Posted on August 11, 2015 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
7 Easy Ways to Help This World Elephant Day
by Alicia Graef – August 10, 2015
On Wednesday, August 12, animal lovers around the world will be coming together to celebrate elephants and support a future where they’re respected and protected for the fourth annual World Elephant Day.
World Elephant day was launched in 2012 by Canadian documentary filmmaker Patricia Sims and the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation of Thailand. On the same day, Sims’ film Return to the Forest premiered, which explores the journey and beautiful transformation that takes place when captive elephants are returned from a life with us to their home in the forest and how vital their presence there is.
Despite being a charismatic species loved by people of all ages, elephants in both Africa and Thailand are in serious trouble. Since the first World Elephant Day, individuals, celebrities and dozens of organizations that are working on solutions that will ensure their future survival around the world, have joined in support because the threat of losing them forever is becoming a very real possibility.
Poaching in Africa has reached unprecedented levels, which some believe could wipe elephants out entirely within the next 10 years if it continues at its current rate, and there are now estimated to be less than 40,000 Asian elephants left in existence, who continue to face the threat of poaching, habitat loss and being taken for the tourism industry.
“So many people around the world love elephants but aren’t aware that elephants are in crisis. World Elephant Day helps increase security for elephants and expand habitat because it creates an opportunity to raise a rallying cry. We have to turn up the volume about the elephant crisis in order to put more pressure on leaders to take meaningful action, attract desperately needed resources, and to convince people to not buy ivory,” Misty Herrin, #SaveElephants campaign director for The Nature Conservancy, said in a statement.
Unfortunately, wild elephants aren’t the only ones in trouble. Animal advocates have also been working to end their exploitation in captivity and entertainment and raise awareness about why elephants belong in the wild, not circuses, zoos or tourist attractions.
How to Help
This year elephant advocates will again be stepping up to raise awareness about the plight of captive and wild elephants by hosting and attending events, urging officials to take action to protect elephants and using social media to gain support and there are a lot of easy ways to help.
Support Increasing Protection Under the Endangered Species Act
In June, the Center for Biological Diversity filed a petition to have African elephants declared as two separate species – forest elephants and savannah elephants – and upgraded from threatened to endangered under the Endangered Species Act, which would add even more strength to laws intended to protect them.
Please sign and share the petition urging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reclassify elephants and upgrade their status to endangered.
Tell the U.S. to Crack Down on the Ivory Trade
As the second largest market for ivory behind China, the U.S. has been called on by wildlife advocates to step up its efforts to tackle wildlife trafficking with meaningful action. Now it’s hoped a proposed rule which was formally announced by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) in July will virtually wipe out the market in the states by applying more restrictions to imports and exports and banning the sale of ivory across state lines.
Please sign and share the petition urging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to support a ban on ivory.
You can also make a public comment in support of tougher regulations for the ivory trade directly at the Federal Register until September 28.
Don’t Buy Ivory
That should go without saying, but even legal ivory and antique items help keep the market going and help provide a cover for the illegal trade of ivory from recently killed elephants.
Support Elephant Sanctuaries
Be a Voice for Captive Elephants
While more and more areas are banning the use of wild animals in circuses and Ringling Bros. recently took a big step by announcing it would retire its elephant performers, there are still other traveling shows around the world that continue to use elephants. We can send a strong message that it’s time to stop by avoiding companies and venues that continue to use them by speaking out for elephants like Nosey, who desperately needs to be retired, and by signing the petition asking Congress to pass the Traveling Exotic Animal Protection Act, which would ban the use of wild animals in circuses for good.
We can also help give a voice to elephants in zoos who need help like Asha, Lucky and Lucy by signing petitions on their behalf and asking countries like Zimbabwe to stop taking calves from the wild for captivity.
Make an “Elegram”
The Nature Conservancy, which is an official sponsor of World Elephant Day this year, is asking supporters to get a little crafty and make 20,000 handmade images for its #Elegram Project, which will be matched with $150,000 by generous donors for elephant conservation work in Africa. Just paint, draw, sketch or sculpt an image of an elephant, take a photo of it and upload it to their gallery.
Spread the Word
If you’re spreading the word about efforts to help elephants on social media sites, check out World Elephant day for badges and banners to share and add the hashtags #WorldElephantDay #GoGrey #BeHerd #Elegram #SaveElephants #JoinTheSTAMPede #96Elephants and #SayNoToIvory.
For more info on ways to help elephants and support organizations working to resolve conflicts and stop poaching, visit World Elephant Day.
Filed under: CAMPAIGNS - Global Animal Welfare Issues, CIRCUS, GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional, GLOBAL PETITIONS - Anything Animal, Anywhere !, HUNTING - Primarily UK and Germany, The "Serbian Animals Voice (SAV) ALLIANCE | Leave a comment »
Posted on August 11, 2015 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
China – what a surprise I don’t think !!!
