Has the Harry Potter Films Put a Dark Magic Hex on India’s Owls?

Today, 5th November, is Deepavali (Dewali, Divali) and Traffic, the wildlife trade monitoring network, has released a report, written by ornithologist Abrar Ahmed, about the illegal trade of owls in India. Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh is placing the blame on fans of the increasingly popular Harry Potter for the demise of wild owls. The timely release of the report is significant as many owls are sacrificed during the Deepavali festivities.

Owls are often overlooked as animals of great importance, but their contribution to the environment is significant. The trade of these birds is slowly wiping them out.

Owls are prized in India, especially in tribal communities, for their mystical qualities and use in black magic. They are believed to be able to ward away evil spirits. Tantriks (rituals) involving owls can also be performed to help with prolonged sickness, infertility and even the desire for a male child. The tantrik prescribes rituals to be performed with either owl parts, or by sacrificing an owl on a new moon night, the most popular being tonight, Deepavali.

The report warns that the wild owl population is under threat. Source:Abrar Ahmed, Traffic.

The owls’ bodies parts are thought to have medicinal properties, eyes are thought to assist with seeing in the dark or curing fits.
Owls are not just being caught from the wild for sacrifices and body parts. Some owls are used in street performances, replacing the dancing bears, as the ‘bear charmers’ were being persecuted by wildlife authorities.

Five Species of Owls Most Commonly Found for Sale in India.
1. Spotted owlet (Athene brama)
2. Barn owl (Tyto alba)
3. Rock Eagle-owl (Bubo bengalensis)
4. Jungle owlet (Glaucidium radiatum)
5. Collared Scops-owl (Otus bakkamoena)


So, is the Harry Potter reference merely a tenuous link? Clearly there is no owl sacrifice in the books and films, but Harry does keep his snowy owl, Hedwig, in an exceptionally small cage throughout the film. Owls are also seen delivering the post, including a broomstick and have an important role to play during the films. Middle classes are jumping onto the Harry Potter bandwagon; throwing themed parties complete with rented owl.

In India, owls have been used in mythology for centuries, so to place all the blame on Harry Potter mania, the films especially, is quite unfair. However, what could have been a dying trade, seen only in remote tribes, could be re-emerging stronger than before.

Deepavali is the festival of lights, where good triumphs over evil, let’s hope that the light will be shed on the illegal trade of owls and that it will soon be curbed.

Bake with Compassion Week. 23rd October - 31st October

It is almost the end of National Baking Week in the UK, and while the campaign has hopefully brought families and friends close, spare a thought for the millions of chickens and dairy cows providing for the bake-a-thon.

Hens are crammed into tiny cages or packed into barns, never seeing the light of day. Their natural behaviour is heavily restricted, they cannot stretch their wings, move freely around, forage or dust bathe. As a result, many hens turn to feather plucking and self-mutilation, they can also suffer from osteoporosis.

Dairy cows generally do not get to graze outdoors, though some farmers do allow their cows’ access to the outdoors during the summer months. Dairy cows are forced to have a calf once a year; usually the cow is inseminated about 3 months after she gives birth to a calf. Sadly, the cow does not get to keep her calf by her side as her milk is reserved for consumers. As dairy cows produce almost 6 times their natural amount of milk (naturally 4 litres will be produced for a calf, in the industry European cows produce about 22 litres, or 30 in the US a day). Dairy cows are susceptible to lameness, mastitis and infertility. The mothers also have to deal with the fact that their baby is taken away from them shortly after they have given birth. For a social animal such as a cow, this can be very stressful.

That’s why Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) has launched its very own Bake with Compassion, 23rd October – 31st October. Compassionate bakers are baking delicious cakes and desserts with either free range ingredients or vegan. CIWF has provided plenty of events and recipes to help kick start compassionate baking.

By taking part in Bake with Compassion, and raising funds, either by being sponsored or raffling off the compassionate cake creations, you will also be raising awareness of the plight of the humble hen and cow.

Note: Although most of the recipes have butter or milk added to them, they do call for organic butter, which means that the cows have been allowed to graze outside, in small herds. They also have more comfortable bedding. However, vegan butter or simply dairy free olive oil butter is also just as tasty in recipes too.

You Are What You Eat. Plastic, Animal Waste and Metal?

