Last Friday the Russian Federation sent a letter to the Obama Administration promising that Russia would support a resolution to ban the international polar bear fur trade if the U.S. government introduces it.
Now we must prevail on the Administration to seize this extraordinary opportunity -- and we must do it quickly. The deadline for our government to submit a resolution is this Thursday, October 4.
The White House needs to hear from you immediately.
Please send a message urging President Obama to lead the way globally by proposing a ban on the commercial trade in polar bear parts at the next meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
This ban could help end one of the biggest threats to polar bear populations. Despite the growing threats of climate change, toxic pollution and oil development that jeopardize the very existence of polar bears, hunters continue to kill hundreds of them every year -- and are allowed to sell their body parts legally in the international market.
That madness must end -- for the sake of polar bear survival. But time runs out this Thursday.
Urge President Obama to champion global polar bear protection right now -- so that Russia and other nations will follow.
There is NO way someone can justify the brutal treatment and then murder of animals JUST FOR FASHION! it's absolutely appalling when we have made so many synthetic fibers that require no abuse of animals and look EXACTLY the same! I cannot wrap my mind around why someone would ever wear the fur of an animal that was hunted down or treated so terribly and then killed, and actually support all of this!
It is environmentally damaging, cruel, unsustainable and unnatural. Fur trappers and hunters disrupt the ecosystems by trapping animals and create imbalances. Fur farmers raise the animals in such unclean conditions that feces and urine among other filth is dumped directly into the ground and water supply. Many species of animals have also gone extinct or become endangered due to the fur industry's practices. It's gross and insulting. Many people who wear fur are examples of people who are willing to spend thousands of dollars for all of the above to happen, just so they can show off their wealth. Humans hunt down, kill and skin animals for fur.... for mere luxury. There is an end in sight to this madness. Choose an end before it's too late and you've slipped down enough to become unworthy of that choice.
Polar bears are well and truly threatened. Their lives are affected by any change in global climate. Such a climate change may be caused by several factors including humans introducing carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Polar bears require the large amounts of ice present in the Arctic for survival. Although most polar bears live far from heavily populated human areas, pollution still has adverse effects. Chemical pollutants travel by wind and precipitation, eventually reaching even the most remote arctic regions. These pollutants will then carry through the food chain and accumulate within predators like polar bears, resulting in disease and eventually death. Drilling, mining, fishing, hunting and the broad spectra of other human interactions also threaten the lives of polar bears.
People who kill animals and make coats out of their skins make money out of it, and people who wear the coats think they look glamorous. The fur trade tries to advertise fur as ‘natural’ to hide the horrific and unnatural way that the animals are imprisoned on fur farms, hunted or trapped in the wild, and then killed.
Despite the growing threats of climate change, toxic pollution and oil development that jeopardize the very existence of polar bears, hunters continue to kill hundreds of them every year -- and are allowed to sell their body parts legally in the international market.
Call on President Obama to lead the way globally by proposing an urgently-needed ban on the commercial trade in polar bear parts at the next meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
Please add your signature to the petition available on the link below,
https://secure.nrdconline.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=2887&autologin=true&JServSessionIdr004=af1l6w9kx9.app304a
Letter of appeal,
"Dear President Obama:
The Russian Federation recently promised that it would support a resolution to ban the international polar bear fur trade if your administration introduces it. I fervently hope you will seize this opportunity for global polar bear protection.
With polar bears gravely threatened by climate change, we must take all possible measures to limit other deadly pressures on them, including the international trade in their body parts. Scientists estimate that rising temperatures will cause two-thirds of the world's polar bear populations to go extinct by 2050. Their populations cannot afford to be hunted simply to meet the international demand for polar bear rugs.
At the last meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) two years ago, your administration sponsored an urgently-needed proposal to ban the global trade in polar bear parts. That initial effort failed to get enough votes and since then, the situation for polar bears has only gotten worse.
In advance of the next meeting of CITES in March 2013, please lead the way again. With Russia now willing to vote for a ban, we are in striking distance of success if you move the issue. Please do so now for the sake of polar bear survival. "
Thank you for answering the polar bear’s SOS.
Sincerely
Jai Krishna Ponnappan
P.S ~ JOIN US AND SAY NO TO THIS SICKENING, CRUEL, HEARTLESS AND BARBARIC TRADE
https://secure.nrdconline.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=2887&autologin=true&JServSessionIdr004=af1l6w9kx9.app304a
UPDATE as of 9th October 2012:
A copy of the letter I received,
" Dear Jai Krishna,
VICTORY FOR POLAR BEARS!
I have great news to share.
The Obama Administration has just announced that it will support an upgrade in international protection for polar bears.
If it passes, that increased protection under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) will help end trophy hunting and stop the global trade in polar bear body parts.
This breakthrough would not have happened without your activism. In recent weeks more than 100,000 of you wrote to the White House, asking President Obama to stand up for polar bears.
And you were heard!
I’m asking you to send a message to President Obama right now and thank him for doing the right thing for the sake of polar bear survival.
But please know that this fight is far from over.
Between now and March 2013, when the CITES treaty talks take place, we will have to expand our campaign to make sure that other key nations line up with America’s pro-polar-bear position.
So much is at stake: each year hundreds of polar bears are still being hunted as trophies, with their pelts and body parts traded globally. Canada, which is home to two-thirds of the world’s polar bears and includes some of the world’s most important polar bear habitat, still allows both trophy hunting and commercial trade.
If the polar bear is to survive, we must end these destructive practices by upgrading polar bear protection under CITES.
Around the world, NRDC has played a leading role on this issue. Our team recently traveled to Geneva to advocate polar bear conservation with the CITES Standing Committee, and we partnered with allies in Norway and the European Union to build international momentum.
