Wild animals are being squeezed out of their habitats all over the world because of human overpopulation. We reached 8 billion people on our limited planet last year and we continue to add over 70 million net gain each year. Countries with relative abundance continue to attract those seeking refuge and prosperity from their beleaguered countries. With that continued growth comes the devastation of wildlife habitat and the use of more and more land converted to agriculture to feed us, and land to house, transport, and power us. It brings with it pollution of our air and waters as well as the ubiquitous addition of carbon to our ever-warming atmosphere.
The one thing that isn’t automatic to our growth addiction, and that in theory at least we could stop immediately, is the practice of using these magnificent and ever more rare animals in the practice of falsely claiming to cure ailments with the skin and bones of rare, wild animals.
According to Science Review (Dec 9, 2020) 565 mammalian species have been used as sources for medicinal treatments in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Of these, 155 are considered threatened and 46 others are near threatened. That doesn’t even include all the snakes, alligators and seahorses that are being hunted for their supposed value as pills in nature’s pharmacy in what is referred to as the curio trade.
The problem is that where there is money to be made, wildlife be damned. Pangolins are the most trafficked mammal in the world. There is a thriving black market for the meat, and scales of this unique and endangered mammal in China where people have used them for centuries to ‘cure’ everything from arthritis to cancer and to promote breast-feeding for lactating mothers. The claims that they enhance male fertility is also hurting these creatures. If this worked, it would be cheaper and easier to recommend that people in need of these cures just chew on their fingernails because pangolin scales are made out of the same material -- keratin.
https://www.awf.org/blog/27-million-pangolins-are-poached-every-year-scales-and-meat.
Some ancient traditions have much to offer the modern world. I have a daily practice utilizing the ancient traditions of qi gong and yoga which have helped me tremendously to live a more flexible, healthier life. But in a modern world where so much human pressure is already causing the extinction of our fellow creatures, the use of wild animals for medicines, based on superstitious folklore, has to stop especially where scientifically-based cures are available. It is unethical and even criminal to keep on with the traditions of killing endangered wild animals. It is creating a demand that is not helpful to us for curing diseases and certainly is harmful to them, creating one more preventable reason we are losing animals like pangolins.
Traditional indigenous practices rely heavily on cultural and social traditions of highly-revered practitioners who attach long-practiced rituals to the administration of their concoctions. They swear by the practices of their ancestors and to question them and the efficacy of the ground up rhino horn or powdered bodies of sea horses is considered to be blasphemy of the highest order. But no matter the issue, story is often more powerful than science. There are so many examples of this. We know that pesticides and herbicides sprayed on our lawns are harmful to our water supply. We know that they cause cancer and kill off insects needed by the food chain and for pollination, yet 80 million pounds are used annually in the US on lawns. There is no mayor of a US city that could honestly say that they need or want more people to house, feed and find jobs for, and yet we remain at a loss to find a way forward to curb mass immigration. Stories are not easily stopped by facts, and yet here I am again trying to do just that.
The comedian John Mulaney has a bit about how it is so much easier to stop something than it is to start something. His comedic claim is that it is 100% easier not to do something than it is to do something. I wish that were true when it comes to tradition propped up by centuries of embedded belief systems and making money from the wildlife trade. According to the World Economic Forum, illegal wildlife trading is the most lucrative of crimes, netting somewhere between 7 and 23 billion dollars each year for those who profit from the slaughter of some of our most iconic wildlife. Some of that is for items other than medicine, like elephant ivory, and wild birds and fish for the pet trade, but much of it is for the wild medicinal claims inspiring the harvesting of the creatures already suffering from the biodiversity loss caused by human overpopulation. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/09/fighting-illegal-wildlife-and-forest-trade/
Wild animals need to beware of being honored with a day -- it means that each has become so rare and so popular for human usage that their days are numbered. February 20th for example is World Pangolin Day, a day designated to let the world know about their unique beauty and that more than one million were illegally trafficked in the last 10 years, made easier by the use of the Internet. In 2019, 195,000 were trafficked for their scales. They are in such a precarious state that World Wildlife Day, celebrated on March 3rd, isn't enough to house its misery.
Other rare and endangered animals currently on the fake pharmacy list of traditional practitioners claim to cure everything from the common cold to fevers and from asthma to cancer. The Smithsonian lists these amazing and unfortunate animals as the top ten medicinally endangered ones: Rhinoceros, Chinese Alligator, water buffalo, Asian Elephant, Musk Deer, Sun Bear, Grevy’s Zebra, Tiger, Banteng (wild cow) and Hawksbill Sea Turtle.
Faced with climate change disruptions and biosphere destruction, it seems logical that using zebra meat to cure tuberculosis should probably stop. When aspirin has been invented it’s hard to justify killing a rare water buffalo for its supposed ability to cure fevers. Even if there were proof that this worked, aspirin seems a more ethical way to go. Sea horses are one of my all-time ocean favorites. I have yet to see one on my many dives, perhaps because the curio trade has caused over a million deaths of these horse-like fish each year. They have been sought after for their reputed cures for everything from infertility to baldness, asthma and arthritis. Wild animals need also to be on the lookout for trusts in their name. The Sea Horse Trust is helping to spread the word that this trade must stop not only to protect the sea horse but to protect the wallets of those who are still sick and poor while the animal lurches forward down the road of extinction.
This all must be looked at through the lens of time and numbers. The Zhou Dynasty of China is reputed to being the time and place where traditional medicine began. That was 3,000 years ago long long before there were modern pharmacies, when traditional medicines had only one thing to rely on for cures: animals, plants and their extracts. Back when our numbers were in the millions not billions, wild animals were so numerous that the thought of causing their extinction by the demand for using their bones, skin and meat was never in question. But numbers matter when it comes to wildlife. More people equal greater demand. When animals began their journey to our medicinal pouches and eventually to our medicine cabinets, the world had 50 million people in it. In today’s world that is just over the combined population of Toyko and New York.
Lions, for instance, used to have territories throughout Africa the Middle East, Southern Europe and India. Now they live in only 20% of their former ranges. Over 1/3 of these kings of beasts have disappeared in the past 20 years, a decline of 75% according to a study published by the University of Oxford Conservation research unit. https://africageographic.com/stories/vanishing-lions-a-75-decline-in-africas-iconic-predators-in-just-five-decades/
But the appetite for the medicines made from them have grown even more popular, creating the impetus for cat farms where wild lion and tigers are farmed for these medicines creating a new kind of tragedy. Big cat farms exploit these majestic animals for greed and money as they breed them and relegate the frightened felines to a life behind bars, in preparation for slaughter, as this video illustrates https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knbJujxYMvw
When people move to other countries their customs come with them. Demand for animal parts is widespread as a result. Wildlife is not only used for bogus medicinal purposes but also for good luck or love charms.
The Audubon Society (May 5, 2022) did a story about how hummingbirds are considered good luck charms in Mexico. Since pre-colonial times hummingbirds have been considered good luck symbols for attracting love. Not so lucky for the hummers who find themselves packaged with love prayers and sold for an average of $50 a packet. Their tiny fragile body parts are sold wherever there is a demand. These illegal packages, horrifying to bird lovers, have been found as far north as Minnesota where I reside.
There are many environmental degradations which are proving hard to reverse. The ubiquitous chemicals and plastics in the oceans, air, and in our bodies, along with slowing, stopping and humanely reversing our population to lighten our collective footprint, are all exceedingly difficult to solve. But NOT killing wildlife for ancient superstitions? Let’s STOP doing that, if John Mulaney is right, we could just stop doing what is hurting them and not helping us. It seems like a win-win solution to me.