Stop Wildlife Poisoning

Category: carbofuran | Date: Oct 01 2008 | By: Martin

Melamine-contaminated milk poisoning in China as we now know did not begin with the epidemic of kidney stones in human kids that reached us just a couple of weeks ago. Gorilla babies, orangoutans and a lion cub have followed suit. Many more animals that rely on the mammary gland effusion must have fallen victim as well. I have not heard of the baby Pandas which should be also in China’s zoos, thanks God! Hopefully this is not being kept from the world. Such a trend assumed by the melamine poisoning only evokes fear and abomination!

The real reason that the poisoning reality was suppressed as is highlighted is that so that the privilege of hosting the Olympic Games would not be taken away. China seems to have been wrestling to conceal a violent turbulence of intoxicants for a while. This year’s Olympic games host managed to ‘contain’ the problem of atmospheric pollution that had also threatened its being the games’ host and now the melamine catastrophe that was apparently successfully contained in the secretive bag but which has raptured open letting loose the reality as scores of Kidney Stones diseased humans and wildlife alike. What is worse is that much of the entire world may have already had a taste of the harmful intoxicants.

The temptation to conceal an evil because it will ruin an imminent fortune is high but in most cases turns out more harmful than useful. China has seen a ban on many of its exports by many of its largest importers of its products and even the fortune acquired during the Olympics may cancel out with the loses on imports and the health investment towards the threatened human and wildlife residents.

Statements against our revelations on Furadan wildlife poisoning such as, “when you proclaim before the whole world that Kenya’s wildlife in parks is threatened by Furadan is putting the tourism industry at risk and portraying a bad image of our country” are very common amongst the guys that should be in the fore front in addressing the problem of Furadan poisoning to our wildlife. For some reason, they would rather have the wildlife fetch revenue, despite the ongoing depopulation of the animals in the background. At WildlifeDirect, through the Stop Wildlife Poisoning Task Force, we are trying to take measures that will stop the country from the possible disgrace of losing our wildlife particularly carnivores and birds, and even humans to Furadan. We are washing our torn, dirty linen while asking for its washing and mending rather than to have the world laugh at us. We are still asking for your support. This month and next month are particularly crucial in the sense that they are likely to be characterised by marked poisoning incidences especially in rice-growing areas, being the start of the planting season. Our financial resources are still low yet we want to begin awareness as a vital bird/wildlife poisoning pace reducing tool during our surveys as we seek a long-term solution to Furadan poisoning. In an earlier post, I put up our 1 year, $20000 budget. I believe through your support we can curb this imminent carnivore/scavenger loss that could lead to banning by our greatest importers of our commodity (tourism) in their market. Yet in this case, the wildlife loss may be irreversible!

Thank you very much those of you who have been supporting this Stop Wildlife Poisoning Campaign. Please keep reading our blog for the latest poisoning news.

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Tags: China, furadan, gorilla, intoxicant, Lion, melamine, Orangoutan, poison, pollution, Stop Wildlife Poisoning Campaign, Stop Wildlife Poisoning Task Force, Wildlife Direct

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Category: Pesticides, carbofuran | Date: Sep 20 2008 | By: Martin

A dog’s death is causing serious concern in Orleans! Though the poisoning ruling is based on clear symptoms by the dog suggesting anticoagulant rodenticide poisoning rather than toxicological analysis, this just shows how sensitive and animal welfare mindful the Orleans community is. We have lost at least 58 big cats amongst many other wildlife in hardly a decade and seemingly nobody is moved!

Recreating our blog’s banner below, poisoning defines the transition from rich, beautiful,living WILDLIFE to scary, dead WILDDEAD! This is where our insensitivity is taking us!

