IFAW's Animal Rescue Blog

IFAW CITES: Last Minute Efforts for Polar Bears

This post was filed by Jeff Flocken, the International Fund for Animal Welfare's United States, Washington, D.C. office director from Doha, Qatar where he is attending the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species or CITES.

To our team's great surprise, the Committee Chair announced this morning that polar bears could come up for a vote as early as 3pm today. The polar bear coalition spent the morning scrambling to assist the US delegation on their strategy for shoring up votes, and continued to line-up votes ourselves with different delegations with whom we have been talking all week,

Luckily, at the end of the day the Committee Chair announced there would not be enough time to debate polar bears and adjourned early. We all breathed a huge sigh of relief. This happy respite gives us a few more hours to continue educating and courting delegates before the vote, which will likely happen around 9am Thursday morning here. 

Stay tuned...

--

For more information about IFAW's work around the world please visit www.ifaw.org.

IFAW Africa: Elephants and Their Tusks

These stories were submitted by our team on the ground in Africa, working closely with the Kenya Wildlife Service, our partner in Tsavo West National Park. For more information on the International Fund for Animal Welfare's work in Tsavo, please visit www.ifaw.org/kenya

Elephant tusks are at once an amazing biological adaptation and a cause of much misery to these animals. For centuries, ivory tusks have been carved into intricate and beautiful trinkets and works of art. The ugly history of elephant poaching is a direct result of the existence of these elongated incisor teeth, or tusks.

Elephants tusks come in different shapes and sizes. Generally, female African elephant tusks are evenly shaped and have the same thickness along their length, though they can be long and curved. In comparison, the tusks of bull elephants are much heavier and tend to thicken from the tip to the tooth socket.

IFAW Russia: Two New Orphaned Cubs Rescued

This post about two orphaned Russian bear cubs was filed from the International Fund for Animal Welfare's Bear Rehabilitation Center. The notes below come from our staffer Lena Averianova.

On March 2, two bear cubs (female) arrived from the town of Demyansk, Bolshie Louki village, Novgorod region. The people we know called us and told that some villagers in Bolshie Louki were keeping two bear cubs. So we went there.

The head of Demyansk administration, Alexander Pavlovich Fyodorov, met us and showed the way to the village where the bear cubs were kept. People brought these bear cubs to the village after the hunt of January 29 (their eyes already open). This means that the age of these bear cubs should have been between 30 and 32 days already. Men went to hunt not far from Bolshie Louki and came across an adult bear. The bear emerged from her den. One of the hunters managed to climb a tree, while the bear attacked his colleague. Still the second hunter managed to shoot, and eventually killed the animal. The hunters claim the bear was already injured. When they examined the site, they found three bear cubs.

The den looked like a small hollow, its bottom covered with branches. The bear was most likely scared off by someone, and gave birth to her cubs right there. So she had little time to arrange her den properly. The hunters brought the cubs to villagers, who kept them in their own home till March 2. One of the cubs died, however, when it occasionally crawled out of the basket and got entangled in a rope. Two other cubs were taken to the IFAW Bear Rescue Center in Bubonitsy village.

We have not given them names yet – decided to observe the way they behave first. The bear cub with two white spots on her neck weighs 3 kg. 10 g., while the other, spotless, weighs 2 kg. 850 g. We keep them in a wooden box with a heat mat on the floor. After feeding we allow them to play with other bear cubs for a shot while. Both of them feel well.

For more information on the International Fund for Animal Welfare's work around the world, please visit, IFAW.org.

CITES update - polar bears need help

Jeff Flocken here - IFAW's DC Director at the CITES meeting in Doha. It was a busy day today lobbying for the polar bears who need all the help we can give them right now. The Polar Bear Coalition hosted a lunch for delegates assisted by the coalition's stuffy polar bear toys which have proved very popular! We desperately need votes supporting the uplisting of polar bears to Appendix I - giving them protection against international commercial trade.

With only 20,000 to 25,000 polar bears left, they are battling for survival against climate change, pollution, and of course trade. The countries here can take immediate action to stop the threat of international trade, and countries that are serious about conservation must not oppose this proposal. I will keep you posted and hope that polar bears get the chance they deserve.

IFAW in Doha, Qatar Attending the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species

My name is Grace Ge Gabrel and I am leading on IFAWs work at the CoP to ensure that measures are taken to protect the last of the world's wild tigers.

I attended the Standing Committee meeting today which is before the official start of the Conference and already the debate on tigers is getting heated.

As a member of the International Tiger Coalition, IFAW made an intervention to urge the 174 countries to CITES to stop the trade of tiger parts from all sources. The demand for tiger parts is being stimulated by the growing tiger farming industry that is actively selling products purported to contain tiger bone. I have personally investigated the trade. In the underground cellar of a tiger farm, I was horrified to see 400 huge vats of wine, each containing a tiger carcass, brewing tiger bone wine!

In the Chinese Year of the Tiger, these practices breaks laws, confuse consumers and create a demand for dead tigers, that is further threatening the survival of the world's only remaining population of fewer than 3000 wild tigers.

The debate on stopping commercial tiger farming will only intensify in the next two weeks. We will continue to advocate for strong measure to control trade in this highly endangered species. I will bring you news as it develops.

IFAW's Continuing Northern Canadian Dogs Effort - Spring Preparations

The following post was filed by Jan Hannah, Project Manager of IFAW’s Northern Dogs initiative. This project runs in eight remote Cree communities in northernmost Canada, each between 15 and 25 hours north of Toronto.