Earlier this year, a cyclist, three-time Tour de France champion Alberto Contador, was provisionally suspended after a trace element of a banned substance, clenbuterol was found in his urine.

He has since blamed a contaminated steak for his drug results. He may have a point.

Clenbuterol is used illegally in the US and throughout some parts of Europe to increase the leanness and protein content of cattle, swine and horses. It is added to the food of the animals to increase muscle to fat ratio and to induce growth spurts. In Europe, adverse human reactions include reversible symptoms of increased heart rate, muscular tremors, headache, nausea, fever, and chills.

Halloween is approaching, but what is really frightening is potentially what is going into the food of animals raised for slaughter.

For most meat, egg and dairy producing farms, long gone are the days of animals spending most of their time out to pasture. Even some supermarkets, that imply that their animals are out all day, need to be careful of their wording. Instead, we live in a time of mass produced meat, produced as cheaply as possible for the growing demand of consumers who do not want to pay highly for their dinner.

Farmers now have to contend with ever decreasing prices and large corporations who are trying to compete with the smaller farms. One way for reducing production costs lies within the food fed to the animals.

A study in the US reveals what exactly is going into the animals’ food. It is stomach turning. Since the outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), consumers are asking more questions about where their meat comes from. Sapkota et al 2007, report that amongst other things, rendered animal products, animal waste (yes, faeces), plant and animal based fats, antibiotics (to promote growth and improve feed efficiency), metals (such as copper) and a variety of biological and chemical agents are added to animal feed. Animals raised for meat require a high amount of roughage in their diet, a substitute for natural food they eat, is plastic, ground up into pellets.

This has devastating implications to human health.

Recent outbreaks have highlighted the potential consequences of feeding livestock anything other than their natural diet, Enterococcus faeciu, Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease to name but a few. For the list of known dangers so far, please see this table.

The researchers found that it was difficult to get the full records of exactly what was going into the animal feed; there were no accurate records of the amounts of some of the products added to the feed. These reports are from the US, what about the animal feed in other parts of the
world where people may not yet be aware of the implications of putting chemicals and animal waste into livestock feed.

Cows Grazing in a Large Open Field in the South of England

The Dog and the Whale

Tucker is a very special type of sniffer dog, his area of specialty being whale poop. He is helping scientists uncover why a population of killer whales are in decline on the northwest coast of the US. Once Tucker has found the faeces, the hormone levels are examined to investigate whether the whales are stressed, and to indicate the availability of food to the whales. These factors could be the key to the cause of their decreasing numbers.

Having a black Labrador use his keen nose to sniff out the faeces and collecting samples on the boat is a lot easier than catching a whale and taking records. It is also a lot less invasive to the whales, and prevents causing stress to animals who are becoming at risk.

And what is in it for Tucker once he has found a delectable sample? His favourite ball on a rope.

Check out the audio slideshow on the BBC website.

Wallaby Dies After Being Given Ecstasy and Drink at Party

Reports of a wallaby dying at a birthday disco after being given alcohol and ecstasy have arisen in Dublin. Animal welfare campaigners have complained after the wallaby was let loose among a crowd 150 people strong. A video shown on Facebook caused the outcry, and police are looking at CCTV footage.

The stress of the flashing lights and noise, not to mention the narcotics would have caused the marsupial a great deal of stress, and if the reports are accurate, it is no surprise that the animal died.

The owner of a nearby circus, the Australian Super Circus Sydney, Alexander Scholl denies that the wallaby in question is one of the two that he has performing in the show. He mentions that he would never allow them to be near a disco and noisy music, let’s hope the music and lights are turned down when it is the wallabies turn to perform the circus tricks.

The body of the wallaby has since disappeared, even if this was a hoax, it highlights the need for control of ‘exotic’ animals as pets; currently it is possible to buy wallabies, zebras and emus in Ireland. A similar story to this one echo the demand for meerkats as pets in the UK after the television show, ‘Meerkat Manor’ has led to more people wanting exotic animals as pets. They were soon abandoned after people realised they are not as cute as they appear.

Speeding Train Kills Seven Elephants in India

A tragedy occurred in northern district of Jalpaiguri, West Bengal, in eastern India on Wednesday. Seven elephants were killed while trying to protect two calves that had become stuck on the tracks. As the adults crowded round the calves the train hit them, killing 5 and fatally injuring two more, which died on Thursday. The calves were among the dead.

