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| Baby in jail, Humane Society Inter'l |
The delegates to the latest CITIES meeting in Geneva narrowly voted to ban sale of baby elephants to zoos. The vote was 87-29 with 25 abstentions;
miserably the US delegation voted against the original ban proposal and
its amendment. Once again, the Trumpillini regime exhibited its fundamental the
hostility to life on the world's stage.
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| Infant in Kenyan orphanage, S. Begin |
Since 2012 Zimbabwe has captured more than 100 baby elephants and sold them to zoos in China. Poaching has caused an epidemic of orphaned elephants; these infants are sold into what amounts to slavery--a life in captivity. Elephant scientists are adamant that elephants are intelligent and emotional creatures that suffer physically and psychologically from captivity. A host of animal welfare organizations petitioned the conference to impose a ban on baby elephant trade. After emotional backroom negotiations with UK officials from DERA, the EU did a U-turn and voted for the ban, but with amendments that would allow captured elephants from Botswana and Zimbabwe to go to zoos, but only if approved by the CITIES animal committee and IUCN elephant specialists. The IUCN has already gone on record as opposing wild elephant capture as a genetic supply source for zoos.
Besides protecting elephants, the 183 CITIES delegates took a number of significant conservation actions during the plenary session on August 28, 2019:
- 18 shark species were added to Appendix II, the list of species vulnerable with extinction without trade controls;
- rare timber trees were protected including Malawi's national tree, Mulanje cedar, the slow-growing mukula tree (a type of rosewood) and all cedar species in Latin America were added to Appendix II;
- giraffes were added to Appendix II significantly, two species were upgraded from their Appendix I listings due to improvement in their population status: the American alligator in Mexico and the vicuña in South America.
- in recognition of the growing exotic pet trade, the conference listed a number of lizards, turtles and geckos to the Appendices.
The conference also urged Mexico to mobilize its legal authorities and navy to prevent fishers and vessels from entering the refuge for vaquitas, a near-extinct porpoise,
{28.03.16} and mandated the secretariat to assess the effectiveness of these measures by the end of 2019. Costa Rica will host the next CITES conference in 2022.
