Animalists appeal to the pope: Stop the use of ivory and furs for religious purposes

    Animalists appeal to the pope: Stop the use of ivory and furs for religious purposes

    Stop the use of ivory and furs for religious purposes. This is the request that the ENPA addresses to the Pope and the Vatican, which with the purchase of ivory objects fuel poaching, causing the death of many even rare animals, such as elephants. Thousands of these majestic creatures are in fact killed for their fangs, purchased by the Philippines and China to create ivory cult objects.



    He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him

    Stop the use of ivory and furs for religious purposes. This is the request that the ENPA addresses to the Pope and the Vatican, which with the purchase of ivory objects fuel poaching, causing the death of many even rare animals, such as elephants. Thousands of these majestic creatures are in fact killed just for them fangs, bought from the Philippines and China to create ivory cult objects.



    Unscrupulous speculators thus create an often illegal market designed to make a few people rich. In addition to the animals, the local populations are also at the expense, constantly engaged in defense of biodiversity which represents the true wealth of the poorest communities. But despite all this the Vatican has so far refused to intervene to put an end to this trade, not even adhering to international treaties to stop the march towards the extinction of these species.

    This is why the Enpa, thanks to the support of the website that organizes campaigns and petitions at an international level avaaz.org, has launched a petition and asks all citizens, of all nationalities, to sign it. In addition to the ivory, he adds the ENPA, equally useless and harmful is the use of furs, especially those of ermine, obtained with the death of many animals killed in nature or after a life spent on farms, often in terrible conditions of detention.

    “All over the world there are many people who believe fur is contrary to their ethical dictates; and their number is growing day by day - continues the Enpa -. Everyone now knows the sad life of fur animals, locked up in cramped cages where they get injured and self-injured before being killed in order to create a fur “.

    That's why you need to to invite the Vatican to give up ivory and furs that come from real factories of pain and death, objects that really have no sense of existing. "With this petition we intend to ask His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, and the entire Vatican State, to renounce the purchase and use of ivory and ermine furs, which cause the useless killing of thousands of animals, even protected ", concludes the Enpa.



    Meanwhile, also on change.org there is a petition which has the same goal. "Every year thousands of African elephants are exterminated to remove their tusks, sell their ivory and obtain sacred objects with the complacency and complicity of the Catholic and Buddhist religious authorities", explains its creator Mario Righi. In 2011 poachers shot down 25.000 specimens for a revenue of 5.000 euros per tusk and now the total world population is reduced to less than 700.000 individuals in sub-Saharan Africa alone. From there the ivory takes the road to the Philippines where it is transformed into Catholic crosses, statuettes etc or it is sorted to Thailand and China to be transformed into Buddhist and Taoist symbols.

    As many as 176 countries have banned the ivory trade. But not the Vatican, whose shops, churches and residences display or trade ivory items. “Considering that some elephant populations are in imminent danger of extinction, - explains the petition - the Vatican makes a positive gesture, adheres to the ban on ivory and signs the International Convention of 1989. God will surely be more grateful in seeing his creatures alive and serene in the savannah than in receiving pendants, miniatures and crucifixes gross of innocent blood “.


    Sign Avaaz's petition here


    Sign the Change.org petition here

    Roberta Ragni

    Read also:

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    Elephants, rhinos and tigers: threatened with extinction due to illegal trade

    Ivory war: elephants and rhinos face extinction. Prince William is also on the field

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