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.
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.
A commentary on the violence of human beings done to their own kind, compared to the loyalty and innocent love animals freely give.