One of the Seven Elephants Killed by a Speeding Train. Source: AFP

After the incident, the surviving members of the herd were seen crowding round the tracks, watching over the bodies of the dead. The mourning behaviour of elephants is widely known, and this incident once again shows that elephants are not merely just dumb animals.

It is thought that the train involved in the collision was travelling at 65km/h, which is twice the legal speed limit. There have been around 20 elephant deaths this year alone by train collisions.

Due to human encroachment on jungles and forests, an elephant’s natural home, human/elephant incidences are becoming more and more common. Man’s relationship with the elephant has turbulent, and this sad story just highlights who the losers are.

Punishments for Wildlife Crimes Are Not Acting as Successful Deterrents.

Wildlife smuggling sentences are barely a slap on the hand, and do not do enough to deter smugglers from offending again. In the past few months, two repeat offenders have been in the news, caught again for smuggling prohibited animals.

First, the infamous Anson Wong, otherwise known as ‘The Lizard King,’ who’s name became known from the book, of the same name, detailing his dealings in endangered animal smuggling, mainly reptiles, by Bryan Christy. Wong was caught in Kuala Lumpur, smuggling 95 boa constrictors, a mata mata tortoise and two rhinoceros vipers inside a suitcase, they were heading for Jakarta. The reason that Wong was caught? Not the high-tech scanners that would have picked up the shapes of the animals in the case, nor was Wong stopped for acting suspiciously (one can assume as a seasoned smuggler, Wong has lost any nervousness in illegal activities), it was the suitcase bursting open, and the contents being revealed.

Wong is well known in the world of anti-wildlife smuggling groups and wildlife departments all over the world. Even the 71 month sentence meted out to him by Federal US courts were not enough to persuade Wong that a life of smuggling wildlife is not worthwhile.

So what did the Malaysian courts decide would be a worthy punishment to act as a deterrent? 6 months in jail, and a RM 190, 000 fine. Ideally, he would have received the maximum sentence of 7 years and a 1 million RM fine. Thankfully though, both he and his wife, Cheah Bing Shee, have had their wildlife trading licence revoked. Perhilitan have removed the animals in Wong’s private ‘zoo’’, including two tigers, a crocodile and a variety of other animals, and taken them to Penang National Park.

Given the extortionate prices the endangered boa constrictors from Madagascar would have fetched if they had reached their intended destination, the black market, the RM190, 000 fine (RM2, 000 for each snake) would barely have made a dent in the dealers pockets. The illegal wildlife trade is a lucrative business, and recent figures indicate that US$30 billion in black money has been generated annually by smugglers working in the South East Asian area poaching and transporting endangered animals.

Another smuggler not learning his lesson the first time round, was caught in Bangkok airport trying to get 1,140 live Indian Star Tortoises and a Gavial crocodile to the Chatuchak market, a market popular with tourists, but notorious for the animal section, infamous for supplying protected animals in cramped cages.

The 44 year old man had been previously arrested in 2008 for attempting to smuggle 778 Indian Star Tortoises.

The authorities should make it clear to traders that smuggling protected wildlife is a serious crime, and should hand out sentences strong enough to not only stop the trader from re offending, but act as a deterrent to potential future traders.
Let’s hope that those traders exposed in the recent raid in Kantaban will be given a suitable punishment.

Primates Exploited All Over the World

In the news this week, three cases of primate abuse, all for different reasons, all in different countries, and all for the amusement, or benefit of the public.


First, over in Japan, a monkey has been seen to cling desperately to a young boar as he runs around Fukuchiyama Zoo in Kyoto, wild eyed and scared while onlookers scream and laugh. Both animals are clearly too young to be away from their parents and a responsible zoo would have procedures in place to ensure that young animals, such as these, are given the chance to grow up and behave naturally.




The Boar and Monkey at a Japanese Zoo.


