No more Cecil stories
Like many of our readers, I have a love and respect for all animals – domestic and wild. Killing an animal for sport in my personal opinion is murder. I have just returned from a wonderful trip to South Africa where I visited several animal reserves where I saw an array of wild animals, including lions in their natural habitat. The majority of people in the world understand the importance of protecting innocent children. Let’s include innocent animals. Artists and arts lovers, please take a stand and sign this petition. Let’s use Cecil the Lion’s memory as a call to action to stop this useless killing.
Nancy Bianconi
Publisher
www.nohoartsdistrict.com
From the folks at Avaaz.org – Thank you.
This campaign is on fire! We’re at 50k signers in the US in half a day, but Cecil’s story has touched millions — Add your name, forward this to everyone, or share now on Facebook & Twitter — let’s to get to 100,000 before we take our demand to the US Fish & Wildlife Service’s doorstep.
Dear friends,
A 13-year old lion named Cecil was just lured from a park in Zimbabwe where he lived under legal protection, shot with a crossbow and rifle, then beheaded and skinned. The hunter who paid over $50,000 for the kill is a dentist from Minnesota.
Experts say lions could be extinct in the wild in our lifetime, and the US is partly to blame. The number of lion trophies imported by American hunters has skyrocketed, doubling between 1999 and 2008, and there are no sanctions in the US for hunters like the dentist who killed Cecil, because lions aren’t listed under the Endangered Species Act despite a recent government recommendation.
Right now, the Fish and Wildlife Service is considering a petition to list lions as endangered, and a massive outcry from across the country could speed up the process and start saving lions now. Sign now and recruit others to join on Facebook, Twitter, and everywhere else:
Can you imagine the African savannah completely devoid of lions? It’s a depressing thought, but defending lions like Cecil also isn’t even just about altruism; Cecil was a major tourist attraction at Hwange National Park, and a few days of his photo being taken by tourists was more lucrative for Zimbabwe than the one-off price paid for his head. Countless other tourism jobs across southern and East Africa depend on the existence of these incredible animals.
Listing the African lion under the Endangered Species Act wouldn’t immediately create a ban on American hunters traveling to Africa to hunt lions, but it would establish a stringent new permitting process, whereby any hunting could only happen in closely monitored programs that also support lion conservation. It’s the first step toward any real, ambitious plan to save the world’s lions, and frankly it’s outrageous that it hasn’t happened already.
It’s past time we respond to this dramatic scenario with dramatic action, starting by listing lions as endangered. If everybody also finds one friend to join them, we can double the strength of our demand. Sign here and let’s make sure Cecil’s death wasn’t in vain:
Scientists warn that we’re living in an era known as the sixth extinction, an acceleration of habitat and species loss from urbanization, climate change, and aggressive hunting. Large mammals like lions are some of the most vulnerable; their rates of reproduction lag far behind the rate they’re being hunted and poached. But our movement is accelerating too, and every day Avaaz members worldwide are propelling hopeful and ambitious policies forward to build the world we love, a world where African lions continue to roam.
With roaring hope,
Joseph, Rewan, Mia, Andrew and the whole Avaaz team
More information:
Cecil the lion’s killer revealed as American dentist
Zimbabwe’s ‘iconic’ lion Cecil killed by hunter
African Lions Face Extinction by 2050, Could Gain Endangered Species Act Protection
African lion (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)
Scientists Warn ‘Sixth Extinction’ May Be Underway
Avaaz.org is a 41-million-person global campaign network that works to ensure that the views and values of the world’s people shape global decision-making. (“Avaaz” means “voice” or “song” in many languages.) Avaaz members live in every nation of the world; our team is spread across 18 countries on 6 continents and operates in 17 languages.
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