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Even South Africans say China Ivory Deal Stinks

Category: China, Ivory, elephants | Date: Jul 17 2008 | By: Maina

An AFP article reproduced in Yahoo! news reports that South African animal rights people are enraged by the decision to allow China to buy Ivory from Africa.

In a strong statement, the rights group said that the South African government “is already licking its lips at the prospect of this dishonorable and blood-soaked deal. We are also horrified that Britain and the EU supported this sale.” The group has accused their government of being “one of the main proponents for the continuation of the immoral ivory trade.”

This, my friends, is a good sign. If there are people in those countries that are seen to benefit from the ivory sale who are already up in arms against it, then those of us - in East, Central and Western Africa - who know that this deal, and the ensuing upsurge of poaching, will hurt us more, should also join in the foray. We should roll our sleeves, clench our fists and get ready to bruise someone. We should make so much noise as to make China’s trade in African ivory impossible.

We now know that CITES is not a pro-animal group but a pro-trade organization that has totally failed to protect our wildlife. The time has come for CITES to step aside. Anyone who endorses China on anything that concerns animals does not deserve life on this earth. For crying out loud, they have dog meat in their menus!

Part of the deal (which sailed through on a 9-3 vote) is for China to support anti-poaching and conservation activities in Africa. Can we honestly expect China to do this given its animal rights record? Who’s fooling who?

Anyway, Here is the link to the AFP story if you need to go read further about the sentiments of the South African rights people.

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9 Responses to “Even South Africans say China Ivory Deal Stinks”

Paula, on 17 Jul 2008

This is great news. I hope that the Chinese conservation organizations make a similar protest!

sheryl, washington dc, on 17 Jul 2008

If I didn’t know better I’d swear Dipesh wrote this entry. :-)

Yes, the Chinese eat dogs and cats but how is that different from eating any other animal? We shouldn’t be eating or using non-human animals for any purpose. It muddies the conservation waters when you claim it’s bad to eat this species or that species while you’re busy chewing on another.

That said, if you want to learn more about what goes on in China with domesticated animals, please visit Animals Asia Foundation at http://www.animalsasia.org and click on the “Friends or Food?” link. There are some smaller links just above the content of that page, under the blue navigation that will lead you to more content.

Now, how do we work on replacing CITES with an organization that actually protects wildlife? I got an interesting comment on my blog today from a man named Azam Siddiqui, who posted the details for contacting John M. Sellar, Anti-smuggling, Fraud and Organized Crime, CITES Secretariat. I’ll post the link to the blog post where you can find all the links Mr. Siddiqui sent, in the next comment.

s.

sheryl, washington dc, on 17 Jul 2008

Here’s the blog post where you can find Mr. Sellar’s contact information, as well as links to Mr. Siddiqui’s Web site. Maybe he should be blogging here, too? http://nothoney.wordpress.com/2008/07/11/stop-china-from-trading-ivory/

s.

Maina, on 17 Jul 2008

Thanks, Sheryl, I should have suspected you’d have something to say about eating animals :-) But am sure you understand that most people even non-vegetarian/vegan frown upon dog meat and when i use this example is to show that the Chinese cannot be trusted with any animal.
Thanks for the link, I found Siddiqui’s web and am studying it…will let you know what I think.

sheryl, washington dc, on 17 Jul 2008

It is my mission in life to promote ethical veganism, and you did give me an opening. :-) Yes, I understand that most people find eating companion animals to be a repulsive practice, and that’s a _start_, and it’s more visible because China ships clothing and other goods to the U.S. that are made of dog and cat fur. They label it fake fur but it gets through frequently.

Siddiqui seems to approach wildlife conservation from an animal rights perspective and we’re seeing more of this in the U.S. with organizations such as the Humane Society of the United States, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, Farm Sanctuary and, of course, PETA, among others. I’m interested to know what you think of his work.

s.

Mike, on 18 Jul 2008

My understanding is that the Elephant population in RSA has recovered nicely to the point that in some places the herd populations exceed the carrying capacity of the land. At which point there are two options: introduce more predators or let the animals eat more than the habitat can sustain.

Allowing the herd to over eat the habitat will eventually lead to an even lower carrying capacity, starvation and disease; all of which leads to a smaller, weaker herd. We see it all the time in the states with deer herds in suburbs that won’t cull, hunt or introduce effective contraceptives into their food supply. Malnourished animals have led to huge worries over chronic wasting disease which has decimated some huge 100,000+ animal populations here.

The first priority is to maintain the strength of the herds. Once that is met, sell the ivory to fund conservation of the weaker herds. When an animal dies of natural causes, recover the ivory and sell it for the same reason. I’ve seen pictures of Elephant carcases in Kruger where the animal died of old age (probably tooth wear) and the bull carried magnificent 100lb+ ivory. Reclaim it and sell it to fund conservation or let some poacher eventually come along and pick it up.

Avril, on 18 Jul 2008

That is good news, Paula. Well, I am one of those Safricans (albeit an expat) disgusted with the whole ivory trade business and I started voicing my suspicions long ago when ‘elephant numbers’ suddenly became a big problem. Left for years to multiply without any real attempts at focusing on the problem, suddenly a cull is necessary. I wrote my little piece on my blog and even if only a few people are made more aware, its better than none.

Coincidentally, the whole issue of ivory trade suddenly rears it’s ugly head again. There is no such thing as coincidence.

The only good ivory is ivory burnt to ashes. As long as the excuse exists that ivory should be used for ‘conservation’ purposes, this loophole will continue to fuel the greed that we now see.

sheryl, washington dc, on 18 Jul 2008

Avril, you’ve read my mind! I just posted a comment on your blog, thanks for bringing up the “coincidence.”

And you’re right, the only good ivory is ivory burnt to ashes.

s.

Maina, on 21 Jul 2008

So true Avril. Poaching of elephants will continue as long as there is a market for ivory. When ivory gets to China - even with all sorts of security checks - nobody can really say where it came from or whether it was originally part of a ’stockpile’ that was sold ‘legally’ to China (by, say, SA) or it was from an elephant poached in Tsavo National Park, Kenya. Certificates of point origin can be forged.

Back in 1989 (July 19), when former Kenyan president, Daniel arap Moi, symbolically torched 12 tons of ivory, he reminded the world that trade and poaching are just two faces of the same crime.

In his words: ”To stop the poacher, the trader must also be stopped and to stop the trader, the final buyer must be convinced not to buy ivory,”

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