Just funding “conservation” is not enough, absent evidence that elephants benefit WASHINGTON D.C.––The claim that shooting elephants in Zimbabwe helps to save them no longer stands up in U.S. federal court, even if the money hunters pay to kill the elephants is nominally spent for “conservation,” U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth ruled on September […]
Tatenda the rescued baby rhino dies in Zimbabwe
Survived poachers’ attack in 2007 HARARE, Zimbabwe––For nearly a decade the baby black rhino Tatenda was an internationally known symbol of hope for Zimbabwean wildlife and for black rhinos as a species, but no more. “It is with great sadness that we have to report that our beloved Tatenda has passed away,” e-mailed Zimbabwe Conservation Task […]
“Jaws 13, Cecil 0” at Johannesburg endangered species meeting
Hunters prevail on African lion listing JOHANNESBURG, South Africa––The final score in the last contentious rounds at the 12-day CITES CoP 17 meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa might be posted as “Jaws 13, Cecil 0,” with a series of landmark decisions for sharks but nothing good done for African lions. Concluding on October 5, […]
What “CITES CoP 17” means to animals in plain English
Elephants, rhinos, African grey parrots, & pangolins among the species whose fates are on the block JOHANNESBURG, South Africa––The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) seventeenth triennial Conference of Parties (CoP 17) on October 2, 2016 adopted a resolution of elephant-sized importance to elephants worldwide, more than 140,000 of whom have been […]
Zimbabwe sells wildlife to Chinese zoo empire
But the traffic does not go unseen HARARE, Zimbabwe––Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force founder Johnny Rodrigues had surgery on March 10, 2016, lost his wife Cheryl on March 30, 2016, contracted an e-coli infection in Washington D.C. on July 30, 2016, and was nearly bankrupted by unexpected hospital costs, but after months of mourning and relative […]
Elephant Dawn
The Inspirational Story of Thirteen Years Living with Elephants in the African Wilderness by Sharon Pincott Reviewed by Johnny Rodrigues, founder, Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force. Sharon Pincott’s new book Elephant Dawn, her third book about her 13 years studying the Presidential Elephant herd in Zimbabwe, is out now in South Africa, and is also available […]
“Unknown soldiers” die for elephants, rhinos, chimps & gorillas
How many animals die is better documented than the deaths of African rangers Jules Kombi Kambale, a ranger for the Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature since 2013, assigned to protecting gorillas from poachers in Virunga National Park, Democratic Republic of the Congo, was on September 1, 2016 killed in action near the […]
Trump booster Inhofe to host live pigeon shoot & dove hunt
Will Trump &/or trophy-hunting sons attend? CHICAGO, Illinois––Currently campaigning for Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump, Oklahoma U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe is to host his annual live pigeon shoot political fundraiser on September 9, 2016 at a private hunting club about 10 miles from Altus, Oklahoma, followed by a dove hunt the next day. […]
Hippos out of water: easy trophy targets
May be shot even in Colombian mini-refuge CAPE TOWN, LUSAKA, MEDALIN–– Hippopotamuses, under the gun now in Zambia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa, decried as a menace by fishing villages in Kenya, Uganda, and Malawi, and perhaps soon to be shot in Colombia, might be described as casualties of global warming. Evolved due to global warming […]
Back to The Jungle Book: U.K. wildlife law post-Brexit
Last of a five-part series See also Will U.K. leaving E.U. mean leaving animal welfare behind?, Farmed animals & the Brexit “diet plan,” Farmed animals & money talks and What Brexit means for “pet passports” & lab animals. LONDON, U.K.––When Britannia ruled the waves, when the sun never set on the British Empire, Rudyard Kipling in 1894 […]