The Future of Elephants is at Stake

 

The upcoming Global March for Elephants and Rhinos on Saturday, October 4, is an historic moment in the struggle to save these species from extinction. This epic event shows that the tide of public opinion is turning at last, and that people are realizing the depth and scope of the crisis.

 

 

The Amboseli Trust for Elephants (ATE) will be marching alongside PAWS (view time and meet-up location below) in San Francisco. Our U.S. director, Dr. Betsy Swart, will be taking part in the March, handing out ATE's "Don't Buy Ivory" bracelets, and will be at the PAWS information table in United Nations Plaza immediately following the March.

 

Last week, during meetings of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) in New York, Chelsea Clinton reiterated CGI's strong commitment to anti-poaching.  She made it clear that if something is not done NOW, her baby could grow up in a world where there are no elephants. 

 

Are you ready to help ensure the future of elephants and rhinos around the world? I hope

Dr. Cynthia Moss, Amboseli National Park in Kenya

you will show your support on October 4th by marching in one the many participating cities around the globe.

 

We must strengthen our commitment every day to a future that is safe and secure for elephants and rhinos. Keep working and start marching!

 

- Cynthia Moss

 

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Dr. Cynthia Moss is an American-born conservationist, world-renowned wildlife researcher and writer. She is director of the Amboseli Elephant Research Project in Kenya, the longest running study of African elephants in the world. She has led her research team in Amboseli National Park for 42 years, studying every aspect of these elephants' lives. Almost everything we know about African elephants today is because of her ongoing work. She is also the program director and trustee for the Amboseli Trust for Elephants (ATE).

 

Dr. Keith Lindsay, scientific advisory committee member with the Amboseli Elephant Research Project, is a scheduled speaker on Day 1 of the PAWS International Captive Wildlife Conference in Los Angeles, Nov. 8-10.

 

Visit ATE's website to sign up for their newsletter; "like" them on Facebook or follow them on Twitter.

San Francisco, 2013

   

March With PAWS Against Extinction

 

Join PAWS and thousands of people around the world for the Global March for Elephants and Rhinos on Saturday, October 4, 2014, and help bring global attention to the annihilation of wild elephants and rhinos for the international wildlife trade. Last year marches took place in over 40 cities and more than 15 countries. This year more than 100 cities around the world have marches planned.

 

Elephants and rhinos are under serious poaching pressure throughout Africa due to growing markets in Asia. 

• Poachers kill an estimated 35,000 elephants each year across Africa just so their tusks can be carved into trinkets and expensive figurines. That's nearly 100 elephants a day, or one every 15 minutes. 

• A record 1004 rhinos were poached in 2013 in South Africa alone and 700 have been killed so far this year. Rhino horns are used for traditional medicinal purposes in Asia, even though the horns are made of the same protein that makes up our hair and fingernails. 

At this rate, elephants and rhinos will become extinct in the wild in our lifetimes if nothing is done to stop the killing.

 

Please help bring attention to this crisis by marching for elephants and rhinos, and calling for an end to all trade in elephant ivory and rhino horns.

 

PAWS directors, staff and volunteers will be participating in both the San Francisco and Los Angeles marches. PAWS president and co-founder, Ed Stewart, will be a featured speaker at a rally in United Nations Plaza following the San Francisco march; PAWS director of science, research and advocacy, Catherine Doyle, will be speaking at the Los Angeles march.

 

Please join PAWS on October 4th in:

 

San Francisco - March for Elephants and Rhinos

10:15 a.m. - St. Mary's Square Park in San Francisco's Chinatown district

 

The San Francisco march will cover an easy 1.75-mile route that begins at 10:30 a.m. in St. Mary's Square Park in Chinatown (601 California Street) and ends at United Nations Plaza near Market and Hyde streets. Meet up with us any time between 9:45 a.m. and the start of the March. We'll have extra signs available for participants, but we do encourage everyone to be creative and make your own. PAWS will have an information table set up at the rally site.

St. Mary's Square is located approximately 1/2-mile from the BART Montgomery Street station. Suggested parking for those driving to San Francisco would be the St. Mary's Square parking garage (entrance at 433 Kearny Street) located at the site of the start of the March, or the Union Square parking garage (333 Post Street) located midway between the starting and ending locations of the march.

 

Los Angeles - March for Elephants, Rhinos and Lions

11 a.m. - La Brea Tar Pits, 5801 Wilshire Blvd., in Los Angeles; please arrive by 10:45 a.m. Meet in front of the George C. Page Museum, 5801 Wilshire Blvd.

 

The Los Angeles March will proceed west on Wilshire Blvd., about .7 miles to the South African Consulate and then back to the rally site.

 

Abundant street parking is available on blocks just north and south of Wilshire Blvd. There is also a parking lot next to the George C. Page museum for $10.

 

Event activities include speakers, entertainment, information tables, and children's face painting and poster making. For more information see the Los Angeles March Facebook event page.

 

If you can't be at either location, please join a march near you. Click here for a list of cities worldwide hosting marches. Take action for elephants and rhinos by writing letters and signing petitions. Click here for more information.

 

For 30 years, PAWS has been a leader in advocating for captive exotic and wild animals. At the same time, we bring attention to the plight of those in the wild. To learn more about our rescue efforts, natural habitat captive wildlife sanctuary, and our elephants, big cats, bears, and more, please visit www.pawsweb.org.