Meanwhile, in China, a travesty of a ‘wedding’ was conducted in Hefei, in east China's Anhui province, with two chimpanzees as the ‘bride’ and ‘groom.’ Reports say the four year old male, Yangyang, was brought over from Guinea. This is particularly worrying as chimpanzees are listed under appendix 1 in CITES, meaning that all trade is prohibited, except for reasons not being commercial, such as scientific research. Chimpanzees are endangered, and dressing them up in garish clothes and parading them around in a ‘mock’ wedding ceremony is not an effective way to teach people that apes need protection. Indeed, it is fiascos like this that encourage people to view them as things for our entertainment.

Finally, to protect tourists and athletes during the Commonwealth Games, India has deployed an ‘army’ of 10 langurs to scare away the Indian bonnet monkeys, which have a reputation of attacking humans. There are better ways to deter monkeys from the public, and using wild animals is not an ideal, let alone ethical method to use. With the large numbers of people expected to arrive at the Commonwealth Games, and the sheer noise they will make, the langurs themselves are at risk of becoming scared, and potentially becoming a liability.



A Novel Way to Deter Monkeys from Harassing Tourists.

Let’s hope that the new species of gibbon found in Asia will not be subjected to the same treatment as these unfortunate primates, and instead, are granted full protection, which is enforced.

Clinton Goes Vegan (Almost) for Health

Explaining how Chelsea had asked him to slim down for her wedding day, Clinton has declared that he is ‘pretty much a vegan, only eating fish occasionally.’ He says that he is trying to stay healthy so that he can stay alive and fit for any grandchildren he may have.

Clinton explains his vegan diet.

He also talks about Dr. Esselstyn's diet, how several hundred people, since 1986, have eaten only a plant based diet, and the remarkable results that have ensued, how the calcium deposits around their heart have broken down, significantly reducing the risk of heart disease.

Vegan diets are becoming more and more popular, not just for those with animal welfare in the mind, but also with health too. A vegan diet is a greener diet, not just for your body, but also for the world. If President Clinton can do it, why shouldn’t we too?

South Korea Considers Banning Vile Bear Bile Farms

Great news from WSPA and Green Korea United (GKU), it looks hopeful that South Korea will put an end to bear bile farming, aiming to have a policy in place by the end of 2010, provided it can secure enough support from the relevant authorities.

The South Korean government should be applauded for taking this huge step forward, as South Korea is one of a handful of countries that still farm bears for bile, using horrific and gruesome methods to house the bears before they are slaughtered to extract the bile. This age old method is still in place despite many other herbal alternatives.

Throughout Asia, around 12,000 bears are housed in tiny cages, resting on bars for their entire life. Naturally, the bears are showing signs of psychological distress; bar biting, rocking and head banging. To extract the bile, which is thought to cure a range of diseases, the bears, depending on the country are either:

1. Raised in a cage until a certain age, and then killed and the gall bladder removed.

An Entire Bear Gall Bladder. Source: www.acres.org.sg

2. An ultrasound machine is used to locate the gall bladder and a syringe is inserted in the area, and the bile removed.

Bear with 'Modern' method of extracting bile. Source: Animals Asia

3. An open wound leading to the gall bladder is created and a catheter is inserted to let the bile drip out. In order to maintain this method, the wound needs to be reopened several times a day.

Catheter Used to Extract Bile. Source: www.all-creature.org

The conditions of the bear farms actually means that instead of working as a medicine, bear bile can actually cause harm to those who take it, due to the unhygienic conditions the bears are kept in, and the methods used to extract it.


WSPA reports that there are 1,400 bears currently being farmed in South Korean bear farms, where, unlike most other bear bile farming countries, in South Korea it is illegal to extract the bile while the bears are alive, instead the bears are kept in cramped cages until they reach ten years and are then slaughtered and the bile extracted.

If the South Korean government does push ahead for a ban, then it will provide hope, not only for the bears housed in the farms, but for all those who are working in the exhausting field of ending bear bile farming. The government actually informally asked WSPA and GKU to investigate feasible methods to phase out farming in the country, a positive and progressive sign.

Not only is bear bile consumed in the countries with farms, but the bile and the gall bladders are illegally imported to countries all over the world, including Singapore.

If you use traditional medicines, please ensure that your practitioner does not use any endangered animals in their products, including tiger parts or bear bile. If you live in a country that does not farm the animals, then they would have been imported, which is illegal and against CITES. If you do live in a country that farms, ask for herbal alternatives. Once the buying stops, the killing stops.

