The Pride and the Poison: Carbofuran Threatens Kenya's Lions

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/PLaLUyH4-vo&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/PLaLUyH4-vo&rel=0</a>

Defenders of Wildlife

Take Action to Stop
the Poisoning of Lions

Carbofuran an insecticide the Environmental Protection Agency considers too toxic for use in America is poisoning many of the planet's few remaining wild African lions.

Sign our petition urging Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga to ban the sale and use of carbofuran in Kenya and support new protections for the country's endangered lions.

It's horrifying. Right now, a poison made by a U.S. company-- a product that the Environmental Protection Agency says is too toxic to be used in America -- is ;threatening the extinction of the majestic African lion.

Just a handful of carbofuran-- a deadly neurotoxin that Defenders helped to ban in the U.S.-- can kill an entire pride of lions. Sadly, this awful poison is still sold in stores (and widely used) across Kenya and East Africa.

If we don't do something soon, these great cats could vanish from one of their last remaining homes in the wild.

Take action now. Sign our petition urging Kenya's Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, to enact a ban on the sale and use of carbofuran in Kenya and support new protections for the country's endangered lions.

Just 50 years ago, it is estimated that nearly a half a million lions could be found in Africa. Now lion experts say that as few as 16,000 remain a staggering decline of more than 95%. [1] In Kenya, home to world-famous wild lions, the story is especially sad.

The Kenya Wildlife Service estimates that fewer than 2,000 of these majestic great cats now remain in Kenya -- down from an estimated 35,000 that made their home in the country just 50 years ago. According to the agency, one hundred lions are killed each year -- many by carbofuran.

If Kenya's lions continue their precipitous decline, there will not be a single wild lion left in the country in 20 years. [2]

To address this crisis, Defenders of Wildlife has been asked by some of Africa's leading conservationists to intervene. Our first step: convince Kenya's prime minister to get tough on carbofuran use in his country.

Please help us save some of the planet's last remaining African lions. Sign our petition to Kenya's Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

At least seventy-six lions have been confirmed killed by carbofuran, with many more deaths left unreported. And while it is a crime in Kenya to use this deadly poison to kill lions, but very few have ever been arrested for poisoning a lion with carbofuran.

A quarter teaspoon of carbofuran can kill an individual lion. Less will paralyze this mighty beast for up to a week, leaving a lion or lioness to starve to death or be killed by other predators.

It's time for Kenya's prime minister to get tough on lion poisoning. Please sign our petition and urge him to enact a ban on carbofuran and take concrete action to protect these great cats.

We know that we can win this fight. Over the last two decades, tens of thousands of Defenders activists helped finally convince the Environmental Protection Agency to ban the use of this deadly poison in America. Now we need you help to save the lives of endangered African lions threatened by carbofuran. Please take action today.

With Gratitude,

Rodger Schlickeisen
President
Defenders of Wildlife

P.S. Today's petition is only the first in a series of dramatic actions Defenders of Wildlife will be taking in the months ahead to protect the lives of endangered lions. Please sign our petition and stay tuned for more ways to help.

References

[1] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/12/AR2009101202403.html

[2] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLaLUyH4-vo&feature=player_embedded

Defenders of Wildlife is a national, nonprofit membership organization dedicated to the protection of all native wild animals and plants in their natural communities.

Defenders of Wildlife can be contacted at:
1130 17th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036