Wildlife crimes and wildlife trafficking 

do not recognize national borders. 

African Wildlife was created to raise awareness about the perils facing our wildlife in Africa, due to poaching, trophy hunting, and habitat loss. 
A short while ago, someone tossed out an accusation toward us, that we had no right to meddle in the affairs of another country. We disagreed, as it appears that many countries are involved in perpetuating the wildlife abuses in Africa. 

Wildlife crime is the fourth largest global illegal trade. http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32151983 

Five myths about illegal wildlife trafficking http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/five-myths-about-illegal-wildlife-trafficking/2015/04/17/b43182fe-e3a1-11e4-b510-962fcfabc310_story.html 

The reason we are bringing any of this up, is that we are witnessing a trend in online activism, to vilify a country as being the sole aggressor in this war on wildlife. 
Saw this happen with the Taiji dolphin hunts in Japan. Not every Japanese citizen was responsible for this practice, yet frequently we would see vitriolic posts aimed at Japan as a whole. 

How are we to be taken seriously as activists and/or animal rights advocates, if we allow our outrage to turn us into nationalistic voices of hatred? 

The U.S.A. is the second largest global player in the ivory trade that threatens to render Africa’s elephants extinct. Yet again, and again, we are seeing horrific slanderous posts leveled at China and Vietnam. We have some incredible activists working within those countries to raise awareness about poaching elephants for tusks, and rhinos for horns. How can we say we support them, if we are slinging slurs at them for being of Chinese or Vietnamese descent? 

The U.S.A. does have a federal ivory ban in play, but it does not apply state by state. These articles explain in detail what role the U.S.A. plays in ivory trade. 

Citizens Spur States to Ban Trade in Ivory and Rhino Horn From Vermont to California, grassroots efforts drive state actions to protect elephants and rhinos. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/04/150407-ivory-trade-vermont-usfws-victor-gordon-cities-nra/rptregcta=reg_free_np&rptregcampaign=2015012_invitation_ro_all 

Pianos and elephants clash at statehouse http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/politics/2015/04/09/vermont-ivory-ban-bill/25548043/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter 

Complicit In Slaughter: Ivory Bill Has Deadly Loophole 
http://www.courant.com/opinion/op-ed/hc-op-daniels-ct-ivory-trrade-kills-elephants-0412-20150408-story.html 

When it comes to wildlife abuses, the U.S.A. is certainly not guilt free. We have much to answer for how we treat wildlife and wilderness in the United States. http://stopusdawsabuse.blogspot.com/p/predator-defense.html 

EXPOSED - USDA's Secret War on Wildlife https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSV8pRLkdKI&feature=youtu.be 

Published on Dec 1, 2013 In this award-winning film three former federal agents and a Congressman blow the whistle on Wildlife Services--a barbaric, wasteful and misnamed agency within the USDA--and expose the government's secret war on wildlife on the taxpayer's dime. Wildlife Services has been having their way for almost a century, killing over 100,000 native predators and millions of birds each year, as well as maiming, poisoning, and brutalizing countless pets. They have also seriously harmed more than a few humans. They apparently thought they were going to continue getting away with it. But with your help, we're not going to let them. Learn more and support our efforts to end America's war on wildlife at http://www.predatordefense.org/exposed. Exposed won the award for Best Wildlife Activism at the 2014 New York Wildlife Conservation Film Festival, the premier wildlife film festival in North America. 

You can take action here:

End taxpayer funded abuse, demand shelter reform.
http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/end-taxpayer-funded-abuse.fb50?source=c.fb&r_by=1235249


USDA and GMO. http://blog.seedalliance.org/2014/02/12/whos-responsible-for-gmo-contamination/ 

Ok, hopping off the soapbox now. 
Wildlife crimes and wildlife trafficking are everyone’s business, if they are a citizen of planet Earth. 
We all have a role to play in stopping it. Maybe we can achieve this, without becoming hateful towards all folks who live in a country that has achieved notoriety for wildlife crimes.

~African Wildlife

Cling to hope, cast aside despair.

We can do this folks, we can help our Africa to save her irreplaceable wildlife.

We are beyond boundaries now, and we work together due to the threat of global extinction.
When our family in Africa finds themselves fighting off the hideous onslaught of poaching elephants, rhinos, pangolins, and giraffes for the illicit wildlife trade, we know that we face two wounds with them.