Elephants and Humans: A History of Torture, Abuse and Degradation

Mae Ka Pae is the 13th elephant to tread on a landmine on the Thailand/Burma (Myanmar) border. The mine that she trod on has shredded her left foot, and she is currently being cared for by Friends of the Asian Elephant, in the north Thai border.

Mae Ka Pae is another victim of land mines.

The elephant was thought to have been allowed to cross the border into Burma, in order to find food; it was during this crossing that she stepped on the mine, which would have been left as a result of the conflict between the Myanmar government and ethnic minority rebels.

Friends of the Asian Elephant have experienced vets, who have been providing elephants in similar circumstances with artificial limbs. The first elephant to be fitted with an artificial leg was Mosha, in 2007.

Over the centuries, elephants have always had a subservient relationship with humans, from carrying royalty, used as an old style tank during times of war, being used as a mode of transport over long distances, hunted for their tusks for ivory, during temple festivals and blessing pilgrims and more recently in circuses performing tricks. Current day finds them being used for logging purposes, and, increasingly, as a huge tourist draw, with backpackers and families flocking to Thailand to ride on an elephant.

An elephant used during war time.

Sadly, the conditions the elephants are raised in for logging, circuses and tourist riding centres, are not shown in the happy tourist/happy elephant photos. Westerners dream of being able to ride an elephant, imagining bonding with these majestic animals. The truth is that in order to ‘tame’ these strong, wild animals, first, their spirit must be broken, this is done via the method of ‘Phajaan,’ where elephants as young as 4 years old are ripped from their mothers and suffer horrific torture until they are deemed to have had their ‘spirit broken.’ They are tied and bound by ropes and chains and contained in a pen where they cannot move, they are held there for days and weeks, usually denied food and water until their mahout has decided they are ready.



Once the elephant is ‘trained’ they are then suitable for unsuspecting tourists to ride upon, feeling they are helping save the elephant, as usually the places they ride the elephants will state they are ‘saving’ the elephants, or are an ‘eco-park.’ Despite their size, carting around up to four people, plus over sized saddle on their back has a detrimental effect on the physical wellbeing of these intelligent animals.

Even after the Phajaan, the torture for the elephant does not stop there, the ‘ankus,’ a short stick with sharp curved hook at the end, is used to control the elephant. The hook is dug into the most sensitive parts of the elephants’ body, such as, behind the ear, on the forehead and trunk area. You just need to get close to an elephant after a show at a zoo to see the nick wounds on their face. Some zoos will try to hide the hook on the end of the stick by placing a brush on the end, but the hook is still there.

Various ankuses used when training elephants. Source: www.upali.ch

Once an elephant is deemed too old, too unwell to work in the logging industry or the tourist industry, they are no use to the mahouts who have ‘trained’ them. For the lucky ones, in the north of Thailand, they may go to Lek’s elephant rescue, Elephant Nature Park. It is here that elephants can retire in peace, not having to be ridden on again, to ease their aching backs and hopefully heal their psychological wounds. As we know, elephants are social animals, with complex relationships, that have been known to mourn their dead and care for each others’ children. The emotional effects of the treatment they have received throughout their life runs deep.

So, let’s hope that Mae Ka Pae is able to retire now, and that the talented vets at Friends of the Asian elephant can help her to walk free of pain and unhindered, like Mosha.
If you are travelling to South East Asia, do the elephants a favour, and don’t support the elephant ride or mahout training centres, there is a dark secret behind the happy tourist photos. Once the demand stops, the supply will stop.

Fur the Sake of a Coat.

As Sweden looks to vote on whether to have an outright ban on fur farms, previously fox farms were banned, fur has hit the catwalks again ready for the autumn/fall season. Celebrities who have been off the radar recently have been seen to be endorsing the skin of farmed animals. Who knows what has possessed them to make this decision, let’s hope it isn’t just to make the headlines in order to revive their careers. Brooke Shields and Janet Jackson, to name but a few, have been seen not just wearing, but advertising fur.

Animals farmed for fur are kept in tiny cages, similar to those in puppy mills, which for solitary animals, such as mink, this can be psychologically damaging, leading to stereotypical behaviour such as self-mutilation (biting off one’s own paws and limbs).