Petition Link:
Target: Chen Jining, Minister of Environmental Protection, People’s Republic of China
Goal: Prosecute those involved in the torturous live butchering of a whale shark.
A shocking video has surfaced depicting the live butchering of a whale shark. The video shows two men sawing the animal apart from the tail upward, opting to torture it alive rather than severing its spinal cord and killing it first. The animal is seen struggling to breathe as it slowly bleeds to death, opening and closing its mouth as if to scream.
The whale shark, the largest known species of fish, is classified as vulnerable and is protected by several treaties, including the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species and the Convention for Migratory Species. This makes it illegal to capture, kill, or sell a whale shark or its body parts. Those who breach the law can face criminal charges, jail time, and extensive fines.
Unfortunately, due to China’s lax enforcement of animal protection laws and its burgeoning black markets full of endangered and nearly extinct animals, this type of situation is not unusual. According to a study conducted by non-governmental organization WildLifeRisk, Chinese fishermen illegally slaughter 600 whale sharks each year, selling them for about $30,000 each.
Perhaps more disturbing than the cruel butchering of a live animal is the fact that those responsible felt secure enough in China’s lack of animal protection enforcement to do it in a public fish market. Not only must the perpetrators of this torturous and illegal slaughter be prosecuted, but China must put forth a true effort to stop the unsustainable slaughter of whale sharks. Sign the petition below to demand that China find and punish those involved in order to deter similar atrocities in the future.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Minister Chen Jining,
A video of two men butchering a live whale shark at a Chinese fish market has outraged the international community. The video shows the men using a large saw to cut the animal into slices from the tail upward, all while the shark is gasping for breath and bleeding out.
Though wale sharks are a protected species, these situations are not uncommon. Chinese fishermen kill an average of 600 whale sharks per year, most of them facing no legal action. It is imperative that China steps up to stop letting animal abuse and the illegal slaughter of animals go unpunished. We, the undersigned, demand that those responsible for this brutal butchering are found and punished to the full extent of the law.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Petition Link:
Filed under: GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional, GLOBAL PETITIONS - Anything Animal, Anywhere ! | Leave a comment »
Posted on August 7, 2015 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
Currently up to 129,000 signatures – lets make it many more !!
In the tourist area of Koh Lanta in Thailand, baby chicks are dyed various colours, put in plastic bags, and sold to tourists as children’s toys.
The chicks, which are dyed yellow, green, pink and other bright colours, cannot breathe in the plastic bags and are not given access to food or water despite it being swelteringly hot outside.
There is a Care2 petition urging the Thai government to step in and stop this cruelty. Will you sign too?
Here’s a link to the petition or click on the link given above.
Thank you.
SAV.
Filed under: GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional, GLOBAL PETITIONS - Anything Animal, Anywhere ! | Leave a comment »
Posted on August 7, 2015 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
UPDATE!
VICTORY FOR BORKO AND HIS FRIENDS..!!
-A BIG Thank you to all of you who signed the petition!
But Please Please continue to share Borko’s petition:
-The more voices we can get condemning the actions of this Mayor, the more embarrassed the authorities will be and more likely to step in against the Mayor!! Thank you!
A last minute decision of the Smolyan Administrative Court STOPPED the preliminary execution of the intended by the Mayor of Devin seizure of Borko and his family.
A small group of animal welfare activists, journalists and Borko supporters occupied early in the morning the Surgery in the village of Selcha, waiting for the municipal “action group” to arrive. They had already been informed by Dr. Litov’s attorney of the court’s decision, but were not sure if the Mayor would comply with it.
An hour later the group drove off to the town of Devin to meet and confront the Mayor himself and ask for explanation of his intended actions. The coward had run off and could not be found anywhere. Instead, the Mayor’s legal adviser and the municipal property manager were questioned thoroughly.
It became evidently clear that the authorities were becoming very concerned by the international uproar, caused by the death threats to Borko and his family.
They were assured that unless they take all necessary steps to remedy the situation and guarantee that Borko and family will never be threatened again, the international pressure will continue non stop with all negative consequences. We’ll wait and see.
Borko is alive and well and sends hugs and kisses to all those who stood up for him.
Filed under: CAMPAIGNS - Global Animal Welfare Issues, GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional, GLOBAL PETITIONS - Anything Animal, Anywhere !, SUPPORTERS, The "Serbian Animals Voice (SAV) ALLIANCE | Leave a comment »
Posted on July 28, 2015 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
Link and petition:
Romania: stop the assault on Europe’s last pristine wilderness
Bears and wolves still prowl the ancient forests of the Carpathian Mountains. Yet their days are numbered: organized criminals are illegally clear-cutting entire hillsides to supply European timber companies. Tell the Romanian environmental ministry to put a stop to the destruction.
Illegal logging is rampant in Romania. Since the fall of Communism in 1989, no less than 400,000 hectares of forest have been cleared there without permission, mainly for export as parquet, laminate and fuel pellets. “One of the last remaining virgin forests in Europe is cut being down to heat homes in Austria and Germany,” says Alexander von Bismarck, head of the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA).
