Stop Wildlife Poisoning

Sad news, we’ve just heard that five more lions have died as a result of pesticide poisoning. We are waiting for results. The Kenya Wildlife Service has come out loud and clear about the role that Furadan is playing in the killing of lions.This graph says it all. Of the 100 lions killed in the last 12 months, 34% were poisoned with Furadan and another 8% with other pesticides and 2% with strychnine (a rodenticide). These data show that pesticide poisoning of lions is the number 1 cause of mortality for lions in Kenya.

I have even more bad news. Enoch has just came back from Tanzania and brought me a gift – a 200 g package of Furadan purchased a local Agrovet Store. It cost 2,700TZ shillings that’s $1.50.

The package says it is distributed by Juanco SPS ltd which is based in Nairobi, Kenya,  and the  date of manufacture is November 2008.

If you recall, FMC the manufacturer of Furadan announced to us on April 15th 2009 in Nairobi that they had not sent any product  to Kenya since May 2008.

“When allegations surfaced in the spring of 2008 in the Maasai Mara region, we immediately stopped the introduction of any additional Furadan into the sales channel in Kenya”

If you read the minutes carefully you will note that FMC asked us to submit all incident reports involving Furadan pesticide poisoning  to the Pests Control Products Board in Kenya. We do this and we copy to FMC diligently. However, to date we have had no response from the PCPB – they have not investigated a single incident that we reported, but yet they claim that they suspect we are tampering with samples and incidents. Indeed I was asked if I expected anyone to believe that the public were eating birds poisoned with furadan. If only they would take the short trip to Bunyala or Ahero to see for themselves! I’m sorry but their attitude just feels down right irresponsible.

It’s true, it is an offence to misuse any pesticide product according to the Pests Control Products Act, however, the PCPB is responsible for assessing and evaluating pest control products. Teh Board may refuse to register a pst control product if in its opinion the use of the product would lead to unacceptable risk or harm to things in relation to its intended use, or public health, plants, animals or the enviroment. The Board can suspend or revoke a certificate of registration if new information has become available tot eh board which renders the pest control product unsafe or dangerous.  We have looked at a number of websites and we believe that carbofuran cannot be used safely in Kenya where most farmers do not use protective gear, are sometimes illiterate and are often untrained.

The World Health Organization (WHO) data sheet on pesticides no. 56 which is about carbofuran states that all workers must be medically examined, wear full protective gear including respirators and that “all formulations must carry labeling DANGER – POISON” with skull and cross bones.

The US Environmental Protection Agency EPA says that “dietary, worker and ecological risks are unacceptable for all uses of carbofuran”

Sadly the Kenyan PCPB are not willing to listen, they have not responded to our reports and claim that we are fabricating the photographs and evidence that is contained in these blogs. For this reason they claim, they will not investigate. Hang on, doesn’t that sound odd? If they suspect I’m fabricating data then why not prove it and then discredit everything I’m saying? Thankfully the media are not convinced that I’m a compulsive liar and judging from recent reports, there is growing concern about this.

It is very depressing that the Kenya government which has already overseen such suffering of people continue to let us down. It is even sadder that the worlds richest nation bans toxic pesticides to protect it’s own population, but sees no wrong in sending them to poor countries like Kenya.

Dear readers,

I have been underground for a while! I mean to apologize but…. I am still on with the business of ending wildlife poisoning. I will be back soon with stories at my study site in Bunyala.

The blog title above not only rekindles hope that the remaining stocks of Furadan are now getting depleted but also confirms that FMC indeed upholds ethics by pulling off their supplies of the chemical as the only proper measure to follow lions’, birds’ and other biodiversity outcries of being decimated by carbofuran. And what else could be an affirmation than FMC executives’ words that indeed they have not supplied any Furadan to Kenya since August 2008! and an invigorated buy back underway starting March 2009! This was at the meeting with the Stop Wildlife Poisoning Task Force at Wildlife Direct on 15th April 2009.

But the blog post Lion Poisoning in Tanzania just challenges the reassuring words above. The post contents are words from our informant and colleague who also sent along a pdf. document of the scanned label of the Furadan pack they purchased from one of the Agrovet stores in Tanzania. The pdf speaks volumes! Please look at the 1st page of the sent furadan-label.pdf by our informant for the details I will give below.

