An International Effort To Protect Endangered Animals

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When you think about it seriously, the wildlife on this EARTH is a heritage that belongs to everyone on EARTH. But, did you know that in the twentieth century, there was a large international TRADE in wild-animal parts that created a terrible slaughter of many animals around the world to the point of EXTINCTION? For instance the chinchilla, (pictured) a tiny rodent with thick, soft fur was nearly brought to extinction in the 1940s. Fur coats by the thousands were produced from the fur of this tiny creature, who lives in the barren, arid areas of the Andes Mountains. Under legal protection, the wild populations of this small animal is slowly recovering, but the short-tailed chinchilla is on the critically endangered list and close to becoming extinct. An international agreement called CITES made trading animal parts illegal and tourists are sometimes searched for any souvenirs made of endangered animal parts, such as ivory, rhino horn, turtle shells, used to make jewelry, daggers, combs and glasses frames and even tiger bones, used for certain medicines. Please don’t purchase any of these items. Not only is it illegal, but YOU could add to the problem. What do you think?