Here’s a way to help wild animals wherever you are in the world and it will only take a minute and it’s free to do it.

The IDA (that’s In Defense of Animals) emailed about action that's needed.

Bear bile and goat horn....

China’s National Health Commission recently released a list of recommended treatments for the coronavirus. 

Although they had (temporarily) banned the trade and consumption of wild animals on 24 February, on 4 March, the published list recommended – and I can’t believe this – well, maybe I can – an injection with bear bile and goat horn as a treatment for COVID-19.  IDA point out that there are many bear bile alternatives.   And the World Health Organisation asserts there is no known cure for COVID-19 at the moment.

Bear bile is cruelly extracted from bears held captive on bear bile farms in China and South East Asia.  Often their cages are so small that they cannot move.  They have no space, no freedom to roam and they are denied everything they need to thrive.  A syringe, a catheter or pipe are inserted into an animal’s gallbladder to extract the bile.  And bears have to undergo this time and time again.

Bears like this one need all of us to ACT NOW

Put pressure on China

IDA are asking that we all join them in contacting China’s public health authorities and decision makers to ask for a PERMANENT ban on all exploitation of wild animals.  This will help prevent future pandemics.  As they say….

“Why would the Chinese government choose to temporarily ban the trade and consumption of wild animals to prevent the spread of disease, while promoting the exploitation of wild animals as an unsubstantiated treatment for COVID-19?”

So here’s what you can do to help stop this happening:

Join IDA in urging the Chinese Ambassador to the US and the National Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China to withdraw their recommendation of wild-animal derived coronavirus treatments.

• Sign their pledge to protect all animals, humans and non-humans, and our collective future on earth
• Send the letter to the Chinese Ambassador to the US and China’s National Health Commission which IDA have here – it’s easy to do.

PLEASE SIGN HERE

And then spread the word.

While you’re doing that, you might also like to spread the word about the work Education for Nature – Vietnam – is doing to stop bear bile farming.   Visit their website here

Care2.com have some incredible petitions and I’ve just had an email about this one

I couldn’t quite believe my eyes when I read it.  In fact, I had to read it several times for the words to sink in.

Care2.com have a petition called End Cruel Canned Exotic Animal Hunts in Texas

And the petition has a particular example of what is happening at the Ox Ranch, outside San Antonio in Texas.

This has been going on for some time.  “Sportsmen” (I am presuming that women do it too) pay tens of thousands of dollars for the chance to kill exotic animals.  Animals such as the African bongo antelope, black wildebeest, and sitatunga antelope.  They  are tracked across a fenced-in area and killed.

As well as these “hunts” being unfair and cruel, they reinforce the dangerous myth that sport hunting has an important role to play in conservation.  This idea has come under increased scrutiny in recent years.

Care2 is calling on Texas Governor Greg Abbott to place an immediate moratorium on new exotic hunting facilities and to direct the state's Attorney General investigate violations of Texas's animal import laws anti-cruelty.

Add your name now
and lend your voice to the fight to end cruel, canned hunts.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – if people want to help conservation, they can donate money straight to the cause.  There is absolutely no need to kill anything at all in order to help. 

So why are these “sportsmen” killing animals?  Because they get a thrill out of killing. 

How horrible.  It’s time they were stopped and found their thrills doing something else.  

With none of us being able to go out visiting places during the Coronavirus/COVID-19 situation, it really is important to help wildlife sanctuaries get through the coronavirus and come out of the other side.

In other words, they need help – fundraising has ground to an abrupt halt.

Sanctuaries, wildlife parks, wildlife charities need our help
so that they can help the animals in their care

Many sanctuaries are in desperate trouble because they rely on visitors to help fund them or they rely on fundraising events to help them provide the care that the animals need.  Zoos and wildlife parks are in the same boat, and I know that many people don’t agree with zoos or wildlife parks, but the fact is that the animals there still need feeding, watering, veterinary care and people to look after them.  I don’t want to let these animals down.  They need us.  We need to get through this time and make sure the animals are okay.

There are also petitions going round so I will try to bring those to everyone’s attention as well.

Please find an inner strength and resolve to help make a difference

 When you get involved in the animal world, you see and hear some awful and upsetting sights. Those sights switch a lot of people off straight away and many will vent their anger at those people who have upset them by sharing such sights. 

If we switch off because we are upset by what we see and hear, the animals still suffer.  These animals need us to have resolve; they need us to have an inner strength which enables us to cut through the upsetting stuff and come out on the other side, ready and willing to take action to make a difference. 

There are a lot of good things happening in the animal world as well.  There are good news stories every day and we need these to show ourselves that we can indeed make a difference and really change animals’ lives around.  Animals are being rescued from cages and a life of terrible misery, to enjoying a new lease of life in a sanctuary and in a place of safety. 

A bear rescued by Free the Bears swims for the first time

Visit Free the Bears' website
The charity is registered in the UK and Australia

We cannot let them down.  We need to help look after them.

We can all help in so many ways

Animals are relying on us to provide practical help where we can in whatever form we can do that in.

An enormous amount can be done online as we all know.

There are so many ways in which we can all help: volunteering, just asking what you can do to help, donating, spreading the word, becoming a member or a friend of the charity, buying a virtual gift, looking at a charity’s wish-list (which could be on Amazon), knitting a cosy blanket, sending treats in for hardworking staff and volunteers who are able to be on site to let them know they are not alone, following them on social media, sharing videos of good work being done….

Yes, there is plenty we can all do to make a difference.

The world is dominated by the human species now; and animals need our help to adjust and cope with our demands and the changes we have forced on them.  Let’s get these animals as well as ourselves through the coronavirus. 

Keep safe, and keep well.

With love to you & your families and of course your animals!

Sally