Elephant suffering
It is more than twenty years ago that I met Soraida Salwala, founder of the FAE (Friends of the Asian Elephant) and also doctor Preecha Phaungkum of the elephant hospital in Lampang (see also: www.friendsoftheasianelephant.org).
In the Blijdorp Zoo in Rotterdam, a so-called tilter had been put into use with which an elephant could be placed wedged on its side and that had even reached Thailand. As a resident of the Netherlands, I would like to know the details of this. Did you think. So after my holiday an appointment was quickly made with Willem Schaftenaar, the veterinarian of Blijdorp. With my own eyes I could then see the great colossus, which was controlled via a real control room. The sponsored whole had to cost an insurmountable amount for the elephant hospital in Lampang. A portable x-ray device was higher on the wish list and it came.
Through the contacts in Lampang and the FAE, I enriched my knowledge about elephants in no small way and became part of the many problems that the organization in Thailand faces with regard to the welfare of Jumbo.
Can I still recall a very angry Thai farmer who wanted to liquidate all the elephants. His anger was motivated by the destruction of a large part of his harvest by a herd of elephants. In my Western world of thought, the resulting damage could be claimed from an insurance company or the State; I thought that simple at the time. See the man in question standing where I was disgusted at the thought that he would really be able to kill some lovely pachyderms.
Had to think back to that same person one of these days when watching the NOS news.
Botswana, sandwiched between Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa and bordering Angola and Zambia in the north, has two million inhabitants and no fewer than 130 elephants. In all likelihood, this is an underestimation because recent censuses show significantly higher numbers.
In South and West Africa, the number of elephants is declining sharply, partly due to poaching practices, and the number has also decreased in Thailand. Until now, Botswana had a strong poaching policy, because anyone caught suffered the same fate and was shot on the spot.
Yet there is a change going on because the villagers are experiencing a lot of trouble from the elephants. There are too many pachyderms and farmers can barely plant crops. The elephant hunting ban has been lifted and the government plans to issue 30 permits at a cost of $XNUMX to shoot one elephant. You don't have to be very poor to shoot an elephant for your own pleasure for such an amount, so you may wonder if in the brain of such a person ....
Well, let's not comment on that because twenty years ago I didn't understand that Thai farmer either.
Naturally, the predominantly white non-Botswana animal rights activists strongly oppose the government's plans. There they are now beginning to listen to the concerns of black farmers, whether President Masisi is trying to get votes for the elections that will take place later this year.
World nature Fund
The WWF believes that shooting elephants is not a good solution and advocates a large cross-border nature reserve. Parts of Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe must form a large nature reserve together. But there is a lot of political hassle involved. Just think about the visa income for these five countries. Will it be resolved in the short term? It is for the elephants to hope.
Farah Morrison – Avaaz reports the following:
It's insane — while tens of thousands of elephants are gruesomely slaughtered, Japan tries to keep its booming ivory market open. But Japan is the host of next year's Olympics and wants to attract millions more tourists — let's make it clear to them that people everywhere want ivory-free Olympics and a ban on this bloody trade. Sign now!
Do elephants also need a visa to cross the border? (wink)
The problem is of course NOT the amount of elephants, there are not that many if you count the 100000 elephants that have already been shot in the course of time.
The problem lies in the fact that throughout Africa, among other things, a population group has settled by force (including the white VOCers, English, etc.) who do not belong there at all. This group has been violently stealing land from the indigenous people for hundreds of years, burning down land and shooting and chasing the animals for their cows and more of those cattle that don't originally belong there. The result of this is that I don't know how many millions of square kilometers have been flared and built on, so there can no longer be elephants. The same applies, of course, to the cities that occupy ditto land. And this problem does not only occur in Africa.
But man has an absurd urge to have more and more and preferably to take it out of nature by force. Flattening the forest, shooting animals, putting stones on it.. should be possible for the superior human being... right..?? And then later on whining and whining that, in this case, there would be too many elephants.
And don't start now yes, but that's what the farmers in Africa want themselves.... no nonsense, those farmers no longer have a place to cultivate due to the idiotic expansion drift of the whites who have stolen their land.
There if there is no more land/forest or something like that, well then the animals will come to places where people will complain that they are coming to “their yard/garden”… no wrong conclusion. As a human being, you borrow (steal….) your land from the animals. So if there are snakes in your garden, for example, remember that this land belongs to this animal and NOT as some people think of humans. I'm nothing better than anyone else, but I will never complain, moan and whine if any animal ends up in my garden/house. Man is the only superfluous creature on this beautiful sphere.. he only takes for his own interest. Oh yeah report it just to be sure I'm as white as what….just in case people think otherwise
I completely agree with you Sheng. Man is the corruption of nature and it is always about the same thing. MONEY.!!