We know how the animals are drowned, gassed or electrocuted to death, you can’t slit the animal’s throat, gash wounds do not look too good on a wolf skin coat. If you haven’t seen the footage, you can watch the trailer for the latest documentary, Skin Trade, which highlights the gruesome methods used.

However, the age old fur trade it hitting back, ‘fur is green’ is the new slogan often used to justify butchering animals for luxury fashion items. The Fur Council of Canada implies that without the fur industry’s trapping of wild animals for fur there would be a population boom and ‘Nature’ would not be able to support the surplus animals and even rabies would be rife. Tell that to the beavers in the UK.

As for the welfare of farmed animals, the Council says that ”the optimal standards for the nutrition, housing, husbandry and euthanasia of farmed-raised mink and fox are set out in Recommended Codes of Practice developed by Agriculture Canada,” this is not a law, and is only a guideline. The Council goes on to state that, “there is a strong incentive to respect these codes because there is no other way to produce high quality fur; farmers who do not care for their animals will not remain in business very long.”

With all due respect to the Council, I highly doubt that Janet Jackson and Kanye West visited the intensively farmed animals and hand-picked which ones would be killed for their coat.

“Fur has become the texture of the moment.” Fur is not a texture. It is the skin of an animal that has been ripped from its body while it was still warm and often still alive. Fur was worn in the Stone Ages because it was the only source of warmth available. Today, there are plenty of ecological friendly materials that can be worn. Fur is tacky, and trashy. Even if it is ‘looked after’ it will smell eventually.

Brooke Shields and Cruella de Ville: Two women who like to wear fur. Any resemblance is purely coincidental

Like shark’s fin soup, once a symbol of wealth, it is so readily available, mass produced so cheaply, anyone can afford it. You just have to come across to Asia to see how cheap both products can be produced.

Source: PETA files. Fur Free and fabulous!

These women have denounced fur, and their careers are still going strong, Brooke.

At What Cost Conservation? Polar Bears in Tropical Zoos.

Polar bears, think of polar bears and no doubt snow will spring to mind, wide vast land with snow, or at least, during the warmer months, grass. You don’t expect to see concrete floors and cramped enclosures. Sadly, for many polar bears in zoos, this is the case.

There are polar bears in zoos all over the world. In the UK, the last polar bear,Mercedes, was moved to a larger enclosure to live out the rest of her years in a slightly colder climate.

Meanwhile, over in Asia, the Singapore Zoo has been making the news. The polar bear enclosure has attracted criticism from local animal welfare charity, ACRES (Animal Concerns Research and Education Society). ACRES has been monitoring the polar bears plight since 2005, where they discovered that in the Singapore heat, of up to 32 degrees C, the bears have been showing signs of heat stress and the stereotypical behaviours observed in zoo animals that do not have enough space.

Singapore Zoo Bears. Source: www.acres.org.sg

In recent news, the Singapore Zoo has declared it will be making changes to the bear’s enclosure. They will be making the new enclosure 3.5 times bigger than the current one, it will be 1,400 sq m, considering a solitary bear’s home range can be a few hundred miles, the enclosure will fall short again. Not even considering that the mother and son relationship is completely unnatural, Inuka, the 18 year old male should have left home a long time ago.

The new enclosure will have soil so that the bears no longer will have to walk and rest on hard concrete, ideally it will be deep enough for them to dig down and make beds and dens.

At what cost will this enclosure be to the climate? Polar bears are arctic animals; even running in the freezing cold can cause them to overheat. So, in order to maintain an ideal temperature the zoo is making the new enclosure climate controlled. Imagine the financial and environmental cost to keep this running. Sure, the polar bears at the zoo may be cold, but what about their wild arctic cousins? Their ice caps are going to be melting, just to keep the two Singapore Zoo bears cool! Surely, it is better just to put the two bears on a plane and transport them to pastures cold?

The IUCN red list classifies polar bears as Vulnerable, listing the main threat to them as climate change, so while it is important to ensure that polar bears do not disappear completely, keeping them in an enclosure that contributes to climate change is irresponsible.

Animal Abuse in the Media

The recent video of a young woman throwing week old puppies into a river, has horrified all who have watched it.

Hopefully the video is a fake (like the recent fox killings), but watching the squirming and yelping puppies in her hands before she throws them into the river appears to be the Real McCoy.

