Tiger Country: Supporting Bhutan's Role in Protecting Tigers
By Vivek Menon
Wednesday, October 12, 2016

(Don't forget to donate http://www.ifaw.org )

https://youtu.be/F4wfUfH_E1o

Bhutan is a conservation giant among nations, and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) are proud to have partnered with Bhutan for more than five years to protect its tigers and other wildlife from poaching, illegal trafficking and human-wildlife conflict.

Nestled between India and China with our booming populations, Bhutan finds itself a haven for animals seeking to avoid human-wildlife conflict, adapt to habitat loss from climate and elude poachers.

Bhutan’s diverse habitats from the snow-capped Himalayas to the lush forests bordering India thus are becoming an extremely threatened landscape, which IFAW has identified as in critical need of protection.

Over the past five years, IFAW and WTI have trained and equipped more than 800 frontline staff from 13 different protected areas and territorial divisions, who are now better able to patrol the rugged terrain, address and reduce human-wildlife conflict and detect and deter poachers. We have also trained more than 250 enforcement officers to detect wildlife traffickers across Bhutan.

Following on the model project we started in India, together with the Bhutan Department of Forests and Park Services (DoFPS), we have established several Rapid Action Projects, which enable the DoFPS to respond to animal-related emergencies in the communities. These projects are essential for building bridges between wildlife crime enforcers and the people who are living most closely with wildlife—letting people know that we are there to protect them as well.

IFAW and WTI are grateful for the willingness of the government of Bhutan and the Department of Forests and Park Services to partner with us on protecting tigers throughout their range.

--VM

IFAW heros rescuing stranded animals in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew, in Jamaica, Haiti, and North Carolina. (donate to IFAW so they can keep it up! http://www.ifaw.org )



No one slept the night Hurricane Matthew passed near Jamaica, dropping rain through high winds lasting through the dawn. The storm’s path changed so often but we kept planning for the direct hit that everyone feared would happen. Jamaica was spared (this time), but we are confident that our colleagues at The Animal House Jamaica will be better prepared next time due to the contingency planning we were able to do together.

The day after, we cleaned up debris at the AHJ shelter and checked in with staff and volunteers to make sure everyone was ok. It was a blessing to know that no evacuations or rescues were needed (this time) but we were ready! Even as we gave thanks for Jamaica being spared the direct hit we turned our focus on Haiti and the United States as Hurricane Matthew devastated the island and moved to our homes along the US Eastern Coast.

After a full day of assessment, clean-up and daily care we changed our flights to leave Jamaica early and get home to the US ahead of the storm.

Ironically as we flew west we had to fly around the storm as it was devastating western Haiti. Thankfully our colleagues with the Christian Veterinary Mission responded quickly and efficiently to help victims of the storm; humans and animals received desperately needed medical supplies and treatment, fresh water and food, temporary shelter. Field assessments took days as roads were destroyed allowing only aerial access to determine the staggering amount of damage. Relief efforts will continue for months if not years. Our team stands ready to support CVM in whatever they need to keep families together during this long recovery period.

Just in time, IFAW responders arrived to prepare their homes and families for the worst. Luckily, our team members were spared a direct hit but several suffered flooding and loss of power.

Hundreds of thousands of residents along the US coast were not so fortunate. Millions of people were affected in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. IFAW activated resources immediately to support the National Animal Rescue and Sheltering Coalition (NARSC) in Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina.

The IFAW Disaster Response team deployed to North Carolina with an animal search and rescue team, transport truck and trailer, boats and emergency sheltering supplies. Our assignment took us to Pender County, NC to support the Pender County Animal Shelter.

We worked in and out of flooded waters to rescue animals left behind by residents that surely expected to be able to return within a day or two.

Now it was a week after the rains began and the rivers flooded into one neighborhood after another.

Frantic owners called the PCAS to ask for help to rescue their animals or just try to find them. Even a week after the flooding began 47 percent of the county was still flooded which is catastrophic for infrastructure and greatly delays recovery.

Seeing a buck’s antlers sticking out of the water reminded us of the struggle all animals face during natural disasters. In extreme flash flooding like that experienced along the swollen Black River, exhaustion and panic can overcome the strongest of animal. We responded to calls for dogs, cats, horses, pigs and cows.

Sometimes we were too late….



