Extinction+Blog

Link- http://kidblog.org/MsJeffersonPeriod3/barrstudent479728972/extinction-means-gone-for-good/ Imagine yourself as an elephant or tiger being hunted, imagine living in fear that you will be killed by a poacher for money, fashion, medicine, and even sport every day. Even worse, imagine being an endangered species that used to thrive in one area but is now being hunted to extinction. Believe it or not, there are thousands of species living like this, tens of thousands. People all around the world don’t realize that hunting and poaching can affect the entire world. Poaching is wrong and leaves on species at a time at a risk of extinction. Animals deserve to live on this world as much as humans do, so we need to treat them like they deserve it. Honestly, would you like to be hunted?

Poaching has affected many species in the entire world, not just foreign countries like China, but in the US too. To me, when a poaching incident happens, it shouldn’t be put off as nothing and the poachers should be prosecuted. According to the article “Poaching blamed for the Loss of the Western Black Rhino” 10 long-legged West African Black Rhinos were surviving in the wild until poachers found them and killed them all. Now there are only West African Black Rhinos in captivity. Though people did this, the government did not prosecute the killers of their black rhino. Another thing that is worrying is how the continent of Asia (mostly China) can threaten the survival of the tiger, which used to heavily populate many areas of Asia. According to the article “Could the Year of the Tiger be their Last?” 100 years ago there was 100,000 tigers living, but now there are barely 30,000. That is a 70% decrease. Also, there are only 20 wild tigers left in China, and only 1,400 wild tigers in India. People in Asia poach tigers for “medicinal properties” in the tiger’s bones, the tigers pelt, and for entertainment. They make the tigers do dangerous stunts like jumping through a ring of fire. I just don’t understand how people could be so oblivious and cruel about what they are doing. In my opinion, they should think about what they are doing to the animals and then think, “Would I like someone to do that to me?” and most likely the answer would be no. So why should we treat animals the way we wouldn’t treat each other. Though there are many different types of species of animals, there are a few that are prized for hunting. According to the article “Blood Money” there is aZimbabweanPark where 4 of the 5 prized animal species are kept. This park keeps 500 elephants, 1076 Cape buffalo, 95 lions, and 500 leopards. All of these animals together cost, when killed, 100 million dollars. That is a lot of money. This park is basically inviting in poachers saying “Hey, over here. We have lots of animals for you to kill and sell illegally” I believe that because of this, this area should heavily guard its animals and take more actions against poaching. One reason I’ve found throughout all my researching is that poaching happens for many reasons. The biggest reason I’ve found is money. According to the article “Extinction Trade” one poacher can get $400 per pound of illegal ivory, $7,000 for a set of bones from a tiger, up to $25,000 for one pound of rhino horn, up to $90,000 for a Lear’s macaw. Also shark fins, reptile skins, bush meat, and other wildlife products are sold for unbelievable amounts of money. I believe that poaching must be stopped or else there maybe no interesting animals left. The Earth would be left with dull animals who have adapted to the hunting by becoming dull and small. Think about it, a world without interesting animals because some stupid people decide to hunt animals to extinction or force them to adapt in a bad way. Some actions have been taken, but not enough to stop the poaching. The ESA (Endangered Species Act) of 1973 tries to protect and revive endangered species, but doesn’t take action. PEETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) also tries to protect the animals but doesn’t take action, like the ESA.Both of these solutions say they will do something, but they never end up doing anything. Because solutions that the society designed don’t take enough action, I believe that the government needs to enforce the laws that already exist, and then create new ones to help the endangered species and all species of animal and revive them (if they are struggling to survive).I also believe that if anyone is caught poaching, they should be put in jail for 10-15 years and then be fined by how much they were going to sell their hunt for. This will set an example to all the other poachers and hopefully they will stop poaching. I hope that, in the future, more will be done to help the endangered animals.