Sadly, drowning puppies and kittens in rivers has been a method of ‘population control’ for years, especially on farms. In fact, poet Seamus Heaney even wrote an entire poem about growing up where drowning kittens was common place.

The reason for the outcry? The media. With the internet now accessible to almost everyone, videos and pictures depicting animal cruelty are available everywhere.
Recently, a facebook group which tortured and murdered animals and then posted the videos on the group was removed. On the internet, you can find crush videos (videos showing young women in stilettos squashing animals with their feet), animals being tortured and videos depicting animals being hunted. An American court has even placed protection on these videos, as they come under the First Amendment, namely, the freedom of speech.

However, the coverage of these videos means it has been possible in some cases to identify the person in the video. In the case of the woman who bizarrely dumped a cat in a wheelie bin outside a home, only because the cats’ owners placed the video on the internet were people able to identify her. The police and RSPCA are now looking at prosecuting Mary Bale.

Hopefully, with the wide coverage of the puppy deaths, someone out there will be able to identify her, and hopefully the country she resides in, has strong animal welfare laws. What is most horrifying about this video; is the sheer pleasure she seems to take in throwing the defenceless pups into the water.

Whilst publishing this post, a sanctuary goat was brutally mutilated; hopefully the internet sleuths can focus on finding out who tortured this poor animal, who had to be euthanized because of his extensive injuries.

Trade in Endangered Animals Still Rife in South East Asia

More news from TRAFFIC; a live tiger cub was found concealed in a woman’s luggage at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport on Sunday. The tiger was sedated and hidden amongst stuffed toy tigers.

Airport staff suspicions were aroused when the bag went through the sensors and the x-ray showed an image of a cat’s beating heart and other organs. Tests of the tiger DNA are currently being conducted to determine the tiger’s origin and sub species, which will determine whether it was wild caught, or captive born.

Tiger Cub Found at Bangkok's Airport, Sulma Warne-TRAFFIC

While over in Vietnam, a massive seizure of wildlife from restaurants was conducted by the Lam Dong Forest Protection Department (FPD). A huge co-ordinated campaign involving over 100 officers from the province investigated restaurants suspected of selling illegal wildlife based on results from a survey that found that 44 restaurants and 33 Traditional Chinese Medicines (TCM) shops (representing 68% restaurants and 21% TCM shop visited) were serving wildlife.

Civets Found During the Raid. ZooNews Digest

A huge number of animals and animal parts were found, over 300kg of meat from animals including civets, pangolins, porcupine, mouse deer, bear paws, clouded leopard, short-clawed otter, leopard cat, binturong, and small Indian civet. These animals were destined to end up on the plates of customers at the restaurants.

Langurs and Other Animals Seized. ZooNews Digest

The two findings this week indicate that the illegal wildlife trade is still going strong in South East Asia, and with the tiger heading for Iran, the trade is not just staying in South East Asia. Although it is fantastic that the raids occurred, and the staff at the airport were quick witted enough to spot the tiger amongst the toys, it shows that people will still try to smuggle animals, dead or alive, and will continue to poach them unless something is done to really act as a preventative.

Ugly to Some, but Endangered to All.

Angelina Jolie wants you to save the Stellate Sturgeon.

Not likely, mainly because the Stellate sturgeon is not a beautiful fish. Rather the opposite, in fact. Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but in a cute competition with, say, a panda, the Stellate sturgeon would be happy to go home with the wooden spoon.

Flagship species such as; the cute and cuddly panda bear, the majestic Asian elephant and beautiful tiger, are visibly attractive, and of course excellent fundraisers for conservation and animal welfare charities. And why not? After all, these organisations cover all aspects of conservation and animal welfare.

But, as the underdogs, it is important that the species, that are not so beautiful, except maybe to their mothers, get a chance to shine.

Here are 5 of the not so attractive, but still endangered, animals on the

ICUN red list:

1: Purple Burrowing frog (Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis)

Things are not looking too bright for this frog, only 135 specimens have been found, and only three of these have been female, no wonder then, that the numbers are thought to be declining. Also not helping the frogs chance of survival, is its behaviour of living 1.3 – 2.7m underground and only emerging for a few weeks a year to breed. Found only in two places in Western Ghats in India, deforestation is the main threat facing this animal.

