Be Responsible Tourists. Don't Go To Places That Flout CITES Laws
PLEASE REMEMBER OUR CALL TO BE RESPONSIBLE TOURISTS
Wherever you go ensure the places you are visiting does not abuse animals for the shallow entertainment of human beings. We thank you for all your letters to the relevant authorities and the newspapers complaining about such places.
You would have read in the NST (June 30) about the poor orangutan languishing in the Johor zoo. This orang utan is said to be of the pongo pygmaeus abelii species and therefore illegal to keep it at the zoo.
The NST report was about Perhilitan requiring the zoo to hand over this orang utan because by keeping it there the Johor zoo is in breach of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). The zoo refused and end of story.
Perhilitan acted only after much pressure from a British NGO called Nature Alert and we hope they will pursue the matter with the zoo because to-date nothing has been done.
We are concerned that despite the laws in place to protect endangered animals Malaysia continues to flout them and we see resorts such as D-Paradise Resort at Alor Gajah openly boast of a "pangolin sanctuary" and other endangered animals on their website. Please don't go to places where the law is openly flouted. These laws are there for a reason.
Just because a resort or zoo are not prosecuted does not make it right. We the people can give strength to these laws by refusing to spend our money at such places. It is the same policy as "When the buying stops, the killing will".
Nature Alert in the UK has made such a difference to the plight of orang utans by speaking up and writing letters to the relevant authorities.
To think that it is run by one man makes us ashamed that as Malaysians we have not done anything to help him save our own orang utans.
Nature Alert has successfully got the government to send back six Sumatran orang utans, but there are still more endangered orang utans around, as Nature Alert highlighted at the Johor Zoo, Melaka zoo and A Famosa Resort.
How you can help?
1. Please go to this link (click on the link below):
http://www.born-to-be-wild.org/html/malaysia.html and read the page on how these orang utans are being exploited even though it is illegal to do so.
2. Sign the Petition then write to the email addresses listed there.
3. Stop visiting the places mentioned at this website to send a message that the public will not condone the flouting of CITES laws nor support such places.
If Nature Alert with one man can make such a lot of difference, how much more your one letter and signature on the Petition to the email addresses listed on this website. Please click on it and do your part.
http://www.born-to-be-wild.org/html/malaysia.html
Wherever you go ensure the places you are visiting does not abuse animals for the shallow entertainment of human beings. We thank you for all your letters to the relevant authorities and the newspapers complaining about such places.
You would have read in the NST (June 30) about the poor orangutan languishing in the Johor zoo. This orang utan is said to be of the pongo pygmaeus abelii species and therefore illegal to keep it at the zoo.
The NST report was about Perhilitan requiring the zoo to hand over this orang utan because by keeping it there the Johor zoo is in breach of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). The zoo refused and end of story.
Perhilitan acted only after much pressure from a British NGO called Nature Alert and we hope they will pursue the matter with the zoo because to-date nothing has been done.
We are concerned that despite the laws in place to protect endangered animals Malaysia continues to flout them and we see resorts such as D-Paradise Resort at Alor Gajah openly boast of a "pangolin sanctuary" and other endangered animals on their website. Please don't go to places where the law is openly flouted. These laws are there for a reason.
Just because a resort or zoo are not prosecuted does not make it right. We the people can give strength to these laws by refusing to spend our money at such places. It is the same policy as "When the buying stops, the killing will".
Nature Alert in the UK has made such a difference to the plight of orang utans by speaking up and writing letters to the relevant authorities.
To think that it is run by one man makes us ashamed that as Malaysians we have not done anything to help him save our own orang utans.
Nature Alert has successfully got the government to send back six Sumatran orang utans, but there are still more endangered orang utans around, as Nature Alert highlighted at the Johor Zoo, Melaka zoo and A Famosa Resort.
How you can help?
1. Please go to this link (click on the link below):
http://www.born-to-be-wild.org/html/malaysia.html and read the page on how these orang utans are being exploited even though it is illegal to do so.
2. Sign the Petition then write to the email addresses listed there.
3. Stop visiting the places mentioned at this website to send a message that the public will not condone the flouting of CITES laws nor support such places.
If Nature Alert with one man can make such a lot of difference, how much more your one letter and signature on the Petition to the email addresses listed on this website. Please click on it and do your part.
http://www.born-to-be-wild.org/html/malaysia.html
posted by Shoba @ 12:30 PM
2 Comments:
At 11:38 AM,
disco-very said…
i remember going to malacca zoo a few years ago. my friends wanted to have a photo session with the animals at the souvenir shop, and the shop assistants brought out a cockatoo and a young orangutan. The orangutan didn't want to cooperate but the assistant insisted and placed her in my lap. I wanted to say that it was okay if she didn't want to but I think it was because i didn't want to disappoint my friends, so all i did was try and comfort her, telling her all was okay. when i saw the picture after the album was developed, i saw the orangutan's face was full of distress and sadness, and her face has haunted me til today, even more so after reading this post.
thanks shoba for bringing this up. i'll definitely support this cause.
At 5:17 PM,
Shoba said…
Thank you so much. This cause is actually the work of Nature Alert in Britain.
I heard that Nature Alert is run mainly by one man and I'm always amazed by the dedication and drive these people have. It's not easy.
Another Brit who single-handedly changed the plight of bears in China is Jill Robinson.
You can do a search on RSC's blog and read her powerful story. She succeeded in releasing thousands of bears from bear farms all over China.
She got the law changed in China to make it illegal to "harvest" bears for their bile. She set up alternative businesses for farmers and education programmes to teach them about the beauty of these moon bears and how these terrible trade is inflicting great suffering on them.
Today she has saved thousands of them and the sanctuary she has opened for them in China has been turned into a research and education centre.
People flock there to hear their sad stories and Jill gains more support to shut down the rest of the bear farms and more subsidiaries to give to these farmers to seek an alternative trade.
The bears in the sanctuary are allowed to roam free over a huge park.
And to think it all started because Jill broke away from her "tour" group at a farm and wandered underground to a basement where hundreds of bears were kept in cages, so small they could not even stand.
Every day they went through the painful process of having their biles pumped and they never got to see the sunshine or their lovely forest.
One bear reached out of the cage to touch her shoulder. On reflex Jill took its paw and suddenly realized in horror that her hand was in the paw of a bear. It only watched her with its dark, desperate eyes.
Miraculously they gently squeezed each others hands and that one event changed Jill forever.
It's such a shame that it has to take a foreigner to Malaysians cannot see the beauty and value of our precious wildlife
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