Animal Smuggling

Jaedyn Woods

Freshman Composition

Dr. Peters

24 October 2017

Animal Smuggling

        The world we live in, is a very cruel world. We, the people who walk this planet, are cold and heartless. We will stop at nothing to achieve the things we want and we will do anything for money. We make this world cruel. We hunt, abuse, and kill animals all for their skins, their body parts, and for our own self-satisfaction and yet, we find nothing wrong with killing animals for own, personal needs. We do these things for money, power, and unrighteous reasons. Is killing animals for reasons other than for food okay? Today, in this world, it is.

        Animals are being tracked, hunted, and smuggled across the world and shipped to be slaughtered for several different reasons. Many people believe that certain parts of animals are used to heal the weak and wounded. Animals are killed for traditional medicine for the people of China.  Animals are traded for food, for money, and for fame. Animals held in captivity are beaten and abused, sometimes even killed.

Animal smuggling is the third most valuable illegal trade in the world, after drugs and weapons. Wildlife trafficking generates roughly around twenty billion dollars a year. Reporter Bryan Christy quoted, “The economics are as easy to understand as an art auction. Around the globe nature is dying, and the prices of her rarest works are going up.” Animals are not only being smuggled for their body parts, but also for house pets. People around the world believe it is “cool” to have exotic pets such as tigers, anacondas, monkeys, and other wildlife animals roam the halls of their houses.

        The prices on animals and their body parts are extremely high, so you can imagine how easy it is for someone to make the choice to kill an animal. A rhino horn is worth twenty-five thousand dollars per pound. One horn from a rhino can earn a single person up to half a million dollars or more. Animals are being killed and left to rot away for one or two pieces of their body. Tigers are skinned, and cut free of their claws and left to be rotted and ate by other wild animals. Humans do not care that when they cut the tusks of elephants off and leave them bleeding that they are leaving the animal to die.