Asian Elephants

Asian elephants used to range from Iraq to China's Yellow River. Now they are found from India to Vietnam with a very small population in south west China. The WWF estimates there are between 25,600 and 32,750 individual Asian elephants left in the wild. The biggest population is in India. Sri Lanka was once recognised for its large elephant population, but numbers are falling. The most recently identified subspecies, the Borneo 'pygmy elephant' has been estimated to number 1,500 or fewer. Habitat loss is the greatest threat to Asian elephants and their seasonal migrations are now almost impossible because of human settlement along their traditional routes.Besides the wild population there are many thousands of domesticated elephants. They are used in the logging industry as a highly effective way to shift timber through forests, without the need for more road-building. Conservationists have raised concerns that some methods used to tame displaced wild elephants for use as working animals are outdated and cruel.In 1989 the Thai government banned logging following a series of landslips caused by deforestation. Although this was clearly a good idea, some 3,000 logging elephants, became unemployed overnight. The remaining forests were too small to support them and many elephants too reliant on their handlers (mahouts) to be released into the wild.In such cases, the tourist industry is the best hope. Elephants are used for trekking expeditions and other forms of tourist amusement (some even play music and paint). The best organisations treat the animals well, but there are many instances where elephants are neglected and end up begging with their mahouts on the streets of busy cities.

Source: BBC

People for Animals

Getting Extinct : On the edge : Orang-utans

Orang-utans

Orang-utans are the only great apes to live outside Africa. There are thought to be fewer than 30,000 orang-utans left in the wild. The majority are spread over the three or four subspecies in Borneo. A tiny proportion live in Sumatra. The Bornean orang-utan is listed as endangered by the IUCN.The Sumatran orang-utan is the more threatened of the two species, listed as critical rather than endangered by the IUCN. This means it is 'facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild in the immediate future.'These solitary apes require a huge amount of space to survive. The national parks that should be safe havens are reportedly being logged illegally.The forests where they live are also threatened by growing demand for palm oil, the world's best selling vegetable oil. Clearing land to grow palm plantations is lucrative. Palm oil is in numerous everyday items – one in ten items in a supermarket, including foods and cosmetics, may contain it.80% of orang-utan habitat has already been designated for timber concessions or is vulnerable to illegal logging or habitat conversion.In November 2002, researchers from Nature Conservancy discovered a new population of orang-utans in East Kalimantan, Borneo. The group numbers between 1,000 and 2,500 and the discovery has raised hopes that the species can be saved.

Source: BBC

People for Animals

The Rare Lemur

A Crowned Verreauxi Sifakas, a baby lemur born at the Paris Vincennes Zoo. Crowned Verreauxi Sifakas are lemurs originating from the North West of Madagascar, the only place where they can be found in the wild. They're partly leaf eaters, with noticeably high digestibility of insoluble fibre and relative slow transit times compared to other lemurs. Less than 20 animals of this rare sub-species are hold in captivity among European Zoos, all from Paris Zoo original colony or its breeding issues.

Source: Times Of India

Posted By: Nikhil Jain

People for Animals

Iowa Shelter Dog Nurses 9 Kittens

A pooch in Burlington, Iowa, is taking care of nine kittens that lost their own mother.

Read Full story and watch video:
http://www.local10.com/family/15972844/detail.html

People for Animals

GO VEGAN >> REDUCE GLOBAL WARMING

How a Vegetarian diet can reduce Global Warming!

1. It takes up to 8 kgs of grain to produce one edible kg of meat (especially beef). The same quantity of grain (rice, pulses, cereals, etc.) can keep a small family of 4 fed for a week.

2. An acre of land can produce 1250 kgs of meat or 20,000 kgs of potatoes. Hence, a shift to vegetarian diets would free much valuable land, which could be used to grow nutritious food for people, at a time when an estimated 20 million of the world's people, over half of whom are children, die annually due to hunger and its effects. Remember A non-vegetarian diet requires over 3 acres per person, whereas a total vegetarian diet requires only about a sixth of an acre.

3. While it takes about 200 liters of water to produce a kg of potatoes, it takes on an average 15,000 liters to produce a kg of meat (for animals' drinking water, irrigation of crops, processing, washing, cooking, etc.). This amount of water is equal to typical household water consumption in a month.

4. A non-vegetarian diet also wastes much energy as an average of 5 times more calories of Fuel energy is required for every calorie of food energy obtained. Whereas a vegetarian can gain up to 20 calories of food energy per calorie of fuel energy. Vegetarian diet helps reducing global warming.

5. The tremendous quantity of grains grown to feed animals requires extensive use of chemical fertilizer and pesticides. Much air and water pollution is caused by the production and use of these products.

6. The concentration of pesticides in the body fat of animals due to "biological magnification" contributes to human health problems and costs. Over half of the pesticide residues in the U.S. diet are contributed by meat, compared to only about 10 percent contributed by vegetables, fruits, and grains. Ninety-nine percent of U.S. non-vegetarian mother's milk contains significant levels of DDT, compared to only 8 percent of U.S. vegetarian mother's milk.

7. Large areas of land throughout the world have been destroyed by grazing animals. Overgrazing has been a prime cause of erosion in various parts of the world throughout history. We are losing billions of tons of soil every year.

8. By curtailing our meat consumption we could free up millions of acres of agricultural land that could be returned to forest and wild prairie, absorbing tons of CO2 in the process.

9.Non veg foods are slow to digest (any where from 36 to 48 hrs.) and this diverts blood from the brain and reduce mental sharpness.

Hence, in order to reduce the many ecological threats that increasingly threaten our nation and the world, it is essential that people move toward vegetarian diets. Such a change would have many other benefits, including improved human health, a reduction in health-care costs, and a reduction in the horrible conditions faced by the 9 billion animals that are currently slaughtered in one year in the United States alone, world over its any bodys guess.

What makes Human beings different from other species is the ability to think and adapt to situations. Of course, Non veg food is delicious and We all have our temptations, but thankfully we have been gifted with a brain that enables us to make right choices too.

People for Animals