Lions photo: purple journal
In a follow up to a story I previously reported on, lions in Kenya and East Africa are still being poisoned by an American made chemical called Carbofuran or Furadan. In fact, our own Environmental Protection Agency has said that the substance is too poisonous to be used in America, but that hasn’t stopped it from being sold in these African nations for herders, fearful of their livestock being hunted, to use on lions. Just a small amount of this deadly material (a handful) can kill an entire pride of lions. According to a Washington Post article, just 50 years ago there were 450,000 lions in Africa and now the number has sharply decreased to around 16,000! That is a 95% drop in the population! And the numbers of wild lions in Kenya, estimated by Wildlife Direct, will be non existent in 20 years. The future of these lions will be bleak unless something is done for these beautiful, apex predators now.
Click here to go to the Defenders of Wildlife website and sign a petition to the Prime Minister of Kenya, Raila Odinga, urging him to ban the sale and use of Carbofuran or Furadan and to ensure that the remaining wild lions will be protected under new legislation.
