whyinthehell

“The federal Wildlife Services agency (a branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture) is the primary wolf-killer in the United States — and now wants to expand their wolf-killing operations… even in the face of a court ruling restoring protections to these iconic animals.

Wildlife Services plans to work with Idaho officials to eliminate up to 80 percent of the wolves in central Idaho by land and from the air. Their plan also includes killing entire packs — including gassing helpless wolf pups in their dens — and surgically sterilizing alpha wolf pairs.

Help stop the killing. Urge President Obama’s Secretary of the Department of Agriculture to nix the planned wolf slaughter and rein in Wildlife Services.”

Petition here.

“Help WWF tighten regulations to protect captive tigers in the U.S. and prevent increased demand for tiger products that put wild populations at risk.

At present, there is currently no way to determine how many captive tigers are in the U.S., where they are, who owns them, or what happens to them when they die. This makes them an easy target for black market sales, stimulating demand for tiger products and further threatening wild populations by putting them at increased risk of poaching. Join our petition asking the U.S. government to close the existing loopholes and require registration and monitoring of all captive tigers.”

“Russian Tiger Habitat Gets a Boost With Protection of Key Tree Species

The Russian government has introduced measures to protect Korean Pine, a key species found in Amur Tiger habitat in the Russian Far East, WWF and TRAFFIC announced. Rising global demand for Korean Pine has led to a massive increase in logging, much of it carried out illegally in Russia’s remaining temperate forests.

Around 400 Amur Tigers survive in the native Korean Pine forests of the Russian Far East and north-east China, where the pine nuts are an essential food source for tiger prey species.

“The fate of the Amur Tiger is inextricably linked to the safeguard of the Korean Pine,” said Pauline Verheij, joint TRAFFIC and WWF Tiger Trade Program Manager.

Read the full story.”

• Text TIGERS to 20222 to donate $10 now. Help spread the word by adding this banner on your social networks and sharing this video of Ethan Suplee.

  To add a banner to your page, copy and paste the following HTML code:

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To “honor” South Africa as host of the 2010 World Cup, an Arizona restaurant has decided to offer their customers the option to order lion burgers.

Look tasty?

“We thought that since the World Cup was in Africa …that the lion burger might be interesting for some of our more adventurous customers.”

The restaurant owner also said that, although many people were outraged at the idea of serving up the majestic (and endangered) animals in burgers, some were less upset when he explained that meat comes form lions raised on a farm in Illinois.

Despite the fact that they’re not killing the lions in the wild, this brings up a whole new issue. Ecorazzi makes a good point:

“It’s difficult to determine what the real story is here—that a restaurant is serving King of the Jungle burgers or that there is a farm in Illinois that raises the big cats for human consumption. No matter, the decision to serve meat from a threatened species as a tribute to an international soccer—or football, depending on your locale—event is mind-boggling.”

More troubling is the fact that, according to the Chicago Tribune, no one can seem to find the farm.

A farmed tiger being smuggled from Thailand

CNN has reported that the meat actually came from a butcher shop whose owner has been fined and jailed for selling lion meat - which (sadly) is legal - that actually proved to be meat form critically endangered tigers, which is most definitely not legal under any circumstances.

(via ryking)

PLEASE READ THIS. Reblog, email to friends, post on Facebook…

I have been a supporter of Kenya’s David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage for some time, fostering several little trunked-characters over the past years. They are a phenomenal organization and I was blessed to actually visit the orphans this past June when I was in Nairobi. In all my years of following their rescue and rehabilitation work, today I received what truly was the most heartbreaking and horrendous story to date. I can not comprehend that a human could treat a young animal this way. A young calf was found in Tsavo West, discovered hiding in bushes with a long, bent spear lodged 20 cm into his skull, between his eyes. With additional spear wounds on his body, this little guy was terrified and aggressive, putting up quite a fight with the vets and keepers. Please read his story and think about whether this is an organization you could help. If everyone reading this could think good thoughts for Murka, maybe he will pull through.

The full story and pictures are here:

http://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/asp/orphan_profile.asp?N=233

Thanks

NJ

This is Shukuru, the little rascal I am currently fostering. I watched as she climbed into bed with her blanket after downing a huge bottle of milk!

(Tumblr wasn’t letting me reblog the entire post so I had to copy & paste so it appears to be an original post, but this is entirely a reblog from njwight.  ~whyinthehell)