Category: Feature Stories

by Lori Kalef, Program Manager

Last month, Meredith and I traveled to east Africa to work alongside our partners in Tanzania and to gather firsthand information on the tragic, unprecedented decline of the magnificent wildlife known to Africa. After days working with our partner on domestic animal and livestock issues, we traveled out to the bush to speak with local game rangers about the many animals facing extinction as a result of poaching and hunting.

Africa embraces a tremendous wealth of wildlife, and Tanzania has been particularly blessed. National parks, game reserves and wildlife management areas envelop almost a third of the entire county. Of all the species found there, lions are particularly important because they draw the most visitors throughout the world. While a large part of these visitors only come to take photos, hundreds of others armed with rifles and hired guides pay thousands of dollars to take home trophies from what is often termed a once-in-a-lifetime hunt. Man has become one of the worst predators to the lion. The millions of dollars that hunters spend to go on safari each year are said to help finance Tanzania’s economy, even filtering down to help fund conservation efforts and wildlife management for the game reserves and national parks.

During our visit to Selous, the largest game reserve on the African continent, we had the opportunity to speak with the locals about their views on the crisis. Even though outsiders know the reserve as abstaining from hunting, what we learned was quite different. In fact, the entire south side of the reserve has been identified as a hunting hotspot for foreigners with large wallets, the majority being from the U.S.

Tanzania has also been deemed the epicenter of Africa’s elephant poaching crisis, with over 60% of the population being killed in the last 5 years for the illegal ivory trade. If this trend continues, conservationists believe that this majestic beast could go extinct within a decade. A recent announcement from U.S. and China’s governments states an agreement to enact “nearly complete bans on ivory import and export”. The questions that loom over many minds are whether it is too late and will the illegal poaching become even more underground and violent? Poachers are said to work alongside underpaid regulatory officials and are most often heavily armed.

All these results have started to pile pressure on the Tanzanian government that has been heavily scrutinized for its inability to put a stop the vast amount of ivory being poached and threat of extinction for some of Africa’s famed animals from its national parks. We were told that the Tanzanian Government insists it will become stricter on the amount of hunting licenses granted; however, with so much income being generated from foreign hunting demand, locals believe the movement remains uncertain and thus so does the future for some of African’s wildlife.

As an immediate action step, SPCAI will immediately set up a new petition for the Tanzania government to further pressure them to ban ALL hunting licenses for the majestic wildlife of Tanzania. SPCAI is also developing partnerships to focus more resources on these critical extinction issues before it’s too late. Please stay tuned on Facebook for the petition and our call to action for signatures and sharing.

By Stephanie Scott, Director of Communications

SPCA International is proud to support Washington state's groundbreaking ballot initiative 1401 – Save Animals Facing Extinction. If passed by voters in November, this initiative will make it a crime in Washington to traffic 10 species threatened with extinction in part due to the market for their body parts. I-1401 states "There is broad consensus that the trafficking of animals threatened with extinction continues to grow at an alarming pace, threatening an increasing variety of animal species including elephants, rhinoceroses, tigers, lions, leopards, cheetahs, pangolins, marine turtles, sharks, and rays, among others. These species are  threatened with extinction in large part due to the trafficking of their parts and products…The most effective way to discourage illegal trafficking in animal species threatened with extinction is to eliminate markets and profits." If I-1401 is passed by voters in November, violations of this law would carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison and $10,000 fine.

This is not the first significant progress on this issue made in recent months. In early September, the California legislature passed a landmark bill banning the sale of elephant ivory and rhino horns throughout the state. And in late September, President Obama and President Xi Jinping of China pledged to join forces to end the ivory trade. 

If Washington state joins California in banning the trafficking of endangered animal parts, it will effectively end the import of these goods at two of the three busiest ports in the U.S., and almost the entire West Coast.

If you are registered to vote in Washington state, please vote Yes on I-1401.

By Emma Koeniger, SPCAI staff

As the cold weather and shorter days starts to encroach upon us we will start to leave our lights on longer and turn our heaters on. The fossil fuels used to generate this energy are responsible for 23 billion tones of CO2 annually. The carbon dioxide is making our planet warmer and our oceans more acidic. But how does this impact wildlife?

The species in the Coral Triangle, located in the western Pacific Ocean, is also feeling the effects of climate change. Not only is it home to 600 different species of coral, 2000 types of reef fish, and six species of marine turtles; it is also utilized as a feeding and breeding ground for large types of marine animals such as sharks and whales. Due to the increasing acidity of the ocean algae, which supply coral with food, are dying off causing the coral to starve and bleach. Without the coral the 2000 different species of reef fish will be without a home, feeding grounds for hundreds of other marine wildlife will be non-existent.

Polar bears rely on swimming to get them to ice flows. These ice platforms are used for hunting, resting and mating. However due to warming in the Arctic these ice platforms are getting smaller and smaller. Due to unstable ice polar bears are forced to stay on shore and rely on stored fat until they are able to go back out onto the ice. Because of this instability, many polar bears are suffering from malnutrition as their time ashore continues to increase.

And that is just the tip of the iceberg. Wildlife in every corner of the world are severely impacted by carbon pollution. We are capable of helping these animals by making small changes in our everyday lives by cutting down on the amount of electricity we use, eating sustainable and locally sourced food, reducing our meat consumption, and not using our cars for 1 or 2 days out of the week. If we all make these changes polar bears, the complex ecosystems of the coral reefs and so thousands of other impacted species won’t be lost to the world of picture books.