Towheeblog

I encountered a fine short piece on giraffes, and how man looked on this strange amalgam of physical traits. The species is on a steep decline but the United States government so far refuses to block import of giraffe parts so we are a major market for bits of recently killed giraffe.

One state of the fifty bans giraffe parts sales–New York.

Last year an international conservation coalition voted overwhelmingly to ban sale of giraffe skins and parts. When the vote was taken the U.S., E.U., New Zealand, much of South and Central America and 32 African nations supported the proposal. The US Fish and Wildlife Service is supposed to be doing some kind of study of whether imports can be banned or limited now in the US overall.

Last year the federal agency did at least mention giraffe trade at a conference. Click here to see the agenda.
This press release from Fish & Wildlife indicates they are “studying” the claims of danger to giraffes presented at the international meeting. This press release is over 18 months old.

We know that Donald Trump, Jr., is a big game hunter paying to kill in Africa. Is giraffe on his hit list? He did speak at a big game hunting event in Las Vegas, where giraffe parts were openly sold along with bits of other endangered species.

There is some evidence that giraffes once roamed as far north as Spain. There is an excellent book about one briefly famous giraffe imported into France.

How to prevent cattle ranchers from trying to kill all the local cheetahs? Keep the cows away from cheetah hubs!

This could work for American ranchers vs. wolves perhaps. But telling an American rancher to keep his cows away from wolf-land? Probably easier to get that rancher to wear a mask in public. BTW, Idaho and the two Dakotas are each still out-pacing Oregon in covideaths even though their combined population is only about 3-fourths of Oregon’s. Those wide open spaces mean wide open faces and “Don’t tell me to wear a mask, I ain’t no bank robber…I value my freedom.” So now we see the conflict: personal freedom vs. public safety. The right-wing’s politicizing of public health measures means certain portions of our population will refuse to wear masks and then NOT get any vaccine when available.