time these animals have experienced love from a human being. In the photo below, it’s easy to see that these elephants have as much love for their caretaker as she has for them.
Seeing this relationship makes us wonder how any human being could harm such sweet, gentle beings. We’re so glad that people like Chailert are there to give these animals the respect and happy lives they deserve. You can help spread Chailert’s mission by never visiting an elephant tourist attraction and discouraging your friends and family members from doing so too. Share this article to maximize your impact. To learn more about Elephant Nature Park, visit their website, here. Image source: Geneviève Fumal/Facebook
Stop the Export of Zimbabwe's Baby Elephants. Click Here To Sign!
News reports are sketchy. It may be that this capture and export is entirely legal, but the government can still stop it.
Elephants have deep family bonds: This loss will be devastating to the those left behind, and the captured young have a poor chance of survival.
Urge Zimbabwe's ministers for environment and tourism to stop the export and return these elephants to the wild.
The Zimbabwe government has the power to choose a more humane fate for these helpless elephants.
Click Here To Sign!