Most importantly, our team helped secure the support of Russia -- a key player in polar bear conservation -- for the US proposal.
Over the next few months I’ll be updating you as the CITES treaty talks approach -- and asking you to take more action to maximize our chances of success.
In the meantime, please take a few minutes to savor this victory -- and please send your thanks to President Obama for leading the way internationally.
Thank you again for helping to make this breakthrough possible.
Sincerely,
Frances Beinecke
President "
Now we must prevail on the Administration to seize this extraordinary opportunity -- and we must do it quickly. The deadline for our government to submit a resolution is this Thursday, October 4.
The White House needs to hear from you immediately.
Please send a message urging President Obama to lead the way globally by proposing a ban on the commercial trade in polar bear parts at the next meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
This ban could help end one of the biggest threats to polar bear populations. Despite the growing threats of climate change, toxic pollution and oil development that jeopardize the very existence of polar bears, hunters continue to kill hundreds of them every year -- and are allowed to sell their body parts legally in the international market.
That madness must end -- for the sake of polar bear survival. But time runs out this Thursday.
Urge President Obama to champion global polar bear protection right now -- so that Russia and other nations will follow.
Unless we are ALL still living like....
We should all be against fur.
PLEASE HELP STOP THE HUNTING OF POLAR BEARS FOR PROFIT!
Polar bears are well and truly threatened. Their lives are affected by any change in global climate. Such a climate change may be caused by several factors including humans introducing carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Polar bears require the large amounts of ice present in the Arctic for survival. Although most polar bears live far from heavily populated human areas, pollution still has adverse effects. Chemical pollutants travel by wind and precipitation, eventually reaching even the most remote arctic regions. These pollutants will then carry through the food chain and accumulate within predators like polar bears, resulting in disease and eventually death. Drilling, mining, fishing, hunting and the broad spectra of other human interactions also threaten the lives of polar bears.
Cruelty for Profits and
the Vanity of Ugly Hearts
People who kill animals and make coats out of their skins make money out of it, and people who wear the coats think they look glamorous. The fur trade tries to advertise fur as ‘natural’ to hide the horrific and unnatural way that the animals are imprisoned on fur farms, hunted or trapped in the wild, and then killed.
It's Time for a ban on the Commercial Trade in Polar Bear
Put an end to this sickening Cruelty
Put an end to this sickening Cruelty
Despite the growing threats of climate change, toxic pollution and oil development that jeopardize the very existence of polar bears, hunters continue to kill hundreds of them every year -- and are allowed to sell their body parts legally in the international market.
Call on President Obama to lead the way globally by proposing an urgently-needed ban on the commercial trade in polar bear parts at the next meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
Please add your signature to the petition available on the link below,
https://secure.nrdconline.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=2887&autologin=true&JServSessionIdr004=af1l6w9kx9.app304a
Letter of appeal,
"Dear President Obama:
The Russian Federation recently promised that it would support a resolution to ban the international polar bear fur trade if your administration introduces it. I fervently hope you will seize this opportunity for global polar bear protection.
With polar bears gravely threatened by climate change, we must take all possible measures to limit other deadly pressures on them, including the international trade in their body parts. Scientists estimate that rising temperatures will cause two-thirds of the world's polar bear populations to go extinct by 2050. Their populations cannot afford to be hunted simply to meet the international demand for polar bear rugs.
At the last meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) two years ago, your administration sponsored an urgently-needed proposal to ban the global trade in polar bear parts. That initial effort failed to get enough votes and since then, the situation for polar bears has only gotten worse.
In advance of the next meeting of CITES in March 2013, please lead the way again. With Russia now willing to vote for a ban, we are in striking distance of success if you move the issue. Please do so now for the sake of polar bear survival. "
Thank you for answering the polar bear’s SOS.
Sincerely
Jai Krishna Ponnappan
P.S ~ JOIN US AND SAY NO TO THIS SICKENING, CRUEL, HEARTLESS AND BARBARIC TRADE
https://secure.nrdconline.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=2887&autologin=true&JServSessionIdr004=af1l6w9kx9.app304a
UPDATE as of 9th October 2012:
A copy of the letter I received,
" Dear Jai Krishna,
VICTORY FOR POLAR BEARS!
I have great news to share.
The Obama Administration has just announced that it will support an upgrade in international protection for polar bears.
If it passes, that increased protection under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) will help end trophy hunting and stop the global trade in polar bear body parts.
This breakthrough would not have happened without your activism. In recent weeks more than 100,000 of you wrote to the White House, asking President Obama to stand up for polar bears.
And you were heard!
I’m asking you to send a message to President Obama right now and thank him for doing the right thing for the sake of polar bear survival.
But please know that this fight is far from over.
Between now and March 2013, when the CITES treaty talks take place, we will have to expand our campaign to make sure that other key nations line up with America’s pro-polar-bear position.
So much is at stake: each year hundreds of polar bears are still being hunted as trophies, with their pelts and body parts traded globally. Canada, which is home to two-thirds of the world’s polar bears and includes some of the world’s most important polar bear habitat, still allows both trophy hunting and commercial trade.
If the polar bear is to survive, we must end these destructive practices by upgrading polar bear protection under CITES.
Around the world, NRDC has played a leading role on this issue. Our team recently traveled to Geneva to advocate polar bear conservation with the CITES Standing Committee, and we partnered with allies in Norway and the European Union to build international momentum.
Most importantly, our team helped secure the support of Russia -- a key player in polar bear conservation -- for the US proposal.
Over the next few months I’ll be updating you as the CITES treaty talks approach -- and asking you to take more action to maximize our chances of success.
In the meantime, please take a few minutes to savor this victory -- and please send your thanks to President Obama for leading the way internationally.
Thank you again for helping to make this breakthrough possible.
Sincerely,
Frances Beinecke
President "