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by Amy Lupica, ODP Staff Writer The latest victim of the endangered animal trade is the sea cucumber. These creatures, often the butt of jokes due to their suggestive shape and silly name, have been growing in value for over a decade, and have now been aggressively overfished. Sea cucumbers play a crucial role in their ecosystems and the overall health of […]
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Late last week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the “Big Cat Public Safety Act,” a bill that would prohibit the private ownership of big cats like lions and tigers. As CNN reported, the bill passed the House with a 272-114 vote, with 48 Republicans voting with Democrats to approve the measure. Democratic Rep. Mike […]
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The New York Times reported late last week that federal prosecutors are pressing charges against a ring of a dozen people and two businesses on opposite coasts for running a multimillion-dollar organization involved in international money laundering, drug trafficking, and illegal wildlife trade in shark fins.
Why This Matters: As the World Wildlife Fund reports, around 100 million sharks may be killed annually for their fins and many are sold on the black market. Illegal wildlife trafficking is growing because international criminal networks are able to exploit weaknesses and gaps in international law enforcement.
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In the silver linings category, the COVID-19 pandemic’s shock to economies around the globe is also proving to be a disruption to illegal wildlife trafficking by transnational criminal networks, according to a new report from Wildlife Justice Commission, a non-profit organization that investigates and tracks these criminal activities and networks.
Why This Matters: Temporary blockages in the black market supply chain are not surprising, and the bad guys will find a way around them — too much money is at stake and these folks are rule-breakers by training.
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The World Wildlife Fund – U.S. (WWF- US) commissioned a public opinion survey in Hong Kong SAR, Japan, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam in early March and they found that 93% of respondents in the four countries with active illegal wildlife markets support efforts by their governments and health ministries to close all illegal and unregulated markets selling wild animals – Japan was the lone exception.
Why This Matters: As Dr. Fauci says if we do not have enough evidence of the global toll unsustainable practices like this are having on our world, then what will it take?
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By: Carson Barylak, IFAW Programs Manager and Meredith Whitney, IFAW Wildlife Rescue Program Officer. This blog first appeared on the IFAW web site and is reprinted with their permission. The Netflix docu-series Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness, has gripped audiences across the world and created countless memes across the internet; the iconic wild animals, complex human […]
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