JUANCO is East Africa’s distributor of FMC-manufactured Furadan. FMC proclaimed they stopped distributing ‘their’ Furadan to Kenya (essentially to East Africa) around May 2008. The manufacture date on the label pdf reads November 2008. Zoom the document and you will see the date as well as repeated ‘JUANCO’ underwritten in faint brown on the user information in bold black. The underwritting is JUANCO’s ‘water mark’ and therefore authenticates that the product is distributed by JUANCO in this case after being supplied from FMC.

If the product was manufactured in November 2008, there is a likelihood that the product was distributed this year (2009). It means Furadan supply was not halted in May 2008 and there might be on going distribution by the company in question especially due to the fact that there are collosal stocks in the neighbouring countries, Uganda and Tanzania (Furadan is available, for the case of Uganda). Yet again birds continue to be taken down in Bunyala in thousands by the poison with a ghost source but with labels on its containers certainly pointing to JUANCO. Worst case scenario is rebuying to resupply, God Forbid!

The poison’s supply withdrawal and buy back just have not alleviated the situation so far….or are they in effect?!

Technorati : Bunyala, FMC, Furadan, JUANCO, Kenya, Lion, Tanzania, Uganda, Wildlife Direct

Apologies for my absentism which made it impossible for me to post any stories. I was out in Amboseli National Park which looked all tranquil and safe. Jumbos are big and dominant.

Back in Nairobi, I have received a number of poisoning incidences but are sketches of the real stories. I blame inadequate expertise and the complexity of the killing method(poisoning). Few people if at all any, can suspect poisoning, itself a phantom killing method that can only be positively implicated after complex laboratory procedures.
My supervisor in my Furadan surveys emailed me sometime back that she had heard of a Crowned Eagle killed through Furadan poisoning on 13/10/2008. Her assisitant had collected it at their owl reserch centre in rural central Kenya in Nyeri district. Her efforts to get in touch with the asistant were futile therefore it was not possible for her to get the carcass for testing and photographs for the post. Nonetheless, this is not the first time to get information on poisoning by Furadan from the area. A Mackinder’s Eagle Owl died from the same in the area after eating dying mousebirds that were poisoned with Furadan by farmers near Mweiga, Nyeri District. Though I would challenge that mousebirds are too small a prey for the Crowned Eagle, in some way the chemical may have gotten to be ingested by the raptor.
I also got an update on 14/10/2008 of fish poisoning using thiodan or endosulfan in Tanzania. 6 galons of the chemical were poured into River Kilombero about 13 kms from the Udzungwa Mountain National Park and villagers in the neighbourhood cautioned against using the water for domestic purposes by the fishermen. Supposedly, scores of schools of fish floated to their death only to be collected downstream by the fishermen. A commendable job I would say to warn the locals not to use the contaminated water, but all that is annulled when it is still the fishermen that have contaminated the water. Still, it is the human race that eats the indiscriminately harvested fish. Just a silly mental justification captured in the old adage,’Out of sight, out of mind’. The fishermen cannot bear the sight of the villagers suffering under their noses, but if anyone else suffers downstream from using the water or from eating the intoxicated fish carcases, it is none of their business.
Yesterday I talked to a friend, Evans, who has been studying the effects of bush meat trade on wildlife, now compiling his reports. As we settled down on discussing our campaigns,their similarities emerged, myself against poisoning, himself aginst snares in particular. In either case, these techniques are indiscreminate or to put it plainly, they are wasteful. A pastoralist using furadan to bait the lion that attacked and ate one of his cattle will in the process not even kill the culprit lion which is compeled by its full stomach to retire to a bush and sleep. This lion may even go for two days without eating. The victims of the infuriated pastoralist’s poisoning therefore end up being feeble innocent carnivores and scavengers that will come to eat of the left overs of the lion’s kill. Evans says the snares also target every other beast, intended or unintended. Idealy, the snares are meant for wild herbivores but this is not always the case. A sad case, he narrated was when a wire snare intended for a wild ungulate caught a hyena by the neck, cutting through its oesophagus. While the poor animal managed to cut herself lose, her wish to be a survivor of bush meat snares never came true. Evans states how he witnessed her at a zebra carcass trying to eat but the food came out through the gush in the neck! The hyena eventually died after a tough struggle of excruciating pain. I can feel the pain as I write. In the case of the wildbeests, his study in the Mara revealed a decline in wildebeest numbers from 160,000 to just about 40,000 at the moment. This has occured in just a few decades in our time! Clearly, the marveled at wonder of the world might just not survive as long as the others given the status quo of merciless wildlife killings.I think in every respect humanity has turned beastly to wildlife.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Apologies if this post’s heading is troubling; I could not find any better title. I also wish to humbly inform my dear readers that I must leave certain organization’s names out so that this does not turn personal. I was not comfortable when somebody that matters in one pesticide organization told me, ‘welcome! I have heard about you and I am glad I have seen you’.

