Monday, August 6, 2012

23 Reasons Animal Lovers Should Boycott China - Reason #4: China Is Pushing Musk Deer to Extinction


China's demand for scientifically unproven medicinal concoctions containing musk is pushing the musk deer towards extinction

[When I started this blog in 2008, my first post was about a dog who was chained inside a gallery and starved as part of an "artwork." Since then, animal welfare has remained a primary theme on 13.7 Billion Years. Over the years, I have learned about countless stories of animal cruelty here in the United States and across the world. But one country has shown the most blatant and widespread disregard for the lives and well-being of non-human animals: China. As Mahatma Gandhi wisely observed, "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way in which its animals are treated." If China is to become a great nation, it has a lot of work to do. One way concerned people can help put pressure on China to change is to stop buying Chinese goods. More than 2.3 million people worldwide have signed the Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare, and the number of animal lovers around the globe is much greater. Imagine if all of them stopped purchasing Chinese products. So, every weekday for the month of August, I'll give animal lovers one reason to boycott China—23 reasons in all. It will not be an easy month to digest all the horrific stories and cruel practices. But I have placed great value in a quote by the late philosopher Albert Schweitzer: "Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight." This month, I'll be doing that, and I hope you will too. -- Reynard Loki]

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) believes that the secretions from the scent gland of the male musk deer can treat ailments relating to the heart, nerves and breathing, as well as skin infections, fainting and abdominal pain. Of course, there is no scientific basis for this, and because of that, the wild population of musk deer is being wiped out to feed what is essentially a superstition.

TRAFFIC, the international wildlife trade monitoring network, has reported that China's demand for musk is estimated at 500-1,000 kilograms per year, which requires the musk glands of at least 100,000 deer. This is extremely concerning, as there are only an estimated 700,000 musk deer left in wild, according to Encyclopedia Brittanica, which notes that "China can no longer meet this demand with its own wild musk deer population." Musk deer are notoriously difficult to breed as well.

Between 17,000 to 20,000 musk deer stags are killed in Russia each year to supply the trade, reports National Georgraphic.

According to WWF, "[L]arge-scale illegal hunting to meet these commercial demands is believed responsible for the dramatic decline in musk deer populations."

"Musk deer are going to be extinct soon if we don't protect them in the wild," writes Cao Dan, head of WWF's traditional Chinese medicine program, which aims to raise public awareness in Chinese communities about TCM's negative impact on endangered species. "The demand for musk being used in TCM…is huge. Ginseng has gone extinct in China because there was no protection."

ACTION ALERTS
  • Sign a ForceChange petition to protect threatened populations of Asian musk deer
  • Sign a Care for Chinese Animals petition to ban dog and cat meat in China
  • Join Bill Clinton, Paul McCartney, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Bono, Ricky Gervais, Roger Moore, Susan Sarandon, Anjelica Huston, Jeremy Irons, Paula Abdul, Joan Jett, Annie Lennox, Elton John and thousands of others who have signed the TigerTime petition urging Chinese premier Wen Jiabao to call for an end to all tiger trade in China
  • Sign a Change.org petition to close China's bear bile farms
  • Sign the Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare (UDAW)
  • Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter
23 REASONS ANIMAL LOVERS SHOULD BOYCOTT CHINA
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image: Ten endangered Dwarf Musk Deer, found dead in Yan'an, China, all killed by a gang of outlaws hunting of wild animals (Paviavio)
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