For many animals, there was hope. The dog in the picture above chewed through the wire roofing of his kennel and climbed up to avoid the water that quickly rose above his dog house. We rescued dogs and cats stranded on porches, discovered resilient pigs stranded in a submerged trailer, and collected surrendered animals from owners that made the difficult decision to give away their animal(s) in the midst of despair.

For many of the larger animals stranded on dry land like horses and cows we evaluated their condition and provided feed and medical care if needed.

Everyone that came into the shelter needed a good bath and veterinary exam thanks to the contaminated flood waters and dire living conditions. Warm beds, full bellies, and lots of tender loving care were our main priority.



Two stray dogs were stranded together and the one in the picture above even took a nap on PCAS Shelter Director Jewell Horton’s lap during the ride back to our base camp!

Owners were able to bring their pets to the PCAS for temporary sheltering which was a blessing for both the owner and the animal. Staff worked hard to not only care for the evacuated animals but all of their wards from before the storm and flooding happened. Horton earned our respect and admiration for how she kept everything together.

We are grateful to have been able to serve our colleagues in both Jamaica and the United States these last couple of weeks. And we keep our colleagues in Haiti in our thoughts and prayers as they continue to plan how to best serve the surviving animals and their owners across the island.

Natural disasters are increasing all around the world, and we are building capacity internally and with partners to ensure IFAW is ready when needed.

JWPearl said:

something needs to be done in mauritius bc there they are capturing street dogs and aggressively putting them down without anesthetics so they die a slow painful death and the treatment in the cages is brutal, honestly those people should be shot im disgraced and ashamed about the place of my heritage

Here are a couple of petitions against the horror you're talking about in Mauritius (change.org has the biggest chance of affecting change here, but every tiny effort helps!)

https://www.change.org/p/the-mauritian-government-stop-the-capture-and-killing-of-dogs-in-mauritius

https://serbiananimalsvoice.com/2016/11/08/mauritius-stop-killing-dogs-horrifically-on-paradise-island-petition/

And here is a facebook page dedicated to helping this cause: https://www.facebook.com/SavingOurStrays/ Apparently you can volunteer through this group.

When enough people make a big enough of a stink, governments often do finally act. It's how change happens. Sometimes it's slow, but slow is better than never.

Leezestarr313 said:

Bookmarking.

Canada's shame. IFAW is always trying to put a stop to this barbaric hunt, but the government of Canada for some reason keeps bending over and letting a small number of creeps who are okay with bashing baby seals over the heads dictate policy. They actually subsidize this hunt, because they keep deciding to side with the hunters - in other words, $$$$$$ and votes instead of preventing terrible cruelty. The real kicker is that the average amount of money earned by these fucking hunters is about $1600 a season. Not even close to worth a bad justification. They also try to say they need to cull the seals because they hurt the cod fishery. Sorry, nope. Seals only consume about 1% of the cod population.

Help IFAW fight it! www.ifaw.org

http://www.ifaw.org/canada/news/fisheries-unions-request-seal-hunt-start-early




UPDATE: In a decision that is disastrous for the welfare of seal pups, the Government of Canada has caved to hunters and opened an adult seal hunt from March 28th to April 7th — right in the middle of whelping season, when seals are most vulnerable.

As if the poor harp seals didn’t have it bad enough. Ice conditions in the Gulf of St. Lawrence were abysmal this year, meaning many pups likely drowned or were crushed to death in the ice. Now, sealers in Newfoundland want to open the annual slaughter two weeks early, removing one of the few protections remaining for this iconic Canadian species.

Harp seal pups are born on the ice floes in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in late February, and on the front off Newfoundland in early March. This timing is variable, however, and may be affected by changing ice conditions, with pupping being delayed or extended in years of poor ice conditions.

Harp seal pups are highly dependent on their mothers for the first two weeks of life.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada closed the Commercial and Personal Use Seal Hunt in Newfoundland and Labrador on 15 March this year, to allow mothers to give birth to their pups and nurse without disruption. The closure also reduces the risk that whitecoat seal pups will be killed.

Now, the Fisheries Unions in Newfoundland and Labrador are calling for an early opening of the hunt, supposedly so that fishermen may kill adult seals.

But this argument seems suspicious, since 99 percent of the harp seals killed in recent years have been pups under three months of age known as “beaters,” targeted primarily for their skins. There are few markets for seal meat, and according to landed catch statistics, some 92 percent of the meat from the annual hunt is currently wasted. The most valuable part of an adult harp seal in recent years has been its penis, raising renewed concerns about increased involvement in a bogus seal-penis sex potion trade.