I went through a turbulent end of the week! I literally spent the Friday and Saturday struggling in my limited ways together with one remarkable conservationist heading the Kenyan office of a renowned international conservation organization, trying to get the details of recent Furadan poisoning of fish in Tanzania. I am still optimistic that I will get some details and hopefully, photos sent my way across the border (from Tanzania) of the poisoning ordeal. I should then surely avail the story on the stopwildlifepoisoning blog. At the moment, I only know that 6 gallons of liquid Furadan were poured in Kilombero River to kill fish with the fishermen warning the villagers not to use the river water for domestic purposes. This happened sometime last week.

I spent the weekend combing papers and articles on carbofuran especially Furadan 5G, the grossly alleged threat to Kenya’s wildlife. I must get certain facts right to be able to tackle the various troubling facets that challenge this stop wildlife poisoning campaign, in particular the campaign against Furadan pesticide as the poison. These have been manifested in my interactions especially with the people dealing with pesticides before it gets to the users.

It is now apparent that the discussion about Furadan is not a discussion but a sad war. It has become tough for me to get any relevant information from the pesticides fellows. It starts with word games where we have been repeatedly warned that we should talk of Furadan poisoning and not Carbofuran poisoning despite the active ingredient being carbofuran. I was recently advised for my knowledge that carbofuran is not sent nor sold in Kenya, but as far as I know, it is sold and sent to Kenya in the Furadan preparation. Nonetheless, I am going to stick to Furadan poisoning to save myself from the inconvenience of being interrupted and getting confused from the flow of my conversation that I should not mention carbofuran poisoning but Furadan poisoning. That is not the end of the war, I am disappointed when I am directed to a website where I cannot find information especially concerning a follow up on a Furadan alleged case of poisoning (Mara lion poisoning). Either the information is not there absolutely, or it is hidden behind the locks of a registration fee that is required for anyone to have full success of the information on the website. I wonder why positive counter allegation evidence to an issue that sparked terror and implicated a great need to mend holes in the pesticide regulation /manufacture fraternity would be kept hidden from the public. Many questions therefore arise as to the credibility of the findings of the follow up which was summarised as ‘there was no connection between the dead animals and carbofuran’ in the Mara.

I have also been trying to find out the carbofuran products that may have been or are still of concern in other places in the world in trying to establish if I can link it up to the Kenyan scenario. Based on a report in late 1990′s-crop-profile-of-rice-in-california.pdf- I stumbled on a profile description of Furadan 5G, the exact carbofuran product that may cost Kenya its wildlife and probably aggravate the neurotic disorders of its citizens. Various aspects of Furadan 5G are highlighted including its safety. According to the report, carbofuran was on the Food Quality Protection Act list 1 of insecticides scheduled to have their tolerances reassessed by August 1999. As a carbamate, the report revealed that the reassessment of carbofuran may result in the elimination of some uses. The product seems to have been praised for its minimal effects on non-target arthropods and fish. This is not what we are experiencing in Kenya, or are we dealing with a compound pseudo-labelled Furadan 5G when the reality is that it is a higher concentrate carbofuran product? Our Furadan 5G product even has one of the hazard labels cautioning on harm on fish. It does not make sense when it is generally stated in a communication to me that Furadan 5G is generally less toxic than the active ingredient carbofuran by 20-40 times. Fish were poisoned last week in Tanzania and birds, also fish are still being poisoned in Kenya using Furadan 5G. These have ended up and will continue ending up in East African peoples’ digestive systems, the actual effects on their health of which need the medical personnel to unveil.

