Open letter to World Health Organisation

Stephen Wiggins Article 5 Comments

6th April 2020 Dear Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus [Director General, World Health Organisation] and Dr Zhang Qi [Co-ordinator of Traditional and Complementary Medicine Unit (TCM), World Health Organisation], COVID-19: Health risks and wildlife[1] markets – the need for a permanent global ban on wildlife markets and a highly precautionary approach to …

Living with wild animals, Part One: Cash cows or fellow beings?

Stephen Wiggins Article 1 Comment

As we approach World Health Day on Tuesday, 7 April 2020 – please join the call to end wildlife markets/wildlife trade across the globe to protect human health, including re-emphasising the inherent human health risks of tuberculosis (TB) transmission from the lion bone trade. World-wide, TB has been infecting and killing …

Bitter Pill to Swallow – China’s flagrant trade in leopard bone products

Stephen Wiggins Studies 1 Comment

EIA research reveals that at least 24 Chinese pharmaceutical companies have been listing leopard bones as an ingredient in their traditional medicines, although there are fewer than 450 wild leopards left in that country. “Bitter Pill to Swallow – China’s flagrant trade in leopard bone products,” Environmental Investigation Agency, April …

Zoonotic Diseases of Mass Destruction

Stephen Wiggins Article 4 Comments

Banner image courtesy of artist Olaf Hajek and The New York Times Sunday Review The ‘true’ cost of wildlife abuse – Coronavirus and the viruses to follow…. “If we fail to understand and take care of the natural world, it can cause a breakdown of these systems and come back …

Botswana government won’t let the truth get in the way of its trophy hunting narrative

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By Ross Harvey, Conservation Action Trust, 5 March 2020 Symptomatic of the Botswana government’s shaky relationship with reality is its letter to the United Kingdom’s Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). A full week after the deadline (25 February 2020) for public submissions on whether the UK should ban …

“Unfair Game” – An exposé of South Africa’s captive-bred lion industry

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“Unfair Game” – An exposé of South Africa’s captive-bred lion industry UK Link – “Unfair Game“ USA Link – “Unfair Game“ By Lord Ashcroft on Wildlife “In April 2019 Lord Ashcroft published the results of his year-long investigation into South Africa’s captive-bred lion industry. Over 11 pages of a single …

China’s ban on wildlife consumption is an overdue death knell for lion bone industry

Stephen Wiggins Article 5 Comments

by Don Pinnock, Daily Maverick, 24 February 2020 The Chinese government has placed an immediate ban on the illegal trading of wildlife and the consumption of wild animals. This follows a link between pangolin meat and the coronavirus outbreak.  Despite international outrage, South Africa is allowing a quota of at …

Botswana auctions off the last of its big tusker elephants

Stephen Wiggins Article 2 Comments

By Ross Harvey, Conservation Action Trust, 14 February 2020 “Why not allow any willing bidder (such as the EMS Foundation) to pay for these licences if that raises revenue to conserve magnificent bull elephants instead of eliminating them?“ The Botswana government has again demonstrated to the world that it either does …