In timely news, CNN this morning is ablaze with stories about terrible things happening to the world's wildlife. Like this story on machine gunning herds of elephants, this one on Prince William of the U.K. vowing to fight the worldwide trade of illegal animal products, and this video on the disappearance of the western lowland gorilla from the Congo. They also highlight info on tigers and the ivory trade. To be honest, this stuff happens all of the time and is rarely seen on headline news. So I suppose what CNN is doing today is good, but what else should be done?
Wait though...don't just spout off without thinking. It sure is easy to say that this activity should just stop. People shouldn't kill animals and sell off their valuable parts. Do you see the key word in that sentence? It is "valuable". If something is valuable somewhere, someone will find a way to sell it, regardless of whether it is legal or not, ethical or not, morally right or not. So how do we protect those that cannot protect themselves? How do we save these beautiful creatures before they are all gone? What parts are valuable, and to whom? I don't have all of the answers, but I sure do have a lot of questions. Can you help?
To protect these animals, I suggest that we keep them in preserved and guarded natural habitats suitable for them, but not zoos. We need to let them do what they're supposed to do; eat, sleep, and reproduce, just to name a few. Mainly what is valuable from an elephant is ivory, which is used sometimes for decorative statues and piano keys, and are mainly valuable to poachers and the Chinese.
ReplyDeleteWow it is amazing that the U.K is willing to fight the worldwide trade of illegal animal products especially that they estimate that a rhino is killed every 11 hours. Also that 100 elephants die each day mostly because people want the horns of the elephants or the skin from lions.
ReplyDeleteI belive that people should keep them in habitats like Noel suggested. The part of the elephant that is the tusks. The ivory made from the tusks is very valuable. President Obama has now banned ivory to be exported, imported, and resale. You can Help by starting a club for stopping ivory trade. Link for President Obama's Link: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-elephant-ivory-20140212,0,7418233.story#axzz2t7Z5ocFM
ReplyDeleteI believe that we should do what the Ol Pejeta reserve is doing they raised money to buy a drone that they hope can reduce the number of endangered animals killed each year by poachers in their reserve. Instead of just one drone they could have a whole force of them that spread across the world where endangered animals are located that way we could monitor them in a non-invasive and relatively inexpensive way.-Will
ReplyDeleteI agree with Will. In order to protect animals, I believe that we should place the animals to a reserve, like the Ol Pejeta reserve. But, we can kind-of make it into a zoo, by having workers feed the animals, count the population, and check up on how the animals are doing. By monitoring the reserve, we can check if the animals are doing well. Also, if poachers poach the animals, we can see who did it, and report it to the nation's military to track down the criminal. Like Will, this is non-invasive and way less expensive than caging the animals in a foreign country like the U.K. Plus, the population would increase more rapid, so, it would be off the endangered list, and send them back into the world.
ReplyDeleteI think that the hunting of these precious animals in Africa should be illegal. It just feels wrong that killing elephants and all of these wonders for game. In 1920, there was an estimate of only 120 elephants left in the south part of Africa, and yet there is about 10000 elephants in the Kruger National Park and 20000 rhinos. The white rhinos are also growing rare. I just thought that Africa is using the animals in a horrible way of hunting them and all that game. I think that the government should inform a restriction of game, what do you think?
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