ninamarie@writeme.com www.ninamariephotography.com
9,000–20,000 bears are estimated to be bread and kept in cages in China for bile production in 2013. Raw bile can sell for as much as u.s. $24,000 a kilogram, approximately half the price of gold.
1,000,000 baby seals have been slaughered in the past three years for their fur. The Canadian government allows for the slaughter of about 300,000 harp seals, most of which are pups less than a few months old.
10,000 red pandas exist in the wild today, declining at a rate greater than 10% over the next 3 generations. Their decline is due largly to poaching for their furs.
2,500–5,000 snow leopards Snow Leopards are estimated to be alive on the planet. 1,000 pelts were exported out of Asia and Russia each year around the 1920’s. Today one full snow leopard skeleton can be sold for US $10,000.
5,000 takin are estimated to exist in the wild. The Takin population is estimated to decline 30% in the next 3 generations due to over-hunting and habitat loss.
24,000 rhinos live in the wild today. Many species of rhino could go extinct within the next 10-20 years without drastic action, as some already have. Illegal rhino horn is used in Chinese Folk Medicine and reported to be worth $82,000 a kilo on the black market, two times the price of gold.
A commentary on the violence of human beings done to their own kind, compared to the loyalty and innocent love animals freely give.
ninamarie@writeme.com www.ninamariephotography.com