Animal poaching

Animal abuse is a matter that I feel always gets pushed aside. Animal abuse happens more frequently than most people know. Animal abuse can be deliberate or by just simply neglecting to take care of an animal. There are several types of animal cruelties that have been going on recently. There is the spearing of dolphins in Japan. The dolphins are herded into the shore and then slaughtered. They are usually speared and left to bleed out on the shores. The process is slow and agonizing. There is also the poaching of wild animals in different parts of the world. The one you most hear about is the slaughtering of elephants and rhino’s for their horns. They hunt the animals down just to get their tusks/ horns to sell in markets. They don’t hunt the animals for food, clothes, and other necessities that most laws let people hunt for. These people like the hunt and the money that ivory brings them. There has also been huge controversy of people posting pictures of themselves with animals that they have just slaughtered. They slaughter tigers, lions, and cheetah’s People usually slaughter these animals for their fur. Most of these animals’ numbers are dwindling. Some like the tiger are going extinct.Some of the biggest areas of animal cruelty come from pets. Pet abuse can happen in several different ways. Dog fighting is a sport for people’s entertainment and for profit. Puppy mills are dog-breeding facilities where profits are placed above the well being of the animals. Hoarding animals is also abuse. Many care takers take on more pets than they can handle which often leads to neglect. Other forms of abuse for animals are factory farms are often inhumane ways in which companies raise large quantities of animals for food. Horse slaughter is also a big problem. Horses have been slaughtered for a person’s entertainment. Cock fighting and greyhound racing are also forms of animal abuse.Animal testing is also a huge problem in our country. They use animals to test medicines, make up, psychological disorders and how they can impact humans. Harry Harlow used monkeys to test how important contact and comfort are. The monkeys were separated from their mothers shortly after birth. They were kept in a cage with a wire monkey that held food and a wire monkey that was covered in a soft blanket. Most of the monkeys chose to stay with the cloth-covered monkey instead of going to the other wire monkey to get food. The monkeys could not function normally with other monkeys and by themselves. They had to be terminated after the study was over.Most people don’t understand that animals experience the same types of psychological abuse that humans do. Animals need to be cared for and treated right. They are not things we can take our anger out on or be killed for fun. There are several ways in which you can stop abuse and can prevent the abuse from happening. If you follow my blogs during the semester you will know how to prevent, stop, find out some of the abuse that is going on in the world to animals.  

The Illegal Wildlife Trade in India

India is one of the principal countries involved in the illegal wildlife trade, especially in tigers. Of the 481 seize 1987, 275 were within India. Stories like that of Sita, the tiger made famous for being photograph Sita the tiger made famous for being photographed for National Geographic before she went missing in 1998 from Bandhavgarh National Park, drew more attention to the crisis. Sita is suspected to have been a victim of the poaching crisis after a pelt matching her coloration was found nearby in the house of a known poacher. It has been estimated that 34 tigers were poached in India in 2018, and already 10 this year. The exact number of tigers poached is difficult to determine because it is only based on the number of tiger parts seized and so this number may be much higher. With less than 4,000 individuals left in the wild, these poaching statistics are worrying for the tiger’s future. With animals like tigers being poached so numerously, it is likely that they will become extinct in the wild in our life time.The laws and regulations to protect India’s wildlife cannot be beneficial if they are not enforced effectively. Transporting products and smaller animals illegally still require little effort across many regions of India. A seller interviewed by The Times of India said that “There is no checking [buses] and transportation cost is low.” Moreover, trains can be easily used if boarded from a small station to avoid checks. Additionally, bribing officials is a common practice employed by poachers and wildlife traffickers. According to another seller, “there are agents for these [endangered] animals and if you pay the right amount, you will get whatever you want.” This illegal cooperation allows many small animals, such as endangered turtles and birds, or animal parts, including those from tigers and rhinos, to be transported across India easily and with little risk to the poacher or seller. As a result, the most expensive cost of transporting live animals is the high death rate rather than the transportation itself. Amongst animals, however, the severely low transportation costs for traders means they are relatively unfazed by this. The death rate when trafficking animals can be as high as 30%, but this figure does not include those that die after they are transported to markets and buyers. The high death rate has an even more devastating effect on endangered species because, since many die in transit, more will be taken from the wild to keep up with demand.

Wildlife Protection

Several laws in place in India and around the globe protect endangered wildlife. Many endangered animals, including tigers, rhinos and elephants, are protected in India by the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. Under this act, most people are prohibited from hunting, possessing, buying or selling protected wild animals or animal parts. In 1976, India also joined the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES); binding India by the regulations of this convention as well.Unfortunately, such laws are ineffective if they are not enforced and, in many areas, it is common for wildlife trafficking to go unnoticed. However, there are many success stories that reflect the potential positive impacts of these laws. In May May May May May May 2016 ,traffickers who were found smuggling the body parts of an estimated 125 tigers and 1200 leopards were given a four-year jail sentence for their crimes. More recently in June 2018, 12 tusks were seized and six men arrested in the region of Tamil Nadu. Sadly, these successes still involved the death of endangered species, but local officials hope that by removing poaching gangs, there will be fewer people removing these animals from the wild.