Take two minutes to enjoy these playful ellies - we promise it will leave a smile on your day!
Elephantopia
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Monthly Archives: November 2013
The Thankful Elephant
As November comes to a close, it only seems appropriate to share a note of thanks.
Thank you for sharing your pictures, your stories and your thoughts about elephants on this blog/facebook page/tweets. I absolutely love hearing from you!
Thank you for your continued efforts to change laws and regulations by signing petitions, attending awareness events and spreading the news to your friends & family. Together, we are making a future of ele-advocates dedicated to saving the world’s largest land mammal from the destruction of human greed and vice. I can’t imagine a future landscape void of these amazing animals. And I’m glad to partner with people like you to create a harmonious future for both elephants and humans.
Finally, thank you for opening your heart up to love these amazing animals. As Anatole France once said,
Until one has loved an animal a part of one’s soul remains unawakened
Sometimes that awakening can be painful. When we hear of an elephant family slaughtered at the hands of poachers, or of a high speed train in India plowing through a herd on the tracts, it can be devastating. Sometimes you may wish you hadn’t opened up your heart to love these creatures. But we also must remember that love is power - the strongest power there is. Mahtma Gandhi said that nothing is impossible for pure love.
So keep on loving, keep on caring, keep on sharing. And Happy Thanksgiving from the Elephantopia family to You.
© IRAW/K. Branon
HAPPY WEEKEND: Take a Walk!
Enjoy a minute walk with this beautiful elephant herd!
The Crush, First Hand
“IVORY BELONGS TO ELEPHANTS - ELEPHANTS IN THE WILD.”
Final Update on THE CRUSH
Photographs shared from various news agencies showing the inaugural ivory crushing in the US.
“We’re trying to tell organized syndicates and cartels who are now involved in the illegal ivory trade that we’re going to do whatever we can to take the value out of ivory and do whatever we can to put them in jail,”-Edward Grace, deputy chief with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement.
“With this action (the crushing of ivory), the United States is sending a simple but powerful message to the sadistic poachers who kill elephants and other animals, and to all the traffickers who transport illicit cargo and the consumers who purchase these illicit goods: “You cannot and must not mistake our seriousness.”- John Kerry, Secretary of State, USA.
The “what”
An average of 96 elephants are slaughtered EACH DAY
Say NO to Ivory
Loading the first pieces
The crushing machine
CRUSH
What’s left
Critics argue the “ivory crush”-like earlier events in Gabon, Kenya and the Philippines- will do little to stem the illegal ivory trade. Michael ‘t Sas-Rolfes, a conservation economist with the Property and Environmental Research Center, warns today’s crush could have unintended consequences.
“The ill-conceived [U.S. Fish and Wildlife] gesture could create the perception that ivory is anincreasingly scarce commodity on illegal markets, leading to higher prices and further poaching,” he said.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service disagrees.
“This ivory would never be made available to the market,” the agency said in a statement. “Its destruction has no impact on the overall supply and does not create any incentive for poaching. By demonstrating our commitment to combat poaching and illegal trade, and to arrest and prosecute people who engage in these activities, we are providing a strong disincentive to poachers and wildlife traffickers.” (Above story shared from ABCNews - click to read full details)
Ivory Crush US Resolve
Jane Goodall and Dr. Iain Douglas-Hamilton share about this iconic day in history - and what is needed next.
The Ivory Crush
TODAY is a monumental day in U.S. history: the first-ever ivory crush. The 5.4 tons of ivory that cost the lives of the 2000+ elephants will be destroyed, sending a clear message to the world that the U.S. will not tolerate the illegal wildlife trade. Below are photographs of the event in Denver. We are thrilled to see the U.S. taking this first step. But we hope it won’t end there. It’s time to ban the sale of ivory in the U.S.
WAYS TO GET INVOLVED:
1. Tweet about it! Let the world know what’s going on - here’s a great facebook event page with pre-made tweets ready for you!
2. Global Moment of Silence - use the power of facebook to join with hundreds of others around the world as we remember the elephants who were killed by human greed.
3. Sign this petition from the Wildlife Conservation Society asking the US to ban the ivory trade.
We leave you with this quote by Daphne Sheldrick:
“[elephants teach us to] focus on the living, rather than the dead, knowing that the dead are beyond any more suffering and pain, and that one has, at least, afforded them a comfortable end surrounded by compassion and love.”
Happy Weekend: Happy Reunion
HAPPY WEEKEND:
A year ago Amboseli Trust for Elephants went viral showing an elephant calf being rescued from a well. We wanted to share with you this wonderful video, showing the happy news that one year after being rescued, Zombe’s calf is contented and healthy, growing up in the wild with his mother and big sister.
Roaming wild and free, in many years time, this young calf may be key to the future survival of the species.
Feel Good Friday
“You know…they say an elephant never forgets. What they don’t tell you is, you never forget an elephant.”
