COVID-19’s Indirect Victims – Wildlife

Combine supply reductions/price increases in the food supply chain, dire poverty where marginal jobs are disappearing, explosive rises in COVID-19, particularly where cheap contract labor is housed in crowded dormitories, with totally inadequate governmental safety nets, treatment facilities or even systems to cope with mass disasters at any level. Throw in the cutbacks in game park enforcement as developing nations run out of revenues. Add nearby forests and wildlands, where threatened and endangered species already face decimation from climate change and the huge contraction of their natural habitat, add a few starving, income impaired and desperate poachers, and watch the horrors as precious wildlife are ruthlessly hunted and trapped in the cruelest contraptions imaginable. Tortured to death as they struggle, futilely, try to escape… Some willing to lose a leg to shake free… if they don’t bleed to death first or aren’t killed by predators in their weakened condition.

The acceleration of poaching during the pandemic is terrifying. In South American jungles and in African and Asian rainforests. “A camera-trap photo of an injured tigress and a forensic examination of her carcass revealed why she died: a poacher’s wire snare punctured her windpipe and sapped her strength as the wound festered for days… Snares like this… set in southern India’s dense forest have become increasingly common amid the COVID-19 pandemic, as people left jobless turn to wildlife to make money and feed their families. Authorities in India are concerned the surge in poaching could kill not only endangered tigers and leopards but also species these carnivores depend upon to survive.

“‘It is risky to poach, but if pushed to the brink, some could think that these are risks worth taking,’ said Mayukh Chatterjee, a biologist with the nonprofit Wildlife Trust of India… Since the country announced its lockdown, at least four tigers and six leopards have been killed by poachers, Wildlife Protection Society of India said. But there were numerous other poaching casualties: gazelles in grasslands, footlong giant squirrels in forests, wild boars and birds such as peacocks and purple moorhens.

“In many parts of the developing world, coronavirus lockdowns have sparked concern about increased illegal hunting that’s fueled by food shortages and a decline in law enforcement in some wildlife protection areas. At the same time, border closures and travel restrictions slowed illegal trade in certain high-value species.

“One of the biggest disruptions involves the endangered pangolin. Caught in parts of Africa and Asia, the animals are smuggled mostly to China and Southeast Asia, where their meat is considered a delicacy and their scales are used in traditional medicine. In April, the Wildlife Justice Commission reported that traders were stockpiling pangolin scales in several Southeast Asia countries, awaiting an end to the pandemic.

“Rhino horn is being stockpiled in Mozambique, the report said, and ivory traders in Southeast Asia are struggling to sell the stockpiles amassed since China’s 2017 ban on trade in ivory products. The pandemic compounded their plight because many Chinese customers were unable to travel to ivory markets in Cambodia, Laos and other countries.” Associated Press, June 23^rd.  To their credit, a number of African countries have deemed park rangers as “essential personnel,” having a dramatically positive impact on preserving wildlife. But that’s not the story outside of the designated parks or in nations that not long can afford enforcement.

“Emma Stokes, director of the Central Africa Program of the Wildlife Conservation Society… has heard about increased hunting of animals outside parks. ‘We are expecting to see an increase in bush-meat hunting for food — duikers, antelopes and monkeys,’ she said…

“[Ray Jansen, chairman of the African Pangolin Working Group noted that] said bush-meat poaching was soaring, especially in southern Africa. ‘Rural people are struggling to feed themselves and their families,’ he said.

“In Southeast Asia, the Wildlife Conservation Society documented in April the poisoning in Cambodia of three critically endangered giant ibises for meat. More than 100 painted stork chicks were poached in late March in Cambodia at the largest waterbird colony in Southeast Asia. ‘Suddenly, rural people have little to turn to but natural resources, and we’re already seeing a spike in poaching,’ said Colin Poole, the group’s regional director for the Greater Mekong.” AP When you think that some species are down to under one hundred known survivors, these losses are a precursor to extinction.

In the end, the message is clear, but it is not a message our federal government is either willing to hear or acknowledge: when it comes to any global pandemic, we – the people of earth – are all in this together. That we represent 4% of the planet’s population but account for 20% of COVID-19 infections and mortality on earth tells you what an abysmal failure at preparedness and reactive support the United States has become.

If we were sure that COVID-19 were the last pandemic we are like to face for 100 years, maybe… But we are almost 100% certain that is not the case. What will be the next coronavirus or Ebola outbreak and when? And precisely what do we do with the existing pandemic that sure looks as if it will inflict an even more horrific second wave as economies reopen with little concern for social distancing and requiring masks? And speaks for animals with no vote in this matter at all?

            I’m Peter Dekom, and I continue to be appalled at the dithering incompetence, the out-and-out willingness to allow and even encourage super-spreader gathering, from out most senior government officials… from the top down.