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- Denis Giles
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By Maneka Sanjay Gandhi
We may pride ourselves that we have 26,000 elephants – but we avoid saying that these are what is left of a several lakh population of elephants, and that it decreases every year. We have only about a thousand tuskers, so the gene pool is very diluted. The worst is that we have 3,500 elephants in captivity.
An elephant is emotionally, exactly like a human being. He/ she cries, mourns, protects children by encircling them and distracting them by giving them something to eat and play with, has close bonds with family, respects elders, loves playing in the water, is joyful and angry. The elephant is a wild being whose intelligence is as great as ours and whose extra sensory perception is perhaps much greater. Such an animal, a being who dreams and aspires, cannot be tamed. He/she can be subdued with whips and chains and blindings and starvation, but the spirit remains wild. The kraals of Tamil Nadu are famous – you put a elephant into a tight enclosure and then you keep beating it for months till it can barely stand. Then – if it recovers - you chain it for life and sell it to a temple, or to a professional beggar.
Have you seen the films made on the temple elephants of Kerala and the Rajasthan fort of Amer? Watch them. You will never be the same again. Most of the elephants climbing the Amer Fort daily, in the desert heat on the tarred roads with tourists on their backs, are blind. Every night their mahouts – alcoholic to a man - burn their feet with welding machines so that their foot bones are exposed. The elephants that were shown in the film died in 3 years – all of them young or middle aged. There are over 550 elephants in private ownership in Kerala . About 200+ are killed every year. They have a ritual in Kerala that when an elephant comes into Musth, it is tied with heavy chains for months. Then, after the Musth, it is thrashed for 48 hours with heavy sticks, by 4-6 mahouts together, in order to subdue him before the chains are taken off. Many elephants have died of the beatings which are relentless and vicious.
No mahout has ever been jailed. In fact, a woman, who was known for her vicious treatment while capturing wild elephants in Assam, was actually awarded for her work. The fact that her husband was in the environment ministry, at the time when a secret film showing her beating an elephant to death, kept her from any punishment. No temple has ever had its elephants confiscated, even when it kills more than half of them. At the moment there is one elephant that has had its face beaten in by its mahout. She stands there suffering, with no one to rescue her. When I spoke to the Chief Wildlife Warden, his answer was that they had rescued one elephant some months ago and they could not keep