New trend in big game hunting: Fuelling the lucrative ivory trade

IT’S the industry that bankrolls some of Africa’s most dangerous militia and terrorist groups. Now the government is getting in on this sickening business.

Africa Pics: Baby elephant only one day old in Hwange National Park. Picture: Fiona Harding

IT’S the big business that bankrolls some of Africa’s most dangerous militia and terrorist groups.

Now the Zimbabwe government is getting in on the act with a sickening deal worth millions of dollars, presented as the solution to the country’s beleaguered economy.

Hundreds of elephants are set to be shipped to China to satisfy the country’s roaring ivory trade, in a transaction that could spell extinction for the African species. Around 24 animals have recently been captured and flown there as part of the plan. In Asia, shiny, white tusks and teeth are seen as an investment by a rapidly expanding and increasingly affluent middle-class.

It’s thought the majestic creatures were sold for around $A60,000 each. Zimbabwe’s environment minister Saviour Kasukuwere defended the sale to Bloomberg, saying the elephants were destroying vegetation in the Hwange National Park and damaging crops. “There is nothing irregular with this export, this is part of elephant conservation,” he said.

But animal welfare groups strongly disagree.

In November 2012, two Chinese zoos in the country’s north and northwest bought four elephant calves from Zimbabwe. Unable to withstand the trauma of being kidnaped from their families and going into a bitterly cold environment, three of the baby elephants soon died.

An elephant is now illegally killed every 15 minutes to meet demand, according to wildislife.com’s Zen project. While animals in Central and East Africa have traditionally been the main target for hunters, Zimbabwe is now spearheading the charge into a new crisis.

When Giants Fall has received exclusive undercover video of the 34 baby elephants from Zimbabwe that are awaiting...

Posted by When Giants Fall on Monday, 12 January 2015

HOLDING PENS

In January, animal welfare organisation When Giants Fall shared alarming secretly filmed video of 34 baby elephants awaiting shipment from Zimbabwe to China or the United Arab Emirates, after being taken from their mothers, many of whom were killed before their eyes.

Most of the animals captured last year were too young to be weaned from their mothers, and are likely suffer a lifetime of post traumatic stress disorder as a result. The young elephants faced a 10-hour road journey to the Harare International Airport and a nine-hour flight to Dubai, before transferring to China, the UK Telegraph reported. The Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force said many baby elephants were likely to die on the journey.

Last month, National Geographic published photos of the 24 elephants transported to China, looking malnourished and scarred, either from fighting on their journey or from the metal “bull-hooks” often used by humans to control elephants.

The creatures were being held at Chimelong Safari Park in Guangdong Province, which has around 20,000 wild animals, including the largest koala population outside Australia. The animals often appear in circus-style performances and the park has been condemned for alleged mistreatment of animals and poor living conditions.

“Just because the capture and export of elephants is legal, does not make it ethical or OK,” said Grace Ge Gabriel, International Fund for Animal Welfare’s Asia Regional Director. “In China, there are no enforceable welfare standards in the current laws and regulations to protect these animals in captivity.”

Even the most modern zoo cannot meet the physical and psychological needs of these animals, according to One Green Planet. Elephants are often held in environments that are unable to meet their physical and behavioral needs, and are cramped, isolated and uncomfrotable, causing stress that damages their physical and psychological health.

Zoo animals are often victims of abuse and inhumane treatment in China, which lacks the animal welfare legislation or enforcement mechanisms to protect these wild animals.

Their ultimate fate is likely to be even bleaker. These elephants will be killed and their tusks hacked off to sell on the black market for almost $A3,140 per kilogram, as souvenirs and for use in medicine across East Asia.

A 14-month-old baby elephant scarred for life by its master who used a knife edge to teach it to perform tricks. Picture: BLES

HOW THEY ARE ‘BROKEN’

The global attack on elephants is two-pronged. As well as being killed for the ivory trade, the creatures are popularly used to entertain tourists in Asian countries like Thailand, with companies offering rides and circus performances.

It’s anything but harmless, however. This year, an elephant that carried tourists on sightseeing trips in Vietnam died of overwork and another “tamed” elephant was found dead in the same area, reportedly from exhaustion. These are just the ones we hear about.

Elephants are wild and highly intelligent creatures with complex social structures, and are not domesticated. They have to be ‘broken’ in a cruel and painful process so they accept human control and can be trained to perform.

After the trauma of being removed from their mothers at a very young age, baby elephants are often housed in appalling conditions, chained up with limited movement in extreme heat, fed a poor diet and offered little veterinary care. They frequently suffer terrible injuries because their spines are not designed to carry heavy weight.

Independent reports in China revealed that animals are seen solely as money-makers, and are beaten, prodded, deprived of sleep and starved to perform all kinds of unnatural behaviours. Elephants perform high wire acts and tigers jump through rings of fire. Predators and prey are frequently put on the same float for a shocking “Grand Parade”. To maximise profit, many animals are forced to “work” for hours on end or earn their keep by “begging” tourists to buy food to feed them.

Nicola Beynon, head of campaigns at World Animal Protection, said: “Poaching and smuggling of wild elephants for the ivory trade is devastating for elephants. Poaching causes horrific pain and suffering to the animals targeted, as well as reducing their number in the wild.

“The numbers of elephants subjected to cruelty is growing and we have severe concerns over the use of elephants in entertainment spreading from Asia to Africa. Typically, tourists are unaware of the level of suffering that the animals endure to break their spirits for a life entertaining tourists, although awareness is growing amongst Australians.”

UK-based organisation Responsible Travel revealed: “During a horrific ritual, the young elephant is kept in a cage for several days and tied to prevent it from moving. It may be deprived of food, water or sleep, and beaten, burned and stabbed to literally beat it into submission. Almost all captive elephants across Asia have endured some kind of breaking in process, and a newly broken in baby elephant can be worth thousands of dollars. This is a lucrative business.”

EXOTIC EXPORTS

Elephants are already in a precarious position. Their habitats continue to be depleted, and shooting one is seen as a badge of honour by the international tourists who hunt exotic animals for sport.

Asian elephants are highly endangered in the wild — there are an estimated 30,000-52,000, with about 15,000 in captivity. There has been a rapid decline in numbers, and it is estimated that Asian elephants could become extinct within three generations.

African elephants are also considered endangered, with about 470,000 left in the wild in 37 countries. Removing more will have a negative impact on reproduction, depleting the population even more.

More than 25,000 African elephants are killed by poachers every year, conservationists estimate.

Last month, Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe accused his fellow citizens of failing to protect Cecil the lion, who was shot by an American hunter.

Yet the government is now taking the opportunity to make some money from these animals’ suffering. With China also calling for lions from Africa, this looks like the start of a disturbing new trend in brutal animal exports by unethical owners to equally callous new ones.