First, we loose the brave souls of rangers who work to stop the wildlife poachers who slaughter elephant and rhinos for tusks and horns.
Every four days average, one beautiful human leaves our planet, trying to protect those animals who are hunted dead for ridiculous human need. Rhino horns don’t cure cancer, a hangover, or make for great sex. 

Wildlife crime - the rangers on the front line

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfWStmtqrNI&feature=youtu.be

Secondly, we suffer an alteration of environment when so many keystone species have been lost.
Aside from moral loss, how will poaching rhinos into extinction affect our environment?
"The Problem of Poaching" https://theproblemofpoaching.wordpress.com/  

We all pay the piper.
No doubt that this is a war against wildlife, but also it is a war against humanity.
Africa loses with economic gains when poachers threaten ecotourism.

Now the poachers turn our applaud of ecotourism and activism concern against us when we share the photographs of our endangered African wildlife and disclose the location, unwittingly, as we wish to promote ecotourism in Africa, as an economic alternative to poaching.
bit.ly/1Cp6R5G  

Then we turn to the convoluted notion of trophy hunting an endangered species as conservation.
I promise not to swear here, as this one throws me off the cliff.
This is my country, and I tried to stop this by authoring a petition for the second black rhino trophy hunt import permit. That died on the vine.
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/USFWS_Deny_trophy_hunt_import_permit_for_Namibian_black_rhino/?dxAkFfb&pv=5
No matter now, the decision was handed down by Director Dan Ashe for USFWS to go right ahead and green light hunts of Namibian Black Rhinos. 
USFWS said it was cool to go ahead and hunt two Grampa Black Rhinos and call it “conservation”.
Kill two members of an endangered species to conserve them? Surreal.
https://www.takepart.com/article/2015/03/26/us-gives-ok-hunter-kill-rhino

Wayne Pacelle, CEO of the @HSUS, thought otherwise, and I can not thank him enough for his eloquent words. I would have said something far more vulgar.

“It is the worst sort of mixed message to give a green light to American trophy hunters to kill rhinos for their heads,” Wayne Pacelle, president of The Humane Society, said in a statement. “When the global community is working so hard to stop people from killing rhinos for their horns, we are giving a stamp of approval to a special class of privileged elite to kill these majestic animals as a head-hunting exercise.”
https://www.takepart.com/article/2015/03/26/us-gives-ok-hunter-kill-rhino

Complicated politics?
You bet, baby.
But worth every moment of concern, every tear of grief.

Our folks in Africa, and our African wildlife Buddies, are counting on us to stop poaching and trophy hunting, so that the next generation of all life will include elephants, all remaining rhino subspecies, big cats, and pangolins.

We can work to Ban Ivory Sales in the USA.
http://wildlifeofafrica.blogspot.com/p/elephants.html

We can work to Ban Ivory Sales in the UK, and contact our Chinese embassies here:
http://www.adinternational.org/conservation/go.php?id=3922&ssi=14

on.fb.me/1IJA7sT
Thank you to Animal Defenders International @AnimalDefenders

We love Africa…… she is Nirvana, and it is our duty to step up, and speak out to protect her.

We stand with you, Africa.
Some of us in the USA are awake and working to make sure you are not alone in the challenge to save your beautiful wildlife from short sighted poachers.

Today, April 8, 2015, held promise.
Souls in New York believe that elephants, black rhinos, white rhinos, lions, and leopards should remain alive in Africa, rather than be dead trophies on a wall. Species on the verge of extinction need our voices, not our silence that will allow their lifeless mounted heads on a trophy hunter’s wall. 

http://friendsofanimals.org/news/2015/april/foa-drafts-bill-protect-five-african-species

https://www.newsday.co.zw/2015/04/08/another-blow-for-zim-wildlife-industry/

Thank you to Friends of Animals @FoAorg ,Michael Harris @WildAnimalLaw, Edita Birnkrant @EditaFoANYC for drafting and promoting this bill. Thank you to @TonyAvella @GeorgeLatimer37 for initiating this bill. Joyce Friedman of @HumaneSociety, bless you for endorsing it.

#AfricanBig5Bill 
The USA stands for life, not trophy hunting our beloved legacy of wildlife that belongs to our family in Africa