It’s March which doesn’t just mean spring in Canada, it also means that planning for the upcoming Northern Dogs trip is in full-swing. This year, in between figuring out clinic dates, contacting schools to set up presentation times, booking plane tickets and ordering meds, I remembered… it was the first birthday of the most unique looking litter of pups I had ever seen.

IFAW Dubai: "Spots", Victim of Hit and Run Needs Home

Hi all - I received this email in my in-box from our International Fund for Animal Welfare team in Dubai, United Arab Emirates...it's a heart-breaker...but it may yet have a happy ending for our "Spots" the dog...we don't usually publish direct appeals of this nature, however if you or someone who is in Dubai would like to adopt or help pay for her rehabilitation, please use the contact information below...Many thanks, - J.C. - IFAW

Dear Friends,

Tonight on my way home, I received a call from a couple of good Samaritans. They have found a dog in the middle of Al Awir deserted area in a very bad shape.

She was hit by a car and unable to walk, God knows for how many hours she has been at the side of the road.

By looking at where she was found and taking a 360 * look around there were no signs of been lost from any home, so we strongly believed that she was abandoned and disorientated looking for her home and owner got hit by a car and could not move at all.

After rushing her to Modern Veterinary Clinic, and having looked at the X-rays she needs a surgery on the knee cap area and must stay in hospitals a few days.

The bill will be approximately AED 2000 if everything goes well and by the end of this week she must have a place to go.

Could anyone out there, offer her a loving home ?

Should anyone wishes to help for the cost of her recovery please go direct and contribute the funds to Friends of Animals account direct at MODERN VETERINARY HOSPITAL in Al Wasel rd 04 3953131.

THANK YOU ALL !

Rescued Dolphins go high-tech!

This section of the post was filed by Katie Moore, the International Fund for Animal Welfare's Marine Mammal Rescue and Research (MMRR) team Manager.

Sometimes, the hardest days really do turn out to be the most rewarding! Winter is our busiest stranding season and this day tested our stamina. Our first stranding hotline call came mid morning- four dolphins stranded in Wellfleet. One common dolphin was found in Chipman’s Cove. The other three were on Mayo beach, one of which had died before being found.

The MMRR team responded rapidly to assess the live animals and provide supportive care and medical treatment. It was phenomenal to realize that all three of these dolphins were fit for release. Our team members and dedicated volunteers cared for these animals throughout transport to a safe release location at the tip of Cape Cod where they could be released into open water. Through driving wind and alternating rain and sleet, we arrived in at Herring Cove in Provincetown.

As we were preparing to release these three animals (one fitted with a satellite tracking tag), we received two more calls- one dolphin stranded in Truro and three more at another location in Wellfleet. Although it was hard, we had to focus on the three animals in hand. While the other staff members and volunteers released these animals, I frantically made phone calls to find more volunteers to respond to the new dolphins. (I am constantly amazed by our volunteers who venture out in terrible weather to provide care while we’re en route).

IFAW Haiti Response: Update from ARCH Incident Command

This report was filed by Gerardo Huertas, Animal Relief Coalition for Haiti (ARCH) Incident Commander currently in Port-au-Prince. For more information, please visit the IFAW.org website.

21 Feb: ARCH's mobile clinic offers primary vet attention in the streets of Port au Prince

This weekend we’ve been working in the Pelerin area, where children, women and men queued to have their pets vaccinated.

Ten year old Kenny brought his dog Vito, who had an infection. “It has been sick for a long time, but I don’t know any vets and don’t have any money to take it to one”, said Kenny. We gave the dog antibiotics and vitamins, and we’ll come back next week to check its progress.

Now we’ve got the mobile clinic, we can have two lines of people waiting: one outside for dogs, aggressive animals and farm animals, and one inside for cats and wounded animals.

IFAW Haiti: Lassie Gets Lucky

This post was filed by the International Fund for Animal Welfare's (IFAW) J.C. Bouvier who is on the ground in Port-au-Prince working with the Animal Rescue Coalition for Haiti (ARCH) teams.

In the morning, our vet met the team in the camp, and we proceeded to journey down into Port-au-Prince, Haiti...we took a brief stop at the tent city we had scheduled the afternoon to introduce our vet and ensure that the residents were ready to bring their animals to us for aid when we returned later that afternoon...

Our next stop was at the village where Dik the dog lives on Lilavois Street in the neighborhood of Bon Repos. His owner Keith was happy to see us, and our vet was able to asses his condition...when the building he was in collapsed during the earthquake...rubble must have fallen on his spine...and while he has no detectable fractures...his spine was injured...our veterinarian, Dr. Thomas, administered anti-inflamatory medication and steroids to help Dik heal...his owner thanked us and we moved on...

The day prior we had made arrangements to meet with a villager who was to bring 50 dogs to a location we had been working in...we arrived in the manner of the traditional Haitian appointment (read: 40 minutes or so after the agreed to time)...the villager didn't arrive...however there was a person who said there were six dogs in a house nearby that needed attention...

We arrived at what once had certainly been an attractive set of four houses...with wonderful mature plantings...and architecture, but had clearly been neglected over time and partially destroyed the earthquake...here we found "Lassie"...she came when called...and after a moment of scurrying around....showed us all a terrible embedded wire wound in her neck...

The team quickly set up a field station where "Lassie" was tranquilized, her wound was cleaned and prepped for stitching...once she was treated, vaccinated and given a nutritional boost...Dick Green said, "Lassie is one lucky dog, if we hadn't stopped here...she would have been dead within a week, there were maggots already in the lesion..."

We finished our work for the day and headed back to our camp...another long day...but the people whose animals we treat are genuinely grateful...

We're still working on the video featuring Dik the dog, look for it to come up on the blog soon...