Illegal and Immoral

Jeff Corwin is an animal biologist who roves the planet, usually for CNN, exposing many dangers which threaten our animal friends. Apparently he was "roughed up" by an elephant at some sort of animal sanctuary that takes in animals rescued from the wildlife trade. If you know nothing about this despicable practice, then I beg you to do just a little reading up on it. A lot of animals are prized for their supposed magical medical properties. Since 1970, for instance, more than 90 percent of the world's wild rhinos have disappeared, slaughtered by the thousands for one primary reason: their magnificent horns. In Asia particularly, horns are used as some sort of Viagara. Bear parts are also believed to be medical superheroes. Elephants are heading for extinction.

So whenever I hear people like my BFF Paris say some shit like, "I love animals!" or "I want a pet monkey!" I become not only enraged but profoundly sad. (This reminds me of the time I met a real estate agent who was wearing a monster fur coat - ick- who deludely told me she loved animals. Yeah, loved WEARING them! Anyway, that's another rant.)
Either these animal collectors are unaware of the evilness of the illegal trade of exotic animals, or they do know and simply don't care. I don't know which is worse. Makes me think of the Nick Cave song "People Ain't No Good." Is that true? Are we no good? While watching the video of Jeff Corwin get "attacked" by the elephant, I stumbled across Anderson Cooper's blog. He talks abit more about this problem. You can see the video of Jeff here too. Thanks to www.abc.net.au for the pix.

technorati tags:Wildlife, Paris, Hilton, Monkey, AndersonCooper, Jeff, Corwin

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