Elephant populations in the wild are down from 3-5 million in the last century to under 500,000 due to unregulated hunting, according to the New York Time’s recent article: Botswana Ends Ban on Elephant Hunting. The country of Botswana is now lifting a 5 year prohibition on elephant hunting and allowing it to resume (but of course the poaching never stopped). This is just a bizarre and obscene crime against nature – no one should be allowed to hunt or kill these magnificent animals.
All animals deserve the same care and protection, especially at a time like this when it has been recently announced that over 1 million different species will soon disappear due to climate change.
I was also struck when I read the unsettling information in a food information book that in the United States alone people eat one million animals every hour. All of this is bizarre and obscene and should not be happening. It forces me to realize anew that we must change and we can change, especially in the United States where we are surrounded by affluence and endless food choices. Each of us can start this change right now by resolving never to eat an animal again.
