Metropolitan Police has axed its Wildlife Crime Unit

The Metropolitan Police, the largest police force in the UK which provides law enforcement around London and Greater London, has axed its Wildlife Crime Unit, a fortnight ago. There is now a single Metropolitan police officer with specialism in wildlife crime employed by the force. Essentially, the Metropolitan Police force have, apparently, abandoned the protection and conservation of wildlife. This is a very bad backward step for animal advocates considering the increase in wildlife crime globally.

The Times newspaper states that the disbanded unit played an important role in tackling the smuggling of animal parts and plants through Heathrow Airport. They had a good history of seizing live animals and body parts at the airport as part of Operation Thunder.

But the Metropolitan Police decided to abolish the unit and its two detectives were redeployed to local policing. Since then one of the detectives has resigned. This leaves one concerned with wildlife protection and enforcement.

The point is that crimes relating to the international trade in wildlife body parts and living animals is expanding. It is a multi-billion dollar trade annually.

The Metropolitan Police's deployment of resources in protecting wildlife is frankly abysmal. We are told that the unit's expertise was domestic and international in, for example, helping to enforce the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES). 

This is an international treaty which is persistently abused by the way because the treaty members who have entered into an agreement with other countries simply fail to enforce the treaty adequately which I would argue is reinforced by the Met police decision to abolish their specialist unit.

It admitted that "the main consequence of its closure was that protection for wildlife crimes would be less likely." The quote comes from The Times.

John Scanlon, chairman of the Global Initiative to End Wildlife Crime and the former secretary-general of CITES, said in a letter to Sir Mark Rowley, the Met Commissioner: 

"Dismantling the Met Wildlife Crime Unit is not only bad for London, and the United Kingdom, but it will impact source countries, and send the wrong message to those who are inclined to engage in wildlife crime."

The unit still exists but has only an advisory role. Unlike the abolished unit it is unable to prosecute directly, which means that the police officers from the disbanded unit will now focus on tackling local crime.

-----------

P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

What eats a lion?

Humans eat more lion body parts than any predator of the lion. I am going to take an odd approach in answering this question. I know people want to know which animals eat lions and I suppose there are referring to lion cubs being attacked by hyenas and perhaps leopards. The lion cub is vulnerable to predators, there is no question about it. But the adult lion in Africa has no predators and there is little chance that they'll be eaten by another predator unless they are very infirm and elderly.

Humans eat more lion body parts than any other animal. Pic; Getty Images.

But the point that I want to get to is this: by far the biggest eater of lions are humans. The question doesn't ask what animals eat lions; it asks what eats a lion. And if you wanted to add up the amount of flesh and bones that come out of a lion which is eaten by people the tonnage would be far in excess of any other animal or perhaps all animals combined. This is because people like to eat lions. They eat lion bones and any other part of a lion to give them health and strength.

This superstition emanates from Asia. They also eat tiger body parts as well as you probably know. But as long as they are eating a big cat which is renowned for being strong and powerful they think that eating the body parts of such a creature imbues them with that power and strength. It's all complete madness and it results in lions being bred to be killed for their carcasses in South Africa. These are canned lion hunts. They are cruel and despicable in the eyes of any animal advocate.

The life of a lion cub bred in captivity for canned lion hunts is brutally sad. It is mapped out and all of their life is for the commercial market. None of it is natural. It is a total abuse of lions.

But wherever a lion is killed and for whatever reason they can be butchered and the body parts channelled into this other market which is supplies lion body part products to be eaten or drunk by people. I don't want to go into it in detail because it's too gruesome. But I believe that any lion which is kill for any reason is channelled into the lion body part marketplace where it ultimately ends up in Asia.

So, for example, if a farmer kills a lion in retaliation because the lion killed his livestock then that deceased lion is valuable in the marketplace. But they are so valuable that they are bred to be killed and slaughtered like livestock. It's exactly the same for tigers in China. There are 8,000 tigers in China in tiger farms been bred to be slaughtered their body parts.

Humans are the most prolific eaters of lions and they eat these big cats with great eagerness in the firm belief that it does them some good but there's no science whatsoever to support this attitude. It's all idiotic superstition. Of course meat is a product and therefore it feeds people but to kill lions and endanger their survival in the wild because people want to eat their body parts is a form of madness in humankind. It's a descent into callous idiocy.

It is also a bit of ancient history which has survived to today. The belief comes from a thousand years ago. Anyone who believes eating lions and tigers makes them stronger etc. has failed to develop. They are trapped in the ignorant past.