Plight of Primates
Filed Under Animal Conservation | Leave a Comment
In the last post Donkeys in Spain, we looked at the problems facing donkeys in Spain. In this instalment, we take a look at a very disturbing fact concerning thr primates that we share this planet with.
Incredibly, a third of the entire world’s primate species now face the very real threat of total extinction. Eminent scientists warn that man’s closest relatives, those of the great apes, could really be extinct within 20 years if current trends continue.
The ongoing conflict between humans and wildlife is becoming increasingly common as the human population continues to grow and the natural habitat declines. Both people and primates are at great risk from the loss of our food sources, as well as increased disease transmission, injury and ultimately, death.
Conservationists are desperately endeavouring to develop several mitigation strategies that can both protect the endangered species, such as great apes, as well as to assist local peoples to improve their way of life. As you can imagine, this is a considerable challenge, especially when there is the consideration of crop raiding thrown into the mix.
For many centuries, the practice of hunting for bushmeat was a sustainable means of providing food for families and tribes. Nowadays however, the demand for bushmeat has risen steeply and, while primates such as gorillas and chimpanzees only make up a small proportion of the bushmeat trade, the overall effect on their population is quite devastating.
While there is no arguement that people have to eat, conservationists are trying to encourage people to find viable alternative sources of food. To this end, the idea is to persuade local people that it is important to keep primates alive and in the wild. That way, greater levels of much-needed income can be far more readily generated through the tourism trade.
Another major problem for primates is the wholesale deforestation of their natural habitats and the worst culprits for the cause of this are the developed nations, as they are the main consumers of tropical hardwoods. The Forest Stewardship Council and organisations like them have independent monitoring schemes that are meant to determine which products are sourced from sustainable forests. If we in the developed countries are careful to choose these, then the loss of vital habitats will be greatly reduced.
Another problem that the tropical rainforests face is deforestation for fuel, primarily for cooking. One extremely viable answer to this is solar cookers which are devised from nothing but a foil-lined cardboard box which harnesses the sun’s rays to produce plenty of heat to cook any food. Solar cooking is being promoted by conservationists to help reduce the need for firewood in human settlements, especially those that are near primate habitats.
While these measures are a step in the right direction, they alone will not save these endangered animals. But what they can do is help enormously with the proper education and resources to implement them.
Terry Didcott
Angel For Animals
Donkeys in Spain
Filed Under Animal Help | 1 Comment
Following on from thelast post at Angel for Animals, Animal Testing - Dying for Botox?, in which I looked at the testing of animals for botox, I’m changing tack slightly in order to highlight the plight of donkeys that are maltreated in southern Spain where I live.
Spain is not a country that is well known for its love of animals. In a supposedly modern, fully westernised and educated country that is a part of teh Europen Union, it beggars belief that its people still glorify the hated bull-fights that still attract big crowds wherever they are staged.
Things are changing, but slowly. The younger generation are becoming more anti- bull fighting but it will be a long process to rid the indiginous people of their inbred lack of concern for animals.
To be perfectly honest it sickens me how backward these people can be when it comes to mistreating animals. Many people own dogs, but leave them tied up in small yards as guard dogs for their property and rarley if ever let them out for proper walks or socialise them with their family. The dog is not man’s best friend in Spain - its his slave.
That is not what I will write about here in any more detail for this post. Here I want to write about the similarly barbaric treatment of donkeys.
Donkeys have been kept as beasts of burden for centuries in the hot, almost desert-like regions of southern Spain. Their owners used to rely heavily on them to carry heavy loads across countryside and even mountainous regions where vehicles could not go. Even today, they are used in this way in the inland pueblos. But the march of progress has urbanized much of the southern coastal regions and the need for donkeys has almost become unnecessary. That means there are an awful lot of donkeys roaming around.
They are left to starve in the wild, or worse tied up on vacant plots of land that no one visits and no one seems to want to care for them any more.
Fortunately, there are charity associations that are trying to locate and rescue these beleaguered animals and they are always in need of volunteers to help them. I’ll be posting some contact information for them shortly.
Terry Didcott
Angel For Animals
Animal Testing - Dying for Botox?