It is virtually impossible to identify an adult female from an adult male harp seal at a distance. Although the Marine Mammal Regulations prohibit killing adult seals in whelping patches, it is difficult to see how this will be enforced. DFO themselves state that the annual closure is intended “to allow time for seal whelping and nursing”. Opening the annual slaughter before pups are weaned raises the possibility that nursing females will be killed, leaving their pups to starve to death.

In addition, it increases the likelihood that adult seals will be shot at in the water at a time when their blubber reserves are low, and chances of sinking are high. The 2005 report of the Independent Veterinarians Working Group recommended that seals should not be shot in the water due to the high probability of “struck and lost” and wounded seals suffering unnecessarily.

For their part, Fisheries and Oceans has said they have not decided whether to bend to the sealers’ demands. We urgently need your help to stop this from happening!

--SF

IFAW has been working really hard saving the animal victims of these terrible hurricanes down south. Unfortunately they have had to evacuate from the Caribbean in preparation for Hurricane Maria, but they will be back ASAP! IFAW could really use any and all donations people are able to give to help all the animals - pets, live stock, and wild animals alike - suffering after these disasters. www.ifaw.org

As I write this, I am on an aircraft surrounded by disaster response teams. Police officers, Forest Service officers, rapid response medical teams – all of us were on the islands of St. John and St. Thomas doing what we could to help those communities (and in our case, their animals) recover from the destruction left behind by Hurricane Irma. Now we are leaving, en route to the continental US through San Juan to wait out the next storm before we can return to continue our work.

The mood on the plane is somber. Many of us were torn when we were given the order to evacuate. Hurricane Maria is bearing down on the Caribbean, and will slash through these islands in a day or so impacting already weakened infrastructures and tattered homes.

Our teams of IFAW responders on the US Virgin Islands of St. John and St. Thomas had just started our assessments for post-disaster needs of owned and unowned community animals before receiving evacuation orders.  

The people we met there are doing all they can to care for their animals. Before we arrived, however supplies were running low. Animal food for large and small community animals was being rationed and caregivers were anxious about securing meals for the animals in their care. Luckily we were able to deliver 2,000 pounds of dog food to St. John donated by PetSmart Charities and Royal Canin through GreaterGood.org, with more supplies on their way.

Ryan Moore, the shelter manager at the St. John Animal Care Center, has worked tirelessly to ensure that the dogs and cats under his care are receiving the food, water, and love that they need during this intense and stressful time. The cats and dogs we met there are incredibly sweet. Zuma, Dallas, LuAnn and so many others met our team with unconditional love and affection.

Ryan manages a dedicated team of volunteers who ensure that all of the dog and cat kennels are clean, that cats get the socializing they need, and each dog is walked at least twice a day. When we have heard so much about the looting and violence in Irma’s wake, the dedication shown by Ryan and his team of staff and volunteers to these helpless animals restores my faith in humanity.

We also met Dana Bartlett who has adopted so many of St. John’s iconic white donkeys. Thankfully her donkeys, and all the wild donkeys we met along the way, are faring very well. Dana has secured hay for her herd, and we witnessed wild donkeys foraging through the plants that have survived the storm. Her chickens, however lost their home when it was flattened by the hurricane. She is scrambling to provide shelter for them as Maria barrels down.

At the Humane Society of St. Thomas we also saw incredible dedication to their community and the animals in their care. While the shelter on St. Thomas fared well structurally throughout Irma, shelter staff and volunteers literally lost everything to the hurricane -- houses, vehicles, businesses -- but thankfully they never lost hope. Each day people from the island arrived to provide daily care for animals; food, water and lots of emotional support. It seemed to me that helping the animals of St. Thomas was therapy, a way of giving back when they themselves had lost so much.  

Thankfully the IFAW team on Antigua and Barbuda have completed their assessment of the needs for wildlife and community animals on those islands, and have been evacuated safely.

IFAW Disaster Response teams are eager to remobilize once Maria passes through the region. The absolute devastation caused by being hit by storm after storm means these communities and their animals need our help more than ever. We will keep you updated on our continuing work in the region. Please check back here for more information.

--SW

https://www.ifaw.org/united-states/news/responding-california’s-wall-fire