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Hi John,
By capturing, trading and slaughtering wildlife, humans are spreading disease.
In the past 40 years, the worst human pandemics, including COVID-19, have stemmed from wildlife trade and consumption and habitat destruction.
Wildlife trade is also driving species like pangolins and giraffes toward extinction. It has to stop.
Please support our efforts to stop the wildlife trade with a gift to the Saving Life on Earth Fund.
COVID-19 is now exposing that the primary drivers of the extinction emergency — exploitation of wildlife and habitat loss — are also fueling global pandemics.
And the United States is one of the world's top importers of wildlife, responsible for an estimated 20% of the global wildlife market.
Elephants, aquarium fish, rhinos, parrots, turtles and even seahorses are all victims of those who want to exploit wildlife. It's the same mentality we see with trophy hunters, who target endangered species to decorate their walls and social media feeds.
The pursuit of small African mammals brought a monkeypox outbreak to the country in 2003, and that's only the tip of the iceberg. The United States imports roughly 244 million live animals a year.
Wildlife should never be commodities, especially when the trade puts us at risk of disease outbreaks.
The global trade in wildlife needs to end immediately.
We could lose a million species in the coming decades unless we change business as usual.
We must put an end to the commercial exploitation of wildlife — and halt the destruction of habitat that is leaving wildlife homeless.
Wild animals belong in the wild. Without them, there is no us.
Please give now to the Saving Life on Earth Fund.
For the wild,
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