Filed Under Animal Testing | 1 Comment
Following our last post Animal Testing #1, on the use of animal testing for a range of products, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, we’re going to turn our radar on one of the great crimes of the 21st century - the animal testing of Botox.
That’s right. If you didn’t know, extensive animal testing was and is still being done to ever refine the potency and effectiveness of that scourge of vanity and the endless pursuit of the elusive fountain of assumed youth, Botox.
While Botox does have some serious therapeutic applications, increasingly many animals die for nothing more serious than to smooth out wrinkles on people who refuse to allow nature to take its course.
Whether it is to be used for therapeutic or cosmetic application, each and avery batch of Botox must be thoroughly tested before Allergan, the company that manufactures Botox under licence, is permitted to release it to the doctors and dermatologists who will use it.
The sad fact is that in order to determine the correct potency of Botox, the key ingredient of which is botulinum toxin which is the most poisonous substance known to mankind, Allergan must use a highly questionable test known as LD50. Its sole purpose is to find the precise dose that will kill 50% of the animals used in the test. The full name of that test, by the way, is “Lethal Dose 50 Percent”.
If you think that is outrageous, you are not alone.
The society known as the “Humane Society of the United States” believes this must end. They want your assistance. They’re urging consumers who use Botox purely for vanity and cosmetic purposes to boycott the product until Allergan stops animal testing on it. Period.
Or you could write to Allergan to express your concerns about the LD50 test. For your information, this test subjects animals to paralysis and death just so people can look younger. If you feel strobgly enough about this, you can contact David E.I. Pyott, chief executive officer of Allergan. You can tell him that you don’t think mice should die in the name of individual vanity. You can contact him via the address and phone number below.
Contact:
David E.I. Pyott
Chief Executive Officer
Allergan, Inc.
2525 Dupont Dr.
Irvine, CA 92612-1599
714-246-4500
If enough people get behind this, then animal testing will stop and other ways will have to be found. Or better still, dump Botox in the trash where it belongs.
People who are vain and stupid enough to use botox to smooth out natural wrinkles are fooling no one - we who don’t use it call you “plastic face”. Maybe more people should call you that to your plastic face and you might get the message.
Freedom Writers
Angel For Animals
Animal Testing
Filed Under Animal Testing | 1 Comment
Following on from the introductory post simply entitled: Angel For Animals, in this post we want to look at the controversial subject of animal testing.
Its a hard and cruel fact of life that safety tests are routinely conducted on a wide range of chemicals and consumer products. These include drugs, vaccines, cosmetics, pesticides, household cleaners, foodstuffs and of all things, packing materials.
Safety testing of chemicals and consumer products probably accounts for about 10 to 20% of the use of animals in laboratories. That equates to approximately 2 to 4 million animals in the United States alone.
The use of animals for safety tests is something that figures prominently in the controversy over animal research.
Animal testing raises many issues. These include the ethics and humaneness of poisoning animals in tests, whether animal data is even applicable to humans, the harming of animals for the sake of marketing a new household product or cosmetic and whether it is possible to instead spare millions of animals by finding and developing alternatives to these widely used procedures.
We should be promoting alternatives to the use of animal testing for products as well as biomedical research and education. Alternatives exist - it just takes brave pioneers to implement the correct scientific methods to accomplish the same goals.
For many years, various pressure groups have encouraged companies and manufacturers to produce (and importantly, consumers to purchase) cosmetics and household products that have not used animal testing methods to bring them into the marketplace.
The ultimate aim is to urge household products and cosmetics manufacturers that used animal testing to sign on to the Corporate Standard of Compassion of Animals.
This is a rigorous manufacturing and product labeling policy. The Corporate Standard of Compassion of Animals ensures manufacturers and suppliers do not conduct or commission animal testing, nor will they use any ingredient or formulation that is tested on animals. Manufacturing and production companies who sign the standard are permitted to portray the coalition’s “leaping bunny” logo on their products as visual proof to the consumer of their commitment to the manufacturing of animal testing free and cruelty-free products.
The more weight this movement gathers, then the less animal testing that will be carried out, which in the long term can only be a good thing for our angel animals.
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