It is impressive that Health Canada has implemented a number of measures to guard the citizens as relates to rodenticide and pesticide use. In a number of areas in Kenya, poisoning of particularly birds is on-going at the ‘poachers’ expense. Kenyan bird meat consumers continue enjoying especially carbofuran-killed wild fowl meat without fear of toxic effects against them. I should fear a chemical that has a reputation of killing anything from a lion to the flies that suck the fluids effusing from the decomposing lion’s carcass. But I would not mind if a trial on the pesticide carbofuran baited bird going back to some years before many of my generation were born did not result in the death of the ‘guinea pigs’ then, who happened to be our parents’ generation. But where is the medical proof that they did or did not suffer from the effects of lethal carbofuran? Who knows if for sure somebody having died from severe diarrhoea did not contract the diarrhoea after a bite of poisoned meat, or the violent seizures that shook a juvenile to his death were not a violent epileptic feat, but the toxic effects of poisoned fowl after giving the child the lion’s share by its parents to boost his growth to a strong adult. Who even cares to tell them of the lethal effects of the chemicals anyway when the appointed bodies sit tight and complacent that the instruction labels are sufficient. What is more is that the instructions are lacking. Yet Kenyans are not a traditionally an English-speaking community. What of the storage and usage security? A frank statement by a user to the manufacturers, suppliers and distributors of pesticides, in essence poisons that “If we’re going to sell this stuff, we should make sure it’s sold to us properly with proper instructions,”

Reading on the Orleans’s poisoning story, one consumer/user acknowledges that relying on pesticide administration by individuals is not good enough. Kenya’s wildlife is at risk where it has sometimes become a ‘pest’ in certain instances such as where lions attack livestock etc. Yet again we have insufficient control of such cases thereby driving the livestock owners to act in anger and frustration in many cases ending up even in unintended wildlife target death.

One animal welfare personnel rules that the best way to avoid accidental poisoning is to avoid using poison altogether. Poisons are not a way to deal with wildlife. Though many fingers are rightly pointing to the manufacturers and pesticide issues custodians who have the herculean role to bring changes to this wildlife poisoning problem, we all have a role to play.

I am all set for a carcass collection at one target site in Kenya where poisoning is to happen quite soon. I know I will get casualties there and it is sad that I cannot stop it. It is sad that I will be getting samples to prove that Furadan is finishing our wildlife. It is painful that the pesticide custodians who should be the ones out there assessing the situation and doing everything right to control their pesticide product which has turned rogue will be awaiting for my findings only to challenge the finding’s credibility. I am worried that this evidence might only attain the status of being ‘enough’ after the only remaining lions are creeping on their bellies with lack of psychomotor coordination, all vultures will have fallen off the skies, while there will be no twilight laughter from the jovial hyenas!

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Tags: Canada, Dog, hyenas, Lion, Orleans, Pest Management Regulatory Agent, poison, vultures

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Aug 30 2008 | By: Martin

Hi all,

In Kenya, some infuriated pastoralists have been known to set out poisoned bait to nab the culprits that killed their stock. It is however a crude technique since nobody herds the lions (other carnivores) towards the poisoned bait so that in the end the real culprit is the one condemnmed to death when he feeds on the fouled food. More oftenly, other innocent victims fall victims of the poisoning as well.

Farmers in “America’s Salad Bowl” are turning into hunters _ stalking wild pigs, rabbits and deer _ to keep E. coli and other harmful bacteria out of their fields. It’s part of an intense effort to prevent another disaster like the 2006 spinach contamination that killed three people, sickened 200 and cost the industry $80 million in lost sales. Spinach grower Bob Martin has even poisoned ponds with copper sulfate to kill frogs that might get caught in harvesting machinery or carry salmonella on their webbed feet.

It is a sad affair especially because the exact source of the contamination was never discovered, but scientists suspected cattle, feral pigs, or other wildlife may have spread the E. coli by defecating near crops.

We are not just talking of killing wildlife or amphibians. Native trees and plants are being uprooted as well and fences being erected to make the land inhospitable to wildlife. It is an entire ecosystem destruction. Couldnt the analysts and experts find out the real reason behind the vegetable poisoning? must it be that one (actually several) be destroyed to save another? May be these organisms being destroyed are not responsible for the contamination.

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Tags: amphibians, Carnivores, cattle, copper sulfate, E.coli, ecosystem, feral pigs, frogs, Kenya, lions, pastoralists, poison, Wildlife

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Category: Pesticides, carbofuran | Date: Jul 17 2008 | By: Martin

While Endosulfan is hitting headlines with majority public hatred outcry in Philippines, Carbofuran is hitting headlines with informed minority hatred outcry- those who have seen and know the devastating implications not just to wildlife but also to humans.

