IFAW's Animal Rescue Blog

100+ endangered birds seized in Trinidad & Tobago

The International Fund for Animal Welfare's  Colleen Cullen sent this post over about a wildlife seizure in Cedros.

A shipment of 83 yellow-headed parrots, 9 black headed caiques, 10 conures, 16 orange-winged parrots, an agouti and a wild hog were seized on Thursday, June 25th by Customs and Excise Officers at Cedros, Trinidad and Tobago after being brought in illegally by boat from the Venezuelan mainland. The perpetrators were charged for illegally importing prohibited animals.

The offenders were charged for being in possession of protected animals and for cruelty to animals. Most of the confiscated parrots were stuffed into two crocus bags while others were tied to pieces of wood. All the parrots’ wings were clipped.

The game wardens involved in making these arrests were trained in Trinidad & Tobago by wildlife trade experts at IFAW just over a year ago. Among the topics of the training were – how to spot and address wildlife crime and how to humanely confiscate and shelter the animals.

The animals were transported to the Emperor Valley Zoo for care and rehabilitation. Nirmal Biptah, Curator of the Emperor Valley Zoo, laments the appalling condition of the seized animals and the cramped conditions under which they were shipped.

In April, the confiscation of 1000+ animals in Trinidad & Tobago was similarly attributed to last year’s enforcement training in the country.

IFAW is continuing to train wildlife enforcement officers across the globe and has recently conducted workshops in South America and in the Middle East.

Animal Action Week Grand Prize Winner - Poem and Pics

The 2008 Animal Action Week award winner Kathy Pina,a 4th Grade Teacher at Jackson Avenue School in Hackensack, New Jersey just returned from her trip to Trinidad where she visited the sea turtle population there.

She discussed her classroom efforts in her submission for the award:

"The Beneath the Waves curriculum provided by the International Fund for Animal Welfare has added substantial value to the environmental science lessons held in Room 303 at Jackson Avenue School. It sparked thinking about not only what we, as a class can learn and do, but what our entire school and community can learn and do! I turned the curriculum contributed to us by IFAW into a SMART notebook lesson activity. The students took part in, and continue to work on, each of the suggested activities in the resource guide on a weekly basis."

"This curriculum inspired me, my class and our community to help the Earth in seven distinct ways!"

• "My class tried to get the entire school to sign the Plastic Pledge. We got 135 pledges back and will seek out more signed pledges at our science fair in January."
• "I am using the IFAW curriculum as a jumping off point to conduct our class project for the school science fair. Our project and display will be based on the environmental influences causing the decline of whale and sea turtle populations."
• "My class is writing essays about the threats to the marine animals they chose from the IFAW website. They will create illustrations and all of the pictures and essays will be "professionally" published in a book."
• "I asked the PTA to contribute to purchasing reusable bags for the entire school to hand out at the science fair. They accepted!"
• "I asked the local Girl Scout troop to set up a booth at the science fair that will help to raise money to buy the school a recycling dumpster"
• "I booked a one hour assembly program, paid for by a Clean Communities Grants, for our parents and students on the night of the science fair called "Kids Going Green!"
• "My Destination Imagination team now wants to center their entire challenge, "Instinct Messaging" on the ways that whales communicate and environmental issues that tend to stand in the way of this unique ability. The IFAW resources gave us a head start on our research"

IFAW training prompts massive wildlife confiscation in Caribbean

On the southern Caribbean island of Trinidad & Tobago this past Saturday, three corrupt police officers were arrested for stealing over one thousand animals from Venezuelan wildlife smugglers.

The accused parties reportedly received information that two men had arrived on the beach in a boat stacked to the brim with protected wildlife species from Venezuela. The officers then went to the beach and robbed the men at gunpoint. Over 500 bull finches, 300 picoplats, 400 pounds of wild meat, monkeys, parrots, macaws and other animals were taken.

As expected, the animals were kept in extremely unfit conditions, in cages barely big enough to turn around, or spread their wings.

Rescue: Sea Turtle Eggs Saved from Poacher's Harm

On September 8, 2008 a Dominican villager called the local police and a member of the Mero Village committee called Dominica Sea Turtle Conservation Organisation (DomSeTCO), indicating that a turtle was killed by a poacher during the early hours of the morning at Mero Beach on the west coast of Dominica.   The poacher fled the scene but has since been charged.

National Forestry & Fisheries officials and DomSeTCO staff went immediately to speak with the villagers on the matter and collected the deceased turtle. She was transported to the Fisheries Division where DomSeTCO opened the carcass, removed the mature eggs and placed them in prepared nests in tubs at Morne Daniel.

Seventy-six days later, on the night of November 23, 2008, the first fourteen hatchlings emerged.

On November 24, 2008, the community of Mero was informed of the exact timing of the release and DomSeTCO, with Marpin TV, went to Mero to release the hatchlings.   We spent the afternoon in the community with the intention of releasing the hatchlings at about 5:00pm.

Update on Post-Dean Cleanup in Mexico

Reported by Eduardo Santurtun, IFAW Emergency Relief Team Member in Latin America

After Hurricane Dean, IFAW’s ER team on location received information that the Zoological Garden of Payo Obispo in Chetumal had been severely damaged.

It really took us all by surprise, there were fallen trees and debris all over, there was no way of knowing where the paths and enclosures used to be. Many of them were destroyed, fortunately there were no animal casualties.

In this time of great need, IFAW together with the Humane Society (HSUS) and the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA), donated 15,000 USD towards the reconstruction of the zoo.  It is thanks to our supporters that IFAW is able to react quickly to the needs of animals that are in distress due to natural disasters.

Read more reports from Mexico

How to Neuter a 'Tater-Tot

The following is a report from my colleague Wit Davis, who has just returned from the Caribbean helping with a Community Led Animal Welfare project in Dominica.

This isn't actually a "how to" manual for surgical sterilization on potato puffs but rather a story of how Tate ("Tater Tot" or "Little Man Tate") the dog helped make last week's spay-a-thon in Dominica a whole lot of fun...

IFAW, in conjunction with the Roseau City Council, has a Community Linked Animal Welfare (CLAW) project in Dominica.  One of the goals of the project is to decrease the overpopulation of dogs.  Our ground team has spent much of the past year literally knocking on doors in the most impoverished areas of Roseau asking people to spay and neuter their pets.  They have been greeted with such tremendous support that the local vets, despite their wonderful support, simply have not been able to sterilize them all.  That's why a team of IFAW staff and volunteers headed to the Caribbean to try and catch up on the back-log, and that's where we met Little Man Tate.