Matthew Steeples argues in support of The Big Cat Public Safety Act and urges readers to support his IFAW fundraiser in London
Tomorrow in London, I will host a fundraiser for the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). Alongside a whole array of supporters and personalities, we will raise funds for this the crusading charity’s work protecting elephants in the Amboseli National Park in Kenya, but elsewhere other endangered animals continue to suffer.
Whilst headlines last week have highlighted the terrible story of a “big game hunter” (I’d instead term him a “sick, callous monster”) who brags of being “totally unrepentant” after killing 5,000 elephants, 60 lions, 50 hippos and 40 leopards in Africa, in America there are now more tigers living in backyards than there are living wild in the entire world.
To help highlight the fact that is easier to buy a tiger in some US states than it is to adopt a rescue dog, Azzedine Downes, president and chief executive officer of IFAW, recently penned an article for The Hill in support of bringing The Big Cat Public Safety Act into law. Implementation of this would rescue over 10,000 big cats currently being kept in inhumane conditions in that country and make it illegal to keep as pets or allow public contact with any lions, tigers, leopards, cheetahs, jaguars, pumas or cougars.
This is a law, just like the ivory ban that I would like to see brought in worldwide, that we must all support. Whilst dreadful animal slaughterers such as Larysa Switlyk and Donald Trump Jr. deservedly attract negative media attention for their barbaric activities, supporting the cause of freeing the big cats held in captivity also must be given rightful attention.
To be in with a chance to win a pair of tickets to the IFAW Ambroseli National Park fundraiser in Chelsea, London on the 15th April 2019, please email editorial@thesteepletimes.com your full name and telephone number by midnight on the 14th April 2019.
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