The 14^th July is World Chimpanzee Day!

It’s a chance to celebrate our closest living relative in the animal kingdom, and to discover more about these amazing animals and see what we can do to help them.

Chimpanzees face threats in the wild such as habitat loss, disease and wildlife trafficking, illegal pet and bush meat trades.  

Those who are kept in captivity as illegal “pets” or in roadside zoos are deprived of essential physical, emotional and especially social needs.  Events such as World Chimpanzee Day help educate the public and promote legislation to end these conditions, increasing the rights and welfare of all captive chimpanzees.

Let’s work to secure a future for these amazing animals.

For they are highly endangered.  100 years ago, there were about 1-2 million chimpanzees across African countries.

Today, there are as few as 350,000 wild chimpanzees in Africa. 

Visit World Chimpanzee Day’s website here.

#WorldChimpanzeeDay 

Visit the Jane Goodall Institute to find out more

Free Korean Dogs has just turned 5 years old so we wanted to congratulate them and raise awareness of the incredible work they are doing to save dogs from Korea’s dog meat farms.

Free Korean Dogs is a Canadian charity (BN:80580 0166RR0001) which was founded in Toronto back in 2015.  It rescues dogs from Korea’s dog meat trade and finds their forever homes in Canada.

The problem in Korea…

Millions of dogs are killed for meat every year in Korea.  They are kept in tiny cages which are overcrowded on these farms.  There’s no water or shelter from the weather and they just have waste scraps for food.  Worse still, it is common practice (and this is very upsetting) for dogs to be tortured before they are killed in the mistaken belief that this enhances flavour and nutritional healing properties.  There is no evidence to support these claims, of course.

Help dogs in Korea find new lives
and save them from Korea's meat trade

Korea commercially farms dogs for food.  Dogs can be obtained by any means.  Some are farmed, some captured as strays.  There is no punishment for the way they are treated, no legislation regulating the dog meat trade. 

How Free Korean Dogs are tackling the problem

Free Korean Dogs has a rescue and adoption programme.  Since 2015, they have:

• Shut down 2 dog meat farm operations
• Rescued over 200 dogs from the dog meat trade
• Found forever homes for over 700 dogs rescued from euthanasia or the risk of being forced into the meat trade
• Continued to promote public awareness to create a cultural shift from cruelty to compassion for dogs in Korea via campaigns, protests and events.

Please raise awareness of this charity and the work it is doing.

Ways to help include and I quote (almost!)

1. Adopt a dog rescued from the Korean dog meat trade.
2. Donate today to support their adoption, awareness and community building efforts.
3. Sign up for their newsletter and following them on social media
4. Contact them with any questions or to learn more.
5. Check out their Amazon wish list

It’s Plastic Free Month and as such a chance to raise awareness of charities working to reduce the amount of plastic in our oceans to keep them healthy for each of us and marine and shore life.

Surfers Against Sewage have a number of different ways you can get involved to reduce the plastic in our oceans, so please take a trip around their website and take a look at how you can get involved, even if it’s just to spread the word.

Earlier this year, they asked people to joined the #ReturnToOffender campaign to challenge big brands on the volume of plastic and packaging pollution found on beaches and other wild spaces.

They have now revealed the results for the worst plastic offenders and you can see who they are here.  12 big brands were responsible for over half of the UK's plastic and packaging pollution, with Coca Cola leading the way.  The "Dirty Dozen" also included Walkers Crisps, Lucozade Energy, Pepsi, KFC, Nestle, Costa Coffee, Cadbury UK, Red Bull, MacDonalds, Tesco and MarsGlobal. 

I’ve dived around their website tonight – here are some ways you can leap in and make a difference to life in our oceans.  

There are things you’d expect such as Join a Clean, Go Plastic Free, and Become a Member, but they also have a number of things you can do to put the pressure on:

1. Lead a plastic free community.  There are already 600 community leaders across the UK working to achieve plastic free status in their villages, towns and cities.
   
   
2. A call on the Government to #EndSewagePollution to end sewage pollution and guarantee safe-seas all year round.
   
   
3. Tell your MP to make a pledge to protect the ocean.
   
   
4. Organise a mass unwrap – this highlights the level of plastic packaging in supermarkets.  It puts pressure on them to change.   Shop and pay as normal then unwrap food to put straight into bags, boxes or re-usable containers.  Volunteers collect the plastic and put it into empty trollies to show how much waste is generated in a very short time.

Remember, you don’t have to live on the coast to make a difference.  Plastic is finding its way into the sea, our marine life and onto our beaches.

Let’s all be a voice for the ocean.