This alert is no longer active, but here for reference. Animals still need your help.

We all know that elephants are not products to be bought and sold and that they are sentient beings who deserve protection. Shockingly, a new proposed amendment to the Wildlife Protection Act of India would legalize the commercial trade in elephants for the first time in five decades throughout the country. Tell the Indian Parliament to halt the proposed amendment and to ban the private possession of elephants.

This amendment will seriously weaken Section 43 of the Wildlife Protection Act should it go through, allowing elephants to be sold like slaves for ”religious” or “any other” purpose. In a nutshell, anything! Elephants are designated Schedule 1 under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which should afford them protection from being commercially sold or traded, yet India is ignoring this distinction.

Decades of progressive policies and increased public awareness have greatly reduced the illegal capture and brutal treatment by elephant traffickers, smugglers, and brokers. Elephants are in high demand by temples in the southern states and these criminals are ready and willing to capture elephants to fill that demand. If this amendment passes, the door will be wide open once again, putting elephants at grave risk for torturous training and transport to commercial markets where they will be sold to private parties. Elephants in India are already threatened by human expansion into their habitats. They need more protection not less.

In direct contradiction to the intent of the Wildlife Protection Act, elephants are the only wild animal allowed to be legally “owned” by a private individual. This travesty needs to be remedied so that elephants are protected in the same way as every other wild animal in India. It is vital to the wellbeing and survival of India's last remaining wild elephants to tell Parliament to vote no to the amendment to Section 43 of the Wild Elephant Protection Act. Of equal importance, we must also demand an end to the private possession of elephants.

Your action today can help to save India's elephants from the horrors of brutal trafficking for profit.

This alert is no longer active, but here for reference. Animals still need your help.