• US tough on saving elephants from slaughter? Hardly, says WWF

    Keith Bedford / Reuters

    Flanked by other officials, New York District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr., announces guilty pleas by two ivory dealers last Thursday.

    By Miguel Llanos, NBC News

    When two New York City jewelers recently paid $55,000 in fines and forfeited $2 million worth of ivory trinkets made from the tusks of slaughtered elephants, officials praised it as tough action. But that’s not how the World Wildlife Fund saw it. The U.S. is lagging behind other countries -- even China and its appetite for ivory -- in cracking down on the illegal trade, the conservation group told NBC News. 

    "It's really no deterrent at all" to the organized crime rings providing the raw material, said Crawford Allan, who works for the WWF wildlife monitoring program known as TRAFFIC.

    For an illegal industry that brings in billions of dollars each year, he added, such fines are "just the cost of doing business."

    The plea deals were announced to much fanfare last Thursday.

    "This is an international problem that requires local solutions," New York District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., said in publicizing the fines. "In order to curb the poaching of elephants in Africa and Asia, we need to curb the demand side of the illegal ivory trade right here at home."

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    The WWF agrees, but feels even more can be done given the severity of the slaughter: a record 23 tons of ivory -- from some 2,500 elephants, were seized globally last year as the population of African elephants continues to shrink. An estimated 450,000 African elephants are living today, down from between 5 million and 10 million in the 1930s.

    WWF will single out the U.S. and a few other nations when it starts a campaign in late July to lobby governments to be tougher.

    Allan said the U.S. should track domestic ivory sales more closely, set up more sting operations that lead to prison time and go after the sources in Africa, not just the trinket sellers.

    "I don't want to belittle Fish and Wildlife," he added, "but they really are under-resourced."

    The New York jewelers are a case in point, he said -- they operated in plain sight even though New York state law makes trade in ivory very difficult. Only ivory obtained before African elephants were listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1978 may be legally sold and even then a permit is required.

    Bebeto Matthews / AP

    A photo of an African elephant looms behind miniature elephant carvings on display at the New York City press conference on Thursday.

    Moreover, it wasn't an undercover operation, but an off-duty wildlife inspector who happened to walk by the stores that led to the seizures.

    The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which leads the federal efforts to crack down on wildlife trafficking, "can't comment on the specifics" of the case because the investigation is ongoing, spokeswoman Sandra Cleva told NBC News.

    In general terms, she added, "we have to prioritize our work" since the service has many more cases than its 220 law enforcement agents can handle.

    Allan argued law enforcement must prioritize wildlife smuggling since it is so lucrative to criminal networks.

    "Interpol is really getting it," he added, noting that the international law enforcement agency last month announced raids that led to more than 200 arrests in 17 African countries as well as China.

    "Tomorrow will be simply too late," Prince William warns as Africa's magnificent wild animals are mercilessly and illegally poached at a rate not seen for decades.

    The U.S. reported 212 seizures of products made from elephants last year, and 137 of those involved ivory. The rest were skin and hair products, as well as meat and a few other items.

    Only seven of the 137 ivory seizures involved more than 10 items. 

    "These results are very much consistent with previous years in that a relatively large number of seizures are documented, but these seizures are dominated by small volumes of non-commercial items," Danielle Kessler, a spokeswoman for international affairs within Fish and Wildlife, told NBC News.

    Allan suggested the U.S. could model its enforcement after China, where 13 criminal gangs were broken up recently and more than 1,000 alleged illegal traders were shut down. 

    China acted on tips from the International Fund for Animal Welfare, which noted that 100,000 police were deployed in the operation that closed down 7,155 shops and 628 websites.

    "There are still issues of corruption wherever you go," Allan acknowledged, "but I really feel that China has realized they are responsible for major issues with wildlife ... the Chinese have woken up to that."

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  • Toilet paper taking out tiger, elephant habitat, WWF says

    WWF-Indonesia

    A Sumatran tiger cub is photographed by a hidden camera. WWF says the cub was walking through a corridor being cleared by Asia Pulp and Paper in Indonesia.

    By msnbc.com staff

    Is your toilet paper wiping out forests used by tigers, elephants, orangutans and other wildlife? In a report Wednesday, the World Wildlife Fund alleged that a major paper supplier from Indonesia is clearcutting habitat there and targeted a major U.S. distributor to stop buying from that source.

    "We found that two brands sold in the United States ― Paseo and Livi ― are made with paper from Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), which is responsible for more forest destruction in Sumatra than any other single company," the World Wildlife Fund report stated. "Paseo is a retail brand of toilet paper, paper towels, napkins and facial tissue, and it is now the fastest growing brand of toilet paper in the United States, according to its marketer."

