5 Things We Need to do for Animals in 2021

New year, 365 new opportunities to make improvements for animals across the globe. In 2020, we have seen wild animals in circus' banned in various countries across the globe, oil drilling in the arctic denied, and various undercover investigations turning up abuse at slaughterhouses. These have all been reasons for us to celebrate animal welfare in 2020, but there is still so much more work to do. 

Here are 5 things that in my opinion, need to be addressed and done away with in 2021 if we are truly going to commit to animal welfare across the globe.

TROPHY HUNTING

While millions of species on our planet are plagued with the possibility of extinction, we are still actively promoting the slaughter of endangered animals for sport. Animals like leopards, elephants, lions, cheetahs, and giraffes, are shot dead for sport by wealthy, sick human beings who pay large sums of money for the opportunity to kill a beautiful animal. These trophy hunters and the organizations they join the hunt through continue to claim that these hunts benefit conservation efforts despite this having been proven wrong on many occasions. 

There is no more hypocritical of a statement than to claim that shooting and killing an endangered animal will somehow aid in its conservation. Trophy hunting is a sickness, one that aids in the decimation of endangered species. We cannot continue to claim we are fighting for endangered animals while actively promoting their slaughter.

We must ban trophy hunting of endangered animals. We must ban the import of trophies from animals like elephants, giraffes, and lions, and we must end our war on endangered animals for profit. These things MUST happen in 2021.

ILLEGAL WILDLIFE TRADE

Whether we're talking about wild animals being sold as pets, elephants or rhinos being cruelly slaughtered for their horns, or the heavily trafficked pangolin scales, the illegal wildlife trade is running rampant and animals will go extinct because of it. We need to be doing more to tackle this illegal trade of wild animals and there's a few ways we can address this;

• Ban the sale of ANY animal deemed a wild animal. This would ban the sale of monkeys, big cats, slow loris', sugar gliders, and any other animal that is not classified as a "pet". Imprison and slap hefty fines on anyone participating in the sale of wild animals.
• Devalue ivory, pangolin scales, and any other part of a wild animal that is sold on the black market. If they hold no value, there is no reason to search for them. 
• Ban the import of ANY wild animal parts that come from areas where animals face extinction. This means, no imports of trophies or other wild animal parts from places like Africa where wildlife is plunging towards extinction.

BAN FUR FARMING

If 2020 has taught us anything, it's that fur farming is by far one of the most dangerous and exploitative industries on our planet. The covid-19 pandemic this year decimated mink fur farming across the globe as the virus ran rampant through these farms, infecting innocent mink as well as humans. Over 17 million mink were euthanized this year due to the possibility of mutated virus spreading. This is about as big a wake up call as we can be given to demonstrate that fur farming is not only cruel, but incredibly unsafe.

There is no place for fur trims, furry boots, or down filled anything. Synthetics have come to a point that we can essentially mimic any texture available to us so there's no excuse for the continued exploitation of innocent animals who suffer tremendously in the fur industry. It's time to ban the production of fur  across the globe before another virus wreaks havoc.

WET MARKETS

Whether or not the covid-19 virus stemmed from wet markets in China as it has been reported, it's clear that these markets are incredibly unsafe and unsanitary. These markets see live, wild animals kept in cages, surrounded by millions of people who pay for them to be slaughtered on the spot. These markets are a cesspool for diseases and unsanitary conditions for both animals and humans alike.

​Knowing what we know about the virus and the possibility of future incidents' involving virus' spreading from these markets, there is only thing we should do moving forward and that is to ban wet markets once and for all. Much like fur farming where we saw the mutation of the covid virus, these markets are simply ticking time bombs for super spreader events. They are unsanitary and incredibly unsafe for all living creatures. Ban wet markets across the globe!

RODENTICIDES

There is an overwhelming amount of evidence that suggests rodenticides are not only unsafe, but that they are wreaking havoc on ecosystems. You see, these poisons not only affect target animals, but every other animal who inadvertently comes into contact with these poisons. Predatory animals like eagles, hawks, bears, mountain lions, and wolves, have all been recorded to have some level of rodenticides in their system. This makes it abundantly clear that these poisons are indiscriminate in their targets and frequently poison non-target animals. An ecosystem requires both prey and predatory animals to maintain the balance but these rodenticides are killing off predatory animals which will undoubtedly disrupt healthy ecosystems.

These poisons are outdated, ineffective, and indiscriminate. We need to ban ecosystem destroying rodenticides immediately.