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​​# [#]
Dear John,
The trade in wildlife parts in commerce is a colossal threat to animals, perhaps rivaled only by factory farming in its scale and severity.
The wildlife trade takes many forms, but we at the Center for a Humane Economy are taking aim at several of its most destructive manifestations.
*
Wild
kangaroos
in
Australia
shot
for
their
skins
to
make
athletic
shoes.
*
Bears
injured
or
killed
for
bile
drawn
from
their
gallbladders,
with
the
trade
driven
by
massive
demand
for
Traditional
Chinese
Medicine.
*
The
killing
of
mink
on
factory
farms
in
our
homeland,
with
pelts
destined
mainly
for
China.
*
And
also
here
at
home,
the
killing
of
bobcats,
beavers,
and
other
mammals
for
their
fur,
executed
with
cruel
body-gripping
traps,
also
for
international
markets.
These campaigns span the globe, with trade routes in the skins, pelts, and organs of these animals circling the planet, with China often the end user. Many of these practices are longstanding—with the use of bear bile in Traditional Chinese Medicine going back more than 1,000 years. But none of them is justified in our modern era. Their cruelty is unmistakable, and they have been made obsolete now by human innovations, whether human-made fabrics for athletic shoes or winter coats or the creation of synthetic bile in a laboratory.
Kangaroos Are Not Shoes
Since the launch of our Kangaroos Are Not Shoes campaign in 2020, Puma, Nike, and Diadora have all sworn off kangaroo skins for their shoe models. But the mass slaughter of kangaroos still continues to feed demand from Adidas, Mizuno, New Balance, and other athletic shoe brands that continue using kangaroo skins for their soccer cleats.
We’ve highlighted the nighttime shooting sprees that kill more than a million adult kangaroos. And then add to that the orphaning of as many as 500,000 joeys who are in the pouches of their mothers or at their feet. When the mother is shot, the joey is doomed.
Adidas makes a big deal of its commitment to “social responsibility.” But how can it be socially responsible when it plays a central role in the largest commercial slaughter of terrestrial wildlife in the world? How can Adidas say it’s a responsible company when it has plenty of alternatives already developed and which are immensely popular with soccer players?
And what is Dick’s Sporting Goods, the largest sporting goods retailer in the United States, doing selling several models of kangaroo-sourced soccer cleats? That must end, too.
ReThink Mink
Americans have lost their appetite for mink stoles and coats and don’t buy the products, but there are still pockets of demand throughout the world.
The backstory is that mink in the United States and other nations are kept in factory farm conditions and then electrocuted or have their necks broken to be sold to the fur trade. The problem of cruelty is compounded when we understand that the solitary, semi-aquatic, territorial wild animals are stressed in overcrowded cages, going mad and lashing out at their cage mates, before they are killed for their pelts.
And stressed-out minks pose a unique zoonotic threat. Mink are the only non-human species documented to spill over SARS-CoV-2 variants to humans, with five new variants. They are now also documented to pose a threat of spreading a mutated form of “bird flu,” or H5N1.
A massive worldwide SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in farmed mink has paralleled the human COVID-19 pandemic, with outbreaks on at least 450 mink farms in 13 countries in Europe, Canada, and the United States. The virus infected a third of the United States’ 60 mink farms.
We’ll soon be working with allies in Congress to reintroduce the MINKS Are Superspreaders Act to ban any mink farming in the United States.
Bears Aren’t Bile
You’re heard of rhinos killed for their horns, elephants killed for their ivory, but what about bears for their gall bladders and their bile, which have been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine?
While there have been gains in shutting down the bear bile farms in South Korea and Vietnam, China still puts bears in cages and even keeps them in metal jackets to “milk” the bile from their bladders. And there is worldwide poaching of bears to feed the demand, with as many as 50 million consumers of bear bile. Given that North America has the world’s largest native bear populations, bears on our continent are targeted for this single internal organ.
And the trade isn’t slowing down. In 2022, the Chinese Ministry of Health recommended bear bile, as part of a product called Tan Re Qing, as an acceptable palliative treatment for COVID-19. The scale of the use of bear bile could surge in an extraordinary and dangerous way for bears.
There’s a synthetic alternative to the bile acids, but tradition can mean everything in these matters, and devotees insist that the substance must come from a bear, driving the captive torment and the slaughter in the wild.
End Cruel Traps
In the United States, commercial and recreational trapping has been in decline as domestic demand for fur has cratered. But the fur trade is still alive in other parts, and that incentivizes U.S. trappers to set steel-jawed leghold traps and other body-gripping traps in forests, fields, and streams. These medieval traps clamp down on any animal unfortunate enough to trigger them. Bobcats, beavers, raccoons, and other animals are the victims, but so, too, are eagles, hawks, wolverines, wolves, and other protected species.
These traps are like landmines for wildlife.
In Vermont, we are working with Protect Our Wildlife Vermont and Green Mountain Animal Defenders to halt the use of these traps through state legislative action.
The Center for a Humane Economy is based in the United States but its work reverberates throughout the world. We are working to see that commerce is aligned with our 21st-century values, holding business and industry accountable and demanding that profit motives and ruthlessness no longer drive our relationship with animals.
We hope you’ll support our efforts here at home and throughout the world to halt these abuses.
How to Take Action Today
1.
You
can
call
the
Capitol
switchboard
at
202-224-3121
to
be
connected
to
your
representative
and
senators.
When
you
reach
the
appropriate
offices,
express
your
support
for
the
appropriate
legislation.
2.
We
can
generate
a
letter
on
your
behalf
to
support
the
Kangaroo
Protection
Act.
Go
here
[[link removed]]
,
enter
your
name
and
some
other
information,
and
we’ll
send
the
letter.SEND
A
LETTER
[[link removed]]


3.
4.
Go
here
[[link removed]]
to
encourage
your
U.S.
Representative
and
two
U.S
Senators
to
ban
mink
farming.CONTACT
YOUR
REPRESENTATIVES
[[link removed]]


5.
6.
And
go
here
[[link removed]]
to
urge
your
lawmakers
to
support
the
Bear
Poaching
Elimination
Act.URGE
YOUR
LAWMAKERS
[[link removed]]


For all animals,
Wayne Pacelle [[link removed]] Wayne Pacelle
President
Center for a Humane Economy
DONATE NOW [[link removed]]
WEBSITE [[link removed]]
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Center for a Humane Economy
PO Box 30845
Bethesda, MD 208243
United States
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