I also gathered from an International POPs Elimination Project report of 2005– that spelt doom due to the hazardous state attributed to many chemical stockpiles including poor storage of which Desert Locust Control (DLCO) East Africa was sited. DLCO particularly struck me because it was reported that they had switched from mostly organchlorines which were banned due to persistence, environmental effects and bioconcentration in fatty tissues, but switched to amongst others carbamates carbaryl and propoxur. These are less hazardous to the environment but more acutely hazardous to human and animal health. When these poisons are injected into the air, they will not only just bring down the insects (starting with locusts) but also birds (directly or indirectly) and what of the humans that get in contact with the poisons or even those that might eat the birds killed in the exercise?

The poisoning saga in Kenya is terrifying, especially when the true knowledge of the deadly implications of the pesticides being used to kill vermin and wild animals is sat on squarely by the relevant authorities so that for some reason the public does not get to it. This looks bad especially when the whole situation appears to take full advantage of public ignorance and employing otherwise deadly chemicals that qualify to be termed poisonous. Sometimes, sharing the knowledge on these chemicals is worthwhile and may enhance livelihood security.

All our posts have been centered on large animals, illustrating carbofuran poisoning in lions, hyenas and vultures. The explanation behind this lies in effective exposure to the chemical pesticide.Their mode of feeding-carnivorous and scavenging -therefore accords these organisms the highest vulnerability. This just proves that ingestion or swallowing is the most effective way of getting the toxic substance into a living organisms body system. Further, fish have also been reported to have been killed through Furadan poisoning, other birds (non-vulturine), wildebeests, warthogs, crocodiles, just to mention those.

Clearly, out of the 8 divisions (technically and more precisely reffered to as phyla, these are sponges, worms, insects, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals) of the members of the Animal Kingdom, it is not just fish,mammals,birds and reptiles that are suffering but also the other mentioned in brackets but sponges. Only the sponges can be said at a lower risk given that they are oceanic rather than part of inland biodiversty. The large volume of the oceanic waters in which they are found also confers them some safety since it would require more carbofuran than can be produced on earth at the present time to get the waters concentrated eneough to destroy the sponges. This post will therefore focus on alleged or reported highly suspected carbofuran poisoning cases for smaller or inconspicuous or ignored animals.

Insects and their likes, which constitute the division (phylum) Arthropoda-the largest animal group constituting 95% of the animals- in as much as pesticides are designed to kill them, I would say, have been ignored. I believe no organism is too abundant not to be destroyed altogether or be driven to extinction. In one of the posts in another of wildlife direct’s blogs, there were lions reported to have died from Furadan poisoning. Shockingly but also reported nonetheless was that flies that came to get tit bits of the fouled carcasses also died on their meal. Well, I have also been able to get reports that Honey bees have died of Furadan poisoning in Naivasha and Kitui, Kenya. Honey bees not only make a highly nutritious and medicinal substance, honey ,but they are also very important in pollination of our rops and other plants. In Naivasha, Kenya, Furadan is used to kill termites and is proclaimed even more effective than the pesticides intended to kill termites. In Busia, Bunyala, the Leech was a feared worm by the paddy field workers and the blood sucker would stick on one’s upper legs and suck blood till one used a knife to cut it off. Though a worm, it falls in a different category and it poses no threat to rice or any other crop. Presently, the farmers have noted the worm has declined and not as common as it used to be in the paddy fields. A few cannot stop thinking that  Furadan may be behind the decline in the leech numbers.

If I recall clearly, carbofuran is branded a nematicide. But what has been witnessed is an indiscriminate mortality situation cutting across the entire animal kingdom. Carbofuran leaves a lot to be desired as far as its pesticidal role is concerned. It is a chemical pesticide that leaves many questions unanswwered such as if it can cause secondary poisoning and the scope of the broad spectrum of living things that it can wipe out. There is great need for more intensive testing of the effects of the pesticide and if at all it has to remain in use as a pesticide, it should prove its ‘innocence’ and subsequently may be win again the confidence of wildlife conservationists.