    The distributor, Oasis Brands, didn’t responded directly to the accusation, but defended APP while saying it wants to work with grocery chains to set up a system of monitoring the sustainability of its tissue products.

    "Everyone wants the reassurance that the products they buy from Indonesia meet internationally recognized certification standards and are not damaging the precious natural resources of that country," Oasis Brands CEO Philip Rundle said in a letter to the industry.

    "Continuous, rigorous auditing has proven APP products are made from sustainable sources and meet well-established sustainability standards," he added. "Now we would like the US grocery industry to see the results of such an audit for themselves. We are confident that APP will meet the expectations of US grocers."

    WWF questioned Oasis' defense of the pulp and paper producer. "APP’s forest management operations in Indonesia are not certified as sustainable by any credible third party, "WWF forest expert Linda Kramme told msnbc.com. "There are responsible pulp and paper companies in the US, in Indonesia, and the world over, which employ people and make a profit – all without destroying rain forests."

    The group also noted that in recent months eight large retailers -- identified as BI-LO, Brookshire Grocery Company, Delhaize Group, Harris Teeter, Kmart, Kroger, SUPERVALU and Weis Markets -- had decided to stop carrying APP tissue products.

    Eyes on the Forest

    WWF said an APP supplier was draining this peat forest inside a tiger sanctuary in Riau, Indonesia.

    "We applaud each of these companies’ decision to remove these products from their stores," Jan Vertefeuille, head of WWF’s tiger campaign, said in a statement.

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  • Ringling circus paying big fine over animal case

    David T. Foster III / Charlotte Observer via AP

    Ringling Bros. elephants are escorted through Charlotte, N.C., on Jan. 25 as a promotion for the circus coming to town.

    By Miguel Llanos, NBC News

    The parent company of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus said Monday that it had agreed to settle U.S. government claims that its handlers had mistreated animals.

    Feld Entertainment, which for years has been criticized by animal activists for its treatment of elephants, is not admitting any wrong doing but will pay a $270,000 civil penalty, the largest ever slapped against an exhibitor under the federal Animal Welfare Act.

    "This settlement sends a direct message to the public and to those who exhibit animals that USDA will take all necessary steps to protect animals regulated under the Animal Welfare Act," Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement. "The civil penalty and other stipulations in the settlement agreement will promote a better understanding of the rights and responsibilities of all exhibitors in maintaining and caring for animals under their care."

    Feld also "agreed to develop and implement annual AWA compliance training for all employees who work with and handle animals, including trainers, handlers, attendants and veterinarians," the USDA statement said.

    The settlement follows federal inspections over several years that found what inspectors said were violations of the law, especially when it came to how Ringling's 54 elephants were treated.

    The Associated Press noted that one inspection report said a 35-year-old Asian elephant was forced to perform despite a diagnosis of sand colic and apparent abdominal discomfort. Circus officials told the inspectors that separating her from the other performing elephants would have been even more distressing to her. 

    Other inspection reports cited:

    • Splintered floors and rusted cages used to contain big cats such as tigers;
    • Handlers using the same wheelbarrows to feed meat to tigers and haul away their waste;
    • A 2008 incident where two zebras briefly got loose from their enclosure at a Baltimore arena;
    • A 2010 incident where another zebra escaped its enclosure in Atlanta and had to be captured by area law enforcement.

    Feld stated it stands behind its staff and that it "decided it was more important to focus on the future of its business by continuing to provide the best animal care possible instead of engaging in costly and protracted litigation."

    The circus has seen more inspections not only by the USDA but also by state and local regulators, noted Feld spokesman Steve Payne. From June to September, one of the circus' traveling units was inspected 82 times by 18 different agencies, he said.

    "We're highly regulated. We accept that regulation. We embrace it," Payne said.

    People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, one of the groups that has battled Ringling, took some credit for the settlement.

    "PETA's complaints against Ringling Bros. with regard to crippled elephants, the death of a baby elephant, the beating of other elephants, and the killing of a lion, going back several years, have resulted in the biggest fine in circus history," spokeswoman Colleen O'Brien told msnbc.com.

    Payne countered that PETA was never involved in the settlement talks or other legal action. "It's a shameless attempt to grab publicity for itself," he told msnbc.com.

    PETA added that the Obama administration should crack down even harder. "The government has taken a first step," O'Brien said, "and now it must confiscate the elephants."

    The USDA made no indication that it planned to do so.

    In October, a federal appeals court backed Feld against animal rights groups that had sued over Ringling's treatment of elephants. The allegations included that circus staff use hooks and shock treatment to get baby elephants to learn tricks.

    Feld is now countersuing, Payne said, alleging that the plaintiffs and their lawyers were in a "conspiracy to pay a witness for his testimony."

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.