World Wildlife Day: These Cats Don't Even Have A Life.

Few animals in the wild excite us as the great cats: lions tigers, cougars, leopards, cheetahs and so on. We admire them for their beauty, speed, strength, power and predatory instincts. Unfortunately, these admirable attributes are also their greatest undoing. They are the reasons we think claws, teeth and other parts of tigers can boost sexual prowess in China and the skins and bones of cheetahs can be made into charms and amulets that can aid rapid workplace promotion in Nigeria. The human mind thrives on inventiveness and superstition, especially senses not prejudiced by science, which constitute 99% of all perceptions on earth and men can attribute anything to anything. The appeal of big cats was always going to be boundless and with globalization and spread of AK-47s and other assault weapons all over the world, these wonderful creature were going to be under sustained and prolonged siege.
Their numbers are dwindling very fast, especially in Africa where legislation of any kind is very poor and law enforcement is even weaker. In Nigeria, game officials consider bribes from poachers as traditional perks of office. Naturally, they look the other way while these cats are slaughtered in thousands. Leopards, tigers and lions no longer live in the wild in south-western Nigeria and in the savannas of the northern regions where they used to thrive, a single sighting in a month now elicits sustained exclamation.
It is a great step, the decision of the UN to dedicate this year to the great cats. And many admirable measures have been put in place to curb illicit hunting of and criminal trade in these species but the average guy in China with a lot of money and a huge libido is going to need tough convincing that Viagra can as well perform the feat he thinks leopard skin can do. At a far cheaper rate and with less burden of destroying beauty and grace on his conscience. An even greater task is bridging the notorious income gap prevalent all over the world. This is the main combustible ingredient fueling the destruction of the great cats and other fauna. The rich have too much money and the poor have too few and it is easy for the rich to give the poor guns and money to go and kill the big cats for parts that will help flavor their insane, conspicuous consumption. The poor have few other choices anyway. A huge number of families live on poaching in Africa, a dangerous type of living they will easily avoid it the bread-winning males can get jobs that pay as low as $20 in a month. Creating jobs will go a long way in creating future safe havens for our great cats.