I've just returned from doing volunteer work in Africa, where my desire to work on anti-poaching became stronger. Poaching is a serious crime few consider, yet it depletes our natural resources day by day.

BASTET'S TEARS

My nephew is 12 years old and he is learning how to build websites. One of his pages is “My Favorite Animals.” It features a baby gorilla and a Bengal Tiger, both species that may be nonexistent by the time he is an adult. I ask my six-year-old niece, “What is a cheetah?” and she tells me, “it’s like a cat.” “Where do they come from?” I ask her. She ponders, then brightens: “The zoo!” Thus is the danger of our future for animals and our children. When she is an adult, there may be no cheetahs, even at the zoo, for her to take her children to see.

Some animals are poached for their skins, because they make handsome trophies and pretty trinkets and jewelry. Who sees a tiger’s glossy coat and is not tempted to reach out and feel the spotted luxury, hoping to capture that magic for their self? I always pictured Bastet, the Cat Goddess herself, hand painting each feline before setting it down carefully toward the earth. How she must feel now to see what man has done to her artwork. How she must hiss and sulk, for cats cannot shed tears.

Certain animals are poached for their bones and their viscera for traditional medicine in certain countries. It is believed particular animal parts bring luck, vitality, sexuality or fertility, and healing anything from depression to nosebleed. Eating rare animals has become vogue. The meats of unusual animals such as primates, elephants, and wild deer, known as bushmeats, are now trendy at high-dollar restaurants. Ivory and rhinoceros horns are ripped from the faces of animals that died slow, lingering deaths. If the poison or snares do not kill the animal, they are often left lame or worse. I still cannot forget a vision of an elephant cow that vainly tried to drink from her trunk that had been split in two from a failed snare, and the confusion in her eyes as she dipped again and again into the river.

Poaching operates now as a sophisticated, organized crime. The poachers who do the actual killing may make as little as $15.00 per person, spending between $1and $9 to kill a tiger. The items are sold in local villages, where one can shop for dead parrots, monkey paws, tiger bones, and other items on display, right next to the fruits, vegetables, and other goods. Couriers carry the animal items from the poachers to the traders, a more lucrative job than poaching. The traders are the financially successful ones as they are the direct connections to the buyers and direct the smuggling syndicates that exist in the high dollar world of poaching.

Few laws and task forces exist to check poaching, and the laws that do exist are extremely lax; few actually convict poachers or impose penalties. This has provided no inhibition to poachers and thus they continue their crimes. For example, in one country where tigers have become scarce, of the 1400 tiger poachers accused, only 10% were convicted and sentenced. Corrupt government entanglements that can be impossible to comprehend secretly or blatantly support some poaching. CITIES, the Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna, is a trade agreement restricting the illegal import of and export of restricted species; however, it has had little impact on poachers.

Tourists drive across parks to see the animals in “protected” areas, however, the animal’s homes of natural grasses and timber are cut down to afford better views. Poaching occurs discreetly in parks as there are miles of unprotected areas providing easy access to animals by people who know how to maneuver the boundaries and dodge law enforcement. Park Rangers are government employees in some areas that are rife with government corruption, often not receiving salaries in years. The rangers are paid by conservation groups outside of Africa. Often these rangers have no vehicles, no uniforms, and no equipment. If they do have equipment, it may be World War II rifles and outdated ammunition. Many have been killed and wounded in the line of duty. Poachers outgun them easily. It is the equivalent of a city police officer being told they will work for free without benefits and that they must supply their own uniform and equipment. Then along come the offenders, receiving little or no sanctions for their criminal acts.

Wild animals do not belong in the zoo but in their natural habitat and should live free from danger. Bastet surely must be mourning. Man has shamed himself by wiping out so many of the stunning creatures that share our planet. Future generations should see the beauty in a baby gorilla’s face and the majesty of a cheetah, and it should not be in a book under the word “extinct.” Poaching is a crime that we shamefully ignore, and as we ignore it, the victims are disappearing.

For more information on what you can do to preserve wildlife in Africa, see www.gallmannkenya.org.

Sources:

Begley, Sharon. “Cry of the Wild” Newsweek August 6, 2007 pp20-23

Ellis, Richard. (2003). Tiger Bone & Rhino Horn. Island Press: Washington, D.C.

Johnson, Scott. “Gorilla Warfare” Newsweek August 6, 2007, pp 24-29

Padel, Ruth. (2006). Tigers in Red Weather. Walker & Company: New York

Ward, Jr. Carlton. (2003) The Edge of Africa. Hylas Publishing: New York

Padel, Ruth (2006). Tigers in Red Weather. Walker & Company: New York

See also my own book, "An Elephant Snuffled My Tent" under the 'purchase' tab at this website.

