Letters from Asia

[Guest guest]

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2010:

 

 

Letters

 

 

 

 

Dancing bears

 

I thought you would like to know that the last known " dancing

bears " in India have just been rescued. So far as we are aware,

there are no more of these poor sloth bears suffering on the roads of

India. I have just come back from India, where I helped to take the

last bear to the Bannerghatta Bear Sanctuary, operated by Wildlife

SOS in Bannerghatta National Park.

This is a most gratifying time for all of the members,

sponsors, supporters and volunteers of the Free The Bears Fund, who

have dug deep to help fund the Kalandar Rehabilitation Program,

which has enabled the retirement of the Kalandar people from the

dancing bear business. We have helped to fund the rescue of more than

500 bears, but the most successful part of this program is that we

have funded help for more than 500 Kalandar families, who are

earning much better livelihoods and enjoying a much improved quality

of life.

Working closely with Wildlife SOS cofounders Kartick

Satyanarayan and Geeta Seshamani, and with International Animal

Rescue and One Voice, we now help to fund four bear sanctuaries in

Agra, Bophal, West Bengal, and Bannerghatta, near Bangalore.

--Mary Hutton, founder

Free The Bears Fund Inc.

PO Box 1393

Osborne Park DC

Western Australia 6916

Phone: 08-9244-1096

Fax: 08-9244 4649

<info

<www.freethebears.org.au>

 

 

 

Zoo & circus eles

 

Thank you so much for " India bans keeping elephants in zoos &

circuses. " It throws so much light on the elephant scene in India

and the world--very useful for all of us working for captive

elephants.

--Brindha Nandakumar, Advocate

Karnataka High Court

Bangalore, India

 

 

 

Elephants & bears

 

Re " India bans keeping elephants in zoos & circuses, " what

an excellent resume of the history of captive elephants!

We have been campaigning against the use of elephants in

temples. Unfortun-ately, since this is a religious issue, these

elephants are not protected by any law.

I just read that the last dancing bear in India now walks

free. Congratulations to former Indian minister for animal welfare

and social empowerment Maneka Gandhi. It was her idea to find

employment for the Kalandar bear trainers and handlers that took them

away from catching and training bears. If they had not found

alternate employment, it would not have been possible to free all

the bears. The law banning dancing bears, like many others, would

have remained on paper only.

Retraining the Kalandars gave me the idea to train the

Kurumbas in the Nilgiri Hills. They are excellent trackers and were

the poachers' guides. After the C.P. Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation

trained the young men of the tribe to paint on paper, they became

occupied and well-paid in their new career--and the number of tigers

in the Nilgiris has gone up. The forest departments of Tamil Nadu,

Karnataka, and Kerala say there are now 266 tigers, where there

were just 16, but I think the figure is high, since the tigers move

all over the area and each state has a separate census--there must be

some double counting. However, the population has gone up

considerably, due to weaning the Kurumba tribes away from hunting.

The Nilgiris are probably the only place in India which show a steady

rise in the number of tigers.

-Nanditha Krishna, Ph.D.

Honorary Director

C.P. Ramaswami

Aiyar Foundation

Chennai, India

<drnandithakrishna

 

 

Sacrifice

 

Re " 'God is not Dracula'--but sacrifice continues, " in your

November/December 2009 edition, news reports mentioned that many of

the animals sacrified in Nepal to the goddess Gadhimai came from

India, as Nepal did not have enough. If this was true, the crime

started here, and we can at least question how animals protected

under Indian laws came to be smuggled to Nepal and slaughtered. Even

if the numbers were small, and no matter how porous the borders are

between India and Nepal, they were our animals, supposed to be

protected by our laws.

--Vivienne Choudhury

In Defence of Animals India

7, Shanti Kunj, 124,

Hindu Colony, 5th Lane,

Dadar, Mumbai 400 014

India

<info

<www.idaindia.org>

 

 

Eid slaughter

 

Eid ul Azha slaughter in Saudi Arabia may be declining, as

you reported in " 'God is not Dracula'--but sacrifice continues, " but

in Pakistan the Eid slaughter of cows increased 15% and the slaughter

of other animals increased 4% from November 28 to November 30, 2009.

Approximately 12 million animals were slaughtered, including eight

million sheep and goats, 2.5 million cows, and one million camels

and buffalo, according to the president of the hide and skin

merchants association. Animal Save Movement Pakistan strongly

protests this debacle, and wants to abolish it.

--Khalid Mahmood Qurashi, President

Animal Save Movement Pakistan

H#1094/2

Hussain Agahi

Multan 60000

Pakistan

<thetension

 

 

 

 

 

Bustards

 

I am dismayed to have learned on December 24, 2009 that the

Pakistani government is awarding hunting permits to sheiks and

dignitaries of the Persian Gulf States and Saudi Arabia to kill the

endangered houbara bustard. These gentle creatures are facing

extinction and are protected under Pakistani and international law.

It is a shame that the Pakistani government is allowing foreign VIPs

and kings to carry out an illegal act for which a Pakistani citizen

could go to prison.

At one time these birds migrated through the Gulf nations,

but years of shooting sprees eventually extirpated them from that

flight path. Now their killers are venturing into neighboring

countries like Pakistan to destroy the remnant houbaras.

These kings and sheiks who claim to be protectors of Islamic

values by enforcing Sharia laws are hunting contrary to the teaching

of the holy prophet Muhammad, who said " One who kills even a

sparrow or anything smaller without a justifiable reason, will be

answerable to Allah.

-Syed Rizvi

Engineers and Scientists

for Animal Rights

San Jose, California

<esar01

 

 

 

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

Telephone: 360-579-2505

Fax: 360-579-2575

E-mail: anmlpepl

Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

 

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