But Endosulfan’s effects are witnessed in the exceptionally high prevalence of birth defects among children in Asia. The region adjoining the Plantation Corporation’s cashew plantations in Kerala’s Kasaragod district highly suspected to be linked to the Endosulfan pesticide. May be we are waiting for the same for Carbofuran (Furadan). Furadan’s direct effects to humans are only inferred or better stated, are latent amongst its victims. This is primarily because the poisoning goes on at mild levels in humans hardly attaining the threshold lethal limits to cause immediate death. This is mostly through eating poisoned wildlife and known in this case is the eating of poisoned birds. The birds are eviscerated immediately, but even this is done in a haphazard way and cannot be said to be absolutely free of direct contamination from the bait that killed the bird. These subjects however continue taking the chemical over time and cumulatively. Therefore, there must be effects, may be even deaths. Further, these contamination cases are not documented and there is therefore no data to support this. Contrary to the undetectable case in humans, the effects are obvious in the animals that we so crudely poison with the Carbofuran-carnivores, birds, herbivores etc.

Either way, the link between Endosulfan and carbofuran is that both are pesticides. In addition, both are being hailed deadly toxins in our environment. Well, another striking similarity is that both are wreaking havoc in their areas of use but those with the powers to oust them in these areas are reluctant, not that the evidence is lacking but most likely the chemical product boosts the agricultural productivity of an area/region/country but yet again monetary income is grande and some of the investors may be the ones having to stand and effect the ousting of the chemical, a challenging and self-crucifying move. But what is better than saving the entire biodiversity and man? Well in the end such a move remains the noble one.

The simple, uninformed “wildlife poisoners” cling on to Carbofuran because it is an ultimate killer, the same reason for which they should abhor it. But even they have identified it as a way to improve their status on richness scale: the carnivore killer’s dream is to own a larger herd; the bird hunter wants his supply to be larger. To both, Carbofuran will do the magic. It is all in the quest for affluence.

It is disturbing to realize that most effective chemical poisons bear a curse which is that they are NOT POTENTIALLY POISONOUS (AS SAID OF ALL CHEMICAL PESTICIDES), BUT ARE JUST POISONS! I wish it were otherwise.

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Tags: bird, carbofuran, Carnivore, Endosulfan, furadan, herbivore, poison, Wildlife

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jul 15 2008 | By: Martin

It all happens in such fields and waterways that supply water to the Bunyala Rice Scheme.

At this point I am confused which is wrong: poisoning fish or eating poisoned fish? No. I mean which is MORE wrong? For sure both are wrong. I think in short ‘we are poisoning us!’-Human beings and other wildlife!

I had a telephone conversation with my informant in Busia , Kenya last evening who told me everything is going on normally. By this ,he meant birds are being baited as usual. He also went on to say fish poisoning is also on. Well, with the paddy in the fields and water gushing in through the waterways (such as the one shown above) from the River Nzoia, (one of our renowned local rivers) when the watergates are opened, fish also come along. When the watergates are closed, the water stagnates. The chemical is then put in the water and in a matter of a few minutes, fish are seen to float! The species victims of this method include Tilapia species , cat fish and some species of eel. The fishermen then retrieve them from the shallow waterways and are taken for sale. The chemical’s name is nothing close to what we can figure out at the moment.Just like carbofuran is known by the locals in the area as ‘indubuha’ this one is known as ‘gumofwe’. Honestly I do not know what that is and even the spelling may be wrong because I have just reconstructed it based on the way that he pronounced it. With the young man being semi-illiterate, that is the best he could do to get me the name of the chemical. He also said this is also a very toxic substance. In addition, he said some people bathe in the water.I should get down there shortly to get the real name of the chemical and witness the scenario.

It was birds, then now fish. Surely, if this chemical is also toxic to humans, then we are dealing with persons whose bodies are toxic material bags. As if not enough, some of them are going on to ensure the chemical is not only on the inside of their bodies, but also on the outside by bathing in the water with the chemical that kills fish.

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Tags: Bunyala Rice Scheme, Busia, Catfish, Eel, poison, Tilapia, toxic

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