 

Ed explained in the Associated Press article that some caretakers who are in direct contact with elephants falsely believe they are safe from harm. "But of all the people who were killed, nobody thought they were going to be killed," Ed explained. "They thought it was OK. They thought they were safe. But elephants just aren't safe."

There is another tragic, though less publicized, outcome to the story of the short-lived Maine "sanctuary." The elephants, Opal and Rosie, have been returned to the circus facility from which they came, the Endangered Ark Foundation. This was the provision that was made for the elephants in the event of the owner's death. The Carson & Barnes Circus owns the Endangered Ark Foundation, so the elephants are being sent back to the same conditions and handling they experienced before they were presumably rescued.

Catherine Doyle at ARK 2000

 

PAWS' Catherine Doyle to Speak at

National Museum of Animals and Society

 

PAWS' director of science, research and advocacy, Catherine Doyle, will speak at the National Museum of Animals and Society in Los Angeles on Sunday, October 19, at 7 p.m. Her talk, "The Case Against Keeping Elephants in Captivity," is part of the 3rd annual 'Animals and Society' Fall Lecture Series titled Wild and Endangered: Amazing Animals and Human Harms.

 

The lecture series is the product of a partnership between NMAS, the Human-Animal Studies Program at the University of Redlands in California, and Minding Animals International. Catherine will also be speaking at the University of Redlands on Monday, October 20.

 

The lecture at the Museum is free and open to the public. If you live in the Los Angeles area, we would love to see you there. You can also view the highly acclaimed show currently at the Museum, Elephant: Forget Me Not, September 13 through November 30.

 

"The Case Against Keeping Elephants in Captivity"

Lecture by Catherine Doyle, M.S.

National Museum of Animals and Society

4302 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles 90029

Sunday, October 19 at 7 p.m.

(visual presentation starts at 7 p.m., followed by lecture at 7:30 p.m.)

 

Register Now for PAWS'

International Captive Wildlife Conference

 

 

Day 1 of the conference is devoted to elephants and the many issues surrounding their captivity, care and welfare, while Day 2 focuses on marine mammals, big cats and nonhuman primates. Panelists include experts with direct experience of the often-shocking conditions in which these animals are confined in marine parks, roadside zoos and circuses, as well as their use as animal "actors" and exotic "pets." Day 3 addresses campaigns and advocacy and features national and international animal protection organizations, as well as individual advocates making a difference for wild animals in captivity.

 

Speakers include: Gary Baum, author of "Animals Were Harmed", the Hollywood Reporter's scathing exposé on the abuse of animals used in film and television; author Marc Bekoff, famous for his revealing insights into the inner lives of animals; primate expert Sarah Baeckler Davis, whose undercover work exposed the cruelty behind training nonhuman primates to perform; David Hancocks, author, architect, former zoo director and zoo critic; Keith Lindsay, conservation biologist and Scientific Advisory Committee member with the Amboseli Elephant Research Project; Ric O'Barry, founder of The Dolphin Project and featured in Academy Award-winning documentary The Cove, which exposed the dolphin slaughter in Taiji, Japan; Joyce Poole, pioneer in the study of elephant behavior and communication and co-founder of ElephantVoices; Naomi Rose, marine mammal scientist featured in the documentary Blackfish; Ed Stewart, co-founder and president of PAWS, the nation's first elephant sanctuary; Actress and comedienne Lily Tomlin (tentative), executive producer and narrator of the Emmy Award-winning HBO documentary An Apology to Elephants; Steven Wise, director of the Nonhuman Rights Project, which seeks to win legal personhood for a nonhuman animal in the courts. (Click here for a full list of speakers and here for a complete program.)

 

The conference weekend includes a special Saturday evening anniversary gala celebrating PAWS' 30th year of sanctuary care, education and advocacy for captive wild animals. The gala features gourmet vegan food, silent and live auctions, entertainment and celebrity guests. 

 

 

The PAWS family is saddened to report that African lioness Pfeiffer passed away on August 27, 2014. She was 17 years old. 

Pfeiffer was a cub when she came to PAWS from the Detroit Zoo in 1997. She had been surrendered to the Detroit Police Department by her private owner when she was only three months old. The police department took her to the Michigan Anti-Cruelty Society who turned her over to the Detroit Zoo the next day. Zoo veterinarians examined her and found that she had been declawed and defanged, her leg joints were malformed due to nutritional deficiency, and she was very lame on her left front foot. Interestingly, two male cubs found their way to the Detroit Zoo around the same time as Pfeiffer. All three lions were about the same age, and all three had been illegal pets that had been confiscated or surrendered to law enforcement in Detroit.

 

 

 

Australia Takes Action To Stop Import Of Rhino Trophies

Australia has imposed a ban on the import of rhino trophies, and Australia's minister of the environment, Greg Hunt, has requested that the ban be extended to other African species, particularly the lion. The minister was reported as stating: "It's just not right at this time in history that we are allowing endangered species to be brought back as trophies into Australia. I've signed an order, we're taking action - it's going to stop."

 

A new bill, in honor of the Kenyan "big tusker" Satao who was killed by poachers, has been introduced in Congress by Rep. Peter DeFazio from Oregon. If passed it will give the U.S. government the power to introduce trade sanctions against countries that fail to address elephant poaching and the trade in illegal wildlife. 

 

Raju Update