WSPA: Fighting to protect nature's animals

Last Autumn, myself, Sophia and Dexter, along with my parents, took a day trip to the zoo.  Not for any special occasion; it was just a nice day and we wanted to make the most of it.  The zoo is about an hour's drive from my parents house and I was looking forward to taking the children; it used to be my family's annual summer outing when I was growing up and we always had great fun.  I used to love watching their polar bear. But he's not there any more.

This is one of the reasons why...

This polar bear was butchered and its skin smuggled into London and used as a throw on someone's bed.  It's illegal organised crime to make money from endangered species like this, which will mean one day, we won't be able to see these majestic animals in their habitats, let alone in a zoo for conservation purposes.

In fact, the body parts of some animals are so valuable, my local zoo is beefing up security amid fears criminals could attack their animals.  Yes, you heard me right.  I was shocked too when I heard that.

These were just some of the atrocious stories I heard earlier this week when I was invited along to the Houses of Parliament for the launch of the Cruelty in a Concrete Jungle campaign by the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA).

The illegal wildlife trade is reportedly worth billions of dollars each year and WSPA is committed to stamping it out.  Their Cruelty in a Concrete Jungle campaign is aimed at cracking down on professional criminals in London involved in the slaughtering, importing and selling of endangered species and their body parts (because London is a vital link in the chain of this sort of organised crime).  The charity's given £100,000 to the Metropolitan Police's Wildlife Crime Unit to crack down on this and are now calling on whomever will be the new London Mayor after the May election to commit to this too.

Over the coming weeks, I'll be writing more posts about this campaign and why it is so important (complete with more photos and video).  In the meantime, I'll be tweeting about this issue using the hashtag #WSPAwild4LDN and wearing this badge with pride...

Why not join in? You could also show your support by signing this e-petition.