The Slaughter of Elephants in Vietnam Is Nearly Complete

[xchrom]

http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/06/the-slaughter-of-elephants-in-vietnam-is-nearly-complete/?ref=world

***SNIP

The poachers have already done their worst in Vietnam. Along with developers, loggers, villagers and negligent bureaucrats, they have conspired to reduce the wild elephant population to just a few dozen.

Elephants are under critical threat all across Asia, especially in India and Thailand, but the situation is so exceedingly bleak in Vietnam that wildlife conservation groups have essentially thrown in the towel there.

A minuscule and poorly funded Elephant Conservation Center is located in a national park in Dak Lak Province, in south-central Vietnam, and it has been sheltering a herd of 29 elephants. But two weeks ago, a pair of elephants from that group were found slaughtered in a forest, including the herd’s only remaining male, whose head, trunk and tusks were severed.

Without an adult male, Vietnamese forestry officials said, the herd is no longer “sustainable.” The park’s interim director said elephant poaching has now become “rampant,” with six males from the herd having been killed this year.

[Grown2Hate]

1. Fucking people. It's things like this that make me wish I was a billionaire; not mansions, fancy

cars, etc. No. I could actually FUND people trying to protect wildlife. Hell, maybe even ARM them.