BP has a way with words. Check out one of its new youtube press releases, followed by a turtle rescue team member who claims BP is burning the animals alive.
Poor animals, pawns by one megalomaniac dictator to stroke another dictator's ego with an absurdly extravagant gift. Unfortunately many of the animals on-board are endangered species or susceptible to being harmed by the grueling flight and quarantine that would accompany it...not to mention whether the caretakers in North Korea will actually know how to properly care for the animals indigenous to Africa. This article, from The Guardian by David Smith, gives more a more detailed account of the problems that arise from such a half-baked idea.
Conservationists protest as Robert Mugabe sends 'ark' of animals to North Korea
Zimbabwean president sending giraffes, zebras, baby elephants and other wild animals taken from a national park to zoo in communist state, conservation groups say
Two by two, they were caught and lined up as an extravagant gift from one despotic regime to another.
According to conservationists, the Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe, will send a modern-day ark – containing pairs of giraffes, zebras, baby elephants and other wild animals taken from a national park – to a zoo in North Korea.
The experts warned that not every creature would survive the journey to be greeted by Mugabe's ally Kim Jong-il, the North Korean leader.
There are particular fears that a pair of 18-month-old elephants could die during the long airlift.
Johnny Rodrigues, the head of the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force, said elephant experts did not believe the calves would survive the journey separated from their mothers.
Rodrigues, whose task force is an alliance of conservation groups, said all the animals were captured on Mugabe's orders to be given to North Korea. He cited witnesses and officials in the western Hwange National Park. Witnesses reported seeing capture and spotting teams, government vehicles towing cages, and armed men at key watering holes with radios to call in the capture teams.
The animals were being kept in quarantine in holding pens at Umtshibi camp in the park, he said.
Rodrigues added that officials opposed to the captures had leaked details to conservationists.
They reported that some areas of the 5,500 square mile park, the biggest in Zimbabwe, were being closed to tourists and photographic safari groups.
"We fear a pair of endangered rhino in Hwange will also be included," he told the Associated Press.
He said conservation groups were trying to find out from civil aviation authorities when the airlift would begin, and were lobbying for support from international animal welfare groups to stop it.
Zoo conditions in North Korea, which is isolated by most world nations, did not meet international standards, he said. Two rhinos, a male called Zimbo and a female called Zimba, given to Kim by Mugabe in the 80s, died only a few months after their relocation.
At the same time, other rhinos given to Belgrade zoo in the former Yugoslavia died after contracting footrot in damp and snowy winter conditions.
Rodrigues said: "This new exercise has to be stopped. People under orders to do it are too scared to speak out."
North Korea has a long association with Mugabe, and trained a Zimbabwe army brigade responsible for the massacre of at least 20,000 people in the 80s.
Last month Zimbabwe announced that the North Korean football team was bound for a training camp in the country ahead of the World Cup in neighbouring South Africa. Opposition groups pledged to demonstrate against their presence.
Conservation efforts in Zimbabwe have suffered major setbacks in recent years as the country's economy has gone into meltdown. Reports say rhino poaching, driven by Chinese black market demand for the animals' horns, has soared.
Zimbabwe's Parks and Wildlife Management Authority did not respond to requests for comment.
Took a drive towards Wafra and came across two opposite scenarios. In one, there were white, weak and unhealthy camels gated in an abandoned area with littered cars and rust, covered with flies over all their skin and eyes. In another, happy, handsome brown camels with a docile curiousity and an eagerness to be pet. If anyone recognized the scene of the sad camels, please let me know.
While I am not that much of a vocal animal rights activist, I've read in the newspapers today that three wild pigs in the Baghdad zoo were killed today amidst fears of swine flu contagion, and that Egypt announced that it is planning on exterminating its entire pig population. Many of these pigs (about 250,000) are reared by garbage collectors in the slums of Cairo, who use the pigs to dispose of organic waste. They belong and are eaten by the Coptic Christian community in these shantytowns. In short, they are a source of livelihood for these people, and they are not being compensated. The UN condemns the slaughtering of pigs as a response to swine flu, and the WHO has made clear that this is an inadequate response to the H1N1 virus as there is no evidence that these pigs were transmitting the flu.
sustainable urbanization - livable cities - international politics - fair trade - ethical and inclusive globalization - international development and cooperation - economic, social and cultural rights - slum housing rights - equal access for all to the arts
The Eternal UN Declaration of Human Rights
-
Jeremy Waldron assesses the Universal Declaration of Human Rights' enduring
relevance to establishing the ethics of global responsibility.
Posts
