Dogs aren't enough; what we need is elephants.

I probably don't have to say this, that the cause for saving the endangered wildlife in Africa is not new, you know that already.  So I won't.  But it's true. And history repeats itself.  I don't have to tell you that either, and so probably does Nature (repeat itself).  I want to tell you about this novel I'm reading.

The consciousness of the plight of trophy animals, those killed by indigenous poachers for the Asian medicine market, or those killed by Western egoists who have nothing better to do with their time, their money, and their breath--those monsters with whom we share the planet--are addressed in a 1958 novel that I am now getting to.

An author I always wanted to read but kept putting other books in the way is  Romain Gary.

In his novel, The Roots of Heaven, Gary reports that in French Equatorial Africa, post-World War II, post-raising of the Berlin Wall, 30,000 elephants are being slaughtered each year.  And to what purpose?  And that is 55 years ago!  Yes?  One character in the book says:

     "Our hunting regulations are what they are, I'm not the one to defend them, but there was no permit that could justify the ravages the sportsman was wreaking.  I questioned the driver a bit, and he explained to me proudly that "the master, he hunt for pleasure."  ...I don't think this bothered him much: there are people who are always ready to pay the necessary price for satisfying the intimate urges of their soul, as you must know." 

More from the book:

"You see, dogs aren't enough any more.  People feel so damned lonely, they need company, they need something bigger, stronger, to lean on, something that can really stand up to it all.   Dogs aren't enough; what we need is elephants."

 Recently though, as reported by James P. Farwell, Defense consultant, in The Blog, Huffington Post World, 5/24/2013,

"Arriving on military helicopters, aided by night vision camera, the attacks opened up on their victims with AK-47 weapons. It was a massacre.  ...Elephant carcasses, some of 86 elephants slaughtered in Chad a few weeks ago. The victims included more than 30 pregnant females. Many aborted their calves when shot. The hunters butchered some, and left the others to die. The elephants had huddled together helplessly for protection."



More from Romain Gary's book:

"I too have often felt the need to understand it all; but I know my limits.  In my life, I've done more suffering than thinking--though I believe one understands better that way."

And still more recently, from Jason Straziuso, as published in The Huffington Post, 6/5/2013:


Dame Daphne Sheldrick, who runs the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Nairobi National Park, said Kenya must pass stricter laws to punish those who poach elephants for their ivory tusks. Sheldrick said it would be economic sabotage if Kenya doesn't prevent poaching deaths, because of the tourism it will lose.  'Unfortunately the demand for ivory in the Far East, particularly China, has pushed the price of ivory up too far,' Sheldrick said, as a dozen orphaned elephants bathed in dry mud nearby. For village residents who have little earning potential, the lure of a poaching payday can be tough to resist, she said."

Assassinating these creatures is not the better song to sing.  

Visit www.savetheelephants.org

and

The Enough Project

 Photographs are courtesy of The National Geographic Magazine, Michael Nichols, Photographer.