An Austrian company, Holzindustrie Schweighofer, is playing a key role in the destruction of Romania’s forests. Schweighofer has been at the heart of a scandal in recent weeks involving forged delivery notes, bribes and dubious concessions.
An EIA video documents Schweighofer’s practices. In it, von Bismarck negotiated with company representatives posing as a foreign investor seeking to sell timber. The environmentalists concluded that Schweighofer deliberately and consciously buys – and indeed, pays bonuses for – illegally harvested timber. CEO Gerald Schweighofer called the video “misleading”.
By contrast, a leaked letter Schweighofer sent to the Romanian prime minister leaves no room for misinterpretation. In it, he threatens to sue the Romanian government in international courts if it does not amend its forestry laws to the company’s advantage.
Schweighofer is now building a new €150 million sawmill in Reci. Work has gone ahead without an environmental impact assessment and Romanian environmentalist Hans Hedrich therefore considers it to be illegal. He believes that the “Schweighofer system” would collapse if the sawmill can be kept from going into operation: “It would be the first step toward rescuing the forests.”
Tell the Romanian Ministry for Environment, Waters and Forests to deny the Reci sawmill an operating permit and to do everything in its power to combat the illegal timber trade.
Filed under: CAMPAIGNS - Global Animal Welfare Issues, GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional, GLOBAL PETITIONS - Anything Animal, Anywhere !, Romania - Stray Animal Killings 2013 | Leave a comment »
Posted on July 25, 2015 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
SAV Comment
What a pity that a large organisation such as this has to put profit before animal welfare. Should they not be using their obvious large global sales influence to put further pressure on the Chinese regarding all their animal abuse legislation ? – including asking them to undertake new Chinese legislation that prevents animal cruelty in order to make women look (allegedly) more beautiful ?
To us this is an ultimate hypocrisy from an organisation that was one given some credit and respect. All this has now been lost by their new actions in China. Maybe they should have a catwalk at the next Yulin festival where all their beautiful people can gorge themselves on the meats of street dogs that have been slaughtered barbarically.
Beautiful people ? – we dont think so.
Keep watching the news to see what happens. We will give any updates we know about this in the future.
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PETA direct link to protest letter (to send):
Victoria’s Secret, a formerly cruelty-free company, recently confirmed that it will now be selling cosmetics in China, a country that requires painful and deadly tests on animals for cosmetics.
Suffering for Victoria’s Secret ‘Beautiful People’ !!
It’s clear that the only “angels” associated with Victoria’s Secret are the sweet animals who will die on the company’s dime.
For all animals,
After years of not testing on animals, the company has confirmed that it will begin selling in China—meaning it will pay for cruel tests on animals!
Although the company fully understands the Chinese government’s requirements for tests on animals for cosmetics, it has chosen to enter this market anyway.
Victoria’s Secret has been removed from PETA’s list of companies that don’t test on animals, and will find itself on PETA’s list of companies that do test on animals until it chooses compassion over cruelty.
Fortunately, PETA has received pledges from other companies—including The Body Shop, Urban Decay, NYX Cosmetics, Yes To Inc., and more—that they will never sell in China while animal tests are required.
Please tell Victoria’s Secret that cruelty isn’t sexy and that you won’t buy its products until the company is 100 percent cruelty-free again.
PETA direct link to protest letter (to send):
Filed under: CAMPAIGNS - Global Animal Welfare Issues, GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional, GLOBAL PETITIONS - Anything Animal, Anywhere !, LETTERS, PHOTOGRAPHS - **WARNING** (Animal Suffering), The "Serbian Animals Voice (SAV) ALLIANCE | Leave a comment »
Posted on July 24, 2015 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
We all witnessed the suffering of animals at Yulin very recently –
and now we do not want the animal abusers and the abusers of the people of Tibet to be awarded the 2022 Olympics for their cruelty to both the animals and humans. Please support the call to say NO.
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Next Friday, the International Olympics Committee will decide whether to award China a second Olympics.
More than 10,000 people already have joined the call for the IOC to say no to Beijing.
Thank you for your support so far – please help us give this one last push and share the petition now.
When China last hosted the Olympics there was a violent crackdown in Tibet and since then repression in China and Tibet has only worsened.
The momentum against Beijing’s bid is building: just yesterday leading activists representing people across China wrote an open letter to the IOC, saying that “for hundreds of millions of people inside China’s borders, the Games returning to Beijing will be a green light for the government’s ongoing abuse of their rights and denial of their hopes for freedom.”
This is our last chance to show the IOC that it’s a mistake to reward China’s oppression – please help by sharing the petition.
Filed under: CAMPAIGNS - Global Animal Welfare Issues, GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional, GLOBAL PETITIONS - Anything Animal, Anywhere ! | Leave a comment »
Serbian Animals Voice (SAV) 