I am often asked, ‘what is the worst/strangest case you have ever known about or worked on?” Is it the Manson case, where Charles Manson ordered drug-crazed teenagers to mutilate six wealthy, prominent people in 1969? Or Jeffrey Dahmer, the handsome serial killer whose ‘claim to fame” was cannibalism and necrophilia? How about charming Ted Bundy, who traveled the country killing over 30 young women?  None of the above.  The worst case, in my opinion, is Canadian killers Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka.

These two stand out for several reasons. The case was built on the premise that Karla, suffering from Battered Women’s Syndrome, followed Paul in the abduction, torture, rape, and murder of three teenagers, including Karla’ sister. The defense’s use of “Battered Women’s Syndrome” is a disgrace to battered women, the women who languish in an unfair system who did kill their abusive spouses because they felt there was no other way out, and all of the work we, as domestic violence educators, have been doing. I believe Karla was a willing and all too happy partner in the murders. I believe Karla bamboozled a system that, eager to get a conviction of Paul and to cover up what may be considered shoddy police work, was far too enthusiastic to believe her story of “brainwashing.”

Videotapes the couple made of their tortures showed Karla willingly assisting in the rapes and not doing a thing to assist, sometimes watching, as Paul tortured and humiliated these victims. Karla, with a genius IQ, changed and molded her story to fit whoever was listening, picking and choosing who would hear what she wanted to tell. Her adolescent obsession with death and destruction, her willingness to assist with rapes (at times she videotaped them) and not reporting Paul when he admitted to being the “Scarborough Rapist” early in their relationship, and so many other details give us an early glimpse into her mental state. What makes Karla Homolka more frightening than Charles Manson or Jeff Dahmer is the fact she coolly assisted in the careful planning of the abductions, gleefully took part in the rapes, tortures, and murders, and then blithely was able to work the system. She did 12 years in a prison camp, where she made friends with girls who were serving time for chillingly similar crimes, while her mate Paul will live forever locked up in a single, tiny cell 23 hours a day in maximum security. What is most frightening, however, is Karla walks the city streets free, among young girls, and when last seen, worked in a hardware store among electrical cords, chainsaws, and bladed instruments – the same items she and Paul used to torture and kill three innocent girls.

 The victims, above, were Leslie and Kristen (left to right). Both had families who loved them.

Can you imagine if Manson, Dahmer, or Bundy would have received a 12 year sentence, then released to walk the city streets with no apparent restrictions?

The saddest case I ever had any personal dealings with took place on Labor Day, 2003. Three innocent people, two of them only in their early twenties and one of them six months pregnant,were shot execution style in the office of their workplace. The murderers escaped with about $500.00 apiece.

Rebecca was 24, Chrystal was 23, and Matthew was 31. All were killed by gunshot wounds to their heads. One of them was missing a finger; we deducted it was shot off  when they must have crouched, covering their ears so they could not hear the screams and pleadings of their dying friends. A recently-passed state law which made it a capital offense to kill a pregnant woman did not apply in this case, because the law went into effect only three hours before the bodies were found, meaning that the murders took place before the law was operative.

The three employees were doing inventory when they allowed the perpetrators into the building - probably because they knew them. One of the killers called himself "Lucky." He was 20 years old. The second perpetrator was 24 years old. Both were arrested for the crime on the following Thursday. Both were former employees of the very same restaurant where the crime was committed. One of them had been fired several weeks prior to the incident. Both are now serving Life Sentences.

This case gave me nightmares; no other case has done that. I have to steel myself still to discuss the horror I saw in that restaurant office. To this day, I cannot dine in the same type of restaurant: I still see, in my mind's eye, the carnage left by the two killers. Three innocent, good people. One unborn child. Two perpetrators, both practically children in age, six lives wasted -- for $1,100. And because crime has a "ripple effect," there are countless families and friends of the victims and perpetrators whose lives will never be the same.

It all seemed so pointless and stupid and sad. And that's what made this case so horrifying.

Above: The victims of the crime, as they should be remembered. May they rest in peace.

This page dedicated to the families & friends of the above victims. Anytime you find a killer "interesting" or "fascinating," please remember the victims and their loved ones. Perpetrators of crimes should never be heroes or glorified or, worse, idolized. The survivors of loved ones deserve our admiration & respect.