The insatiable appetite of Chinese for consuming endangered species has been previously discussed on this blog as fueling the black market for such products. This week, however, the scope of such crimes was on full display after police in Tanzania arrested three Chinese living in Dar es Salaam in a house filled with a reported 1.9 tons of blood ivory. At least 200 elephants were slaughtered for the ivory. Seven tons in all have been seized in recent weeks.
The Chinese submerged the ivory pieces in a mixture of snail shells mixed with some strong smelling potion containing garlic to mask the telltale smell of ivory cut from the heads of dead elephants. The Tanzanian police are seeking others in the Chinese network.
Chinese continue to represent the largest group of arrested foreigners in this disgusting market. Various countries have seized such shipments heading to China to feed the growing market for endangered species parts. Despite widespread knowledge that they are wiping out whole species, Chinese continue to demand the products. Of course, the Chinese themselves are living in industrial nightmares with record levels of air pollution and cancer rates from the lack of environmental protections. However, they are exporting these anti-environmental practices to other countries in black market operations and the destruction of rain forests. It is a shameful legacy that brave environmentalists in China have tried to end. Yet, they have often faced arrest and beatings at the hands of the government.
It is not clear how long it will take for the Chinese to embrace environmental values as a nation but it is unlikely that many of these species will last to see that day.
We should be the aliens. Anybody see the re-make of The Day The Earth Stood Still? The Aliens sent energy spheres to collect the flora and fauna of the Earth so that after humanity was destroyed in order the save the Earth the flora and fauna could be reintroduced. (Am I the only one that rooted for the aliens?)
Zoos are the last stand for many species but that’s not really getting the job done because it’s a local effort, generally municipal, expensive and needs to concern itself with ‘marketable’ animals -animals people will pay to see. I think the effort should be nationalized.
We should just buy up large numbers of endangered species and dedicate part of our land holdings to habitat for them (Controlled and modified habitat as needed) and for other species that require an artificial habitat, we should build it. Create some jobs, stimulate an interest in biology, do some good. Call it stimulus.
Don’t get me started about the best national use for Florida, I’d turn it into wildlife habitat in it’s entirety. 🙂
Western black rhino officially declared extinct
http://www.11alive.com/news/article/312002/40/Western-black-rhino-officially-declared-extinct
Chop their legs off!
I tell you what, the Chinese criminals will go scott-free in exchange for a scandal ridden relatives of the TZ govenment who was caught in China with drugs. He was spared death in anticipation of this day. It’s a tit for tat my friend. Otherwise, why do you think a foreigner could be so bold to cause mayhem in a foreign country without fear?
Let’s see if the filthy corrupt Tanzanian government will start with these turds by enacting their newly announced ‘shoot to kill’ policy. Or, is it a reserve of the Tanzanians alone?
Just breaks my heart………………………sigh.
Stories like this make me wonder if the loons at PETA have a point for once. Maybe mass killings like this should be prosecuted the same way we prosecute mass murders of humans.
The mass slaughter of wolves across Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and elsewhere is another strong example. Wolves were already wiped out in places, and it took human intervention to revive populations. And now idiots are doing it again, accusing wolves of domestic animal slaughter as an excuse for hunting. And re-extinction.
http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2145223/wolf_slaughter_is_unamerican.html
JoelB: “Someone needs to start a campaign to get hundreds of millions of copies of Disney’s “A Bug’s Life” into the hands of the populace.”
Those books’d be printed in China. I say this time and again, we gotta stop buying shit made in China.
We gotta shame them for their infatuation with animal parts. I mean, associate it with some real savage, bone-in-the-nose behavior.
The Chinese are gonna create a dead zone throughout the world and leave nothing for safari clubs to raffle off.
what!!! they go all way to africa and no get rhino horn?
Nuthin worse than a capitalist communist ivory poacher in Africa making money to send their kids to Amsterdam to get laid.
Naw, call the blog chinksintheivory dot communists.
I agree with Issac completely. Put the Chinese on the horns of a dilemma. And while you are at it use the ivory tusk like Dean Rusk would have. Jam it where the sun don’t shine. Put it all on utube and create a blog with a suitable name such as chinks in the ivory dot com.
This kind of activity passes out of view quickly after being blogged. The way to make the issue stick in the papers is to wax a few of the perps when they are caught. Out back, up against the wall, quickly, with no trial. The ensuing screams from the Chinese government will do more to advertise these crimes.
The Chinese in Africa are the new Americans, Europeans. The local governments are afraid to do anything in fear of losing foreign investment.
It would be interesting to see how much the Chinese government values their own caught red handed. Will they stop building roads, refineries, mills, factories, etc? Who knows it just might get their attention. They execute their own for equal and lesser crimes. Why can’t the offended people execute a few thieves and murderers?
Strap on a pair and wax a poacher.
Our government derserves part of the blame by not pressuring the Chinese government to save/protect these precious animals.
Nice article link/article Nal!
I am wondering how our zoos are effecting the ‘social skills’ of these mammals?
My cousin, a dog, lives in North Carolina and her human is a farmer who grows tobacco. They sell all their tobacco to some company in China. They spray for bugs and whatnot and really don’t care about the side effects because tobacco is not food. But those folks in China ought to stick with drinking tea because all the tea in China won’t save em from Ru 4589 (the bug spray) which when translated into Chinese numbers means “are u toast yet?” So while those Chinese are marveling at their ivory carvings they can croak. And I don’t mean like frogs croak. That has to do with the French.
If you have the money and the right connections…. The ivory is your world….
Mass Killings Can Haunt Elephants for Decades:
African elephants that have lived through the trauma of a cull—or selected killing of their kin—may look normal enough to the casual observer, but socially they are a mess. That’s the conclusion of a new study, the first to show that human activities can disrupt the social skills of large-brained mammals that live in complex societies for decades.
As much as your “Captain Justice” item made me laugh gleefully yesterday, this prompts me to want to sob and lash out in disgust and rage. That there are people in any country that do such horrific things is not unusual, vile and nauseating as it is. That the Chinese government continues to condone such things, that they refuse to create safe working conditions for the working poor migrants in their cities and outskirts, that they don’t care about how many international laws they break causing economic harm to the rest of the world, that their continued record of human rights violations does not seem to phase them one bit, that they do absolutely nothing so long as they can keep 1 billion people under their thumbs, is beyond the scope of sanctions and ridicule. Someone needs to start a campaign to get hundreds of millions of copies of Disney’s “A Bug’s Life” into the hands of the populace. Or even “Independence Day,” for Pete’s sake!
Reblogged this on Brittius.com.
They are reprobates.