2: Gharial, or Gavial (Gavialis gangeticus)

This critically endangered reptile’s home is being destroyed, and the females are nesting less and less each year. When the females do nest, their eggs are sometimes eaten by tribal people, who consider the eggs a delicacy. Most conservation efforts have not been successful, and this has resulted in the number of males thought to be in the wild estimated at less than 20.

3: Squat-headed Hammerhead Shark (Sphyrna mokarran)

No prizes for guessing what trade has caused this shark to be on the endangered list. Longline catches and the shark’s large fins make them a target for the Asian fin trade. Sharks have a very low reproduction rate, with this shark producing only one pup every two years the numbers are not looking good.

4: Stellate Sturgeon (Acipenser stellatus)

Over fishing is the cause of this sturgeon’s population decrease, pollution also tipping the scales. Another fish with low population rates, the females only mate every 3-4 years and the males every 2-3 years. If the over fishing continues, it won’t be long before this bizarre little fish disappears.

5: Rabb’s Fringe-limbed Treefrog (Ecnomiohyla rabborum)

This tree frog is yet another victim of chytridiomycosis, caused by a fungal growth in South America. This fungus is thought to have wiped out over 80% of the population. Since the fungus was discovered to be killing frogs in 2006, calls from male frogs have decreased. The forests are becoming devoid of the calls and breeding efforts have so far not been successful.

Should Nellie Pack Her Trunk, and Say Goodbye to the Zoo?

The RSPCA has called for an outright ban on elephants in zoos, following a report of the welfare conditions of these highly intelligent animals.

The report, from Bristol University, was reviewed by Zoo Forum, an independent body set up by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). It found that there are serious welfare problems in UK zoos with regards to the wellbeing of the elephants.

Elephants are wide ranging, travelling between a few kilometres to up to 12 a day. They are highly social animals, living in family groups of up to 15 related females, plus calves. Providing adequate living conditions for captive elephants is a challenge for any zoo, and would involve a large living space with a complex enrichment program, plus areas of seclusion. The enclosure would ideally, accurately represent a wild environment.

When the review was written, there were around 70 elephants in British zoos, with roughly equal numbers of Asian (Elephas maximus) and African (Loxodonta africana). This report can serve as a representation of all elephants in zoos, all across the world.

The original report does not say that the zoos are not trying to improve their elephants welfare, indeed they report that ‘Zoos are acutely aware of the issues surrounding the welfare of their elephants, and attempts to enrich and improve their lives are ongoing.’ Harris et al 2008.

It has previously been documented that the larger the enclosure an animal lives in, the less likely stereotypical behaviour will occur, this report goes on to state that ‘It would not be possible to provide space equivalent to home ranges in the wild.’

While acknowledging lameness in elephants being a serious problem, the report compares the level of lameness in zoos as being on par with lameness with dairy cattle, broiler chickens and factory farmed pigs. This is a damning comparison, but the report seems to defend the level of lameness, saying that is it not a problem of elephants only. Just because it affects more than one species, doesn’t make it right.

The elephant mortality rates in zoos was shocking, both Asian and African elephants in zoos suffered from decreased mortality compared to wild populations and those working in Burmese logging camps. The still birth and infant mortality rates were also shockingly high. One possible reason for this was the behaviour of mothers killing their young, a trait absent in wild elephants.

Zoos are keeping elephants in zoos for conservation, to attract visitors and create fundraising opportunities, to educate the public, to educate keepers on husbandry and elephant medicine and to provide research for conservation efforts.

But if the elephants are suffering, as this report implies, then at what cost is conservation? African elephants are being culled for their effects on farmland in Africa, and there are calls to keep Asian elephants in Asia. Why do elephants need to be kept in the UK, so far away from their homeland?

Why not instead focus on maintaining a wild population, creating a land space in home countries of the elephants, or helping those elephants who are trapped in the tourist industry, those zoos that have phased out the keeping of elephants are still doing well. Zoos, who house elephants today, should follow their example, and work towards making the suffering population of elephants extinct in UK zoos.

Other countries should look at themselves in the same critical light, and take a step forward, as the UK has done, to improve the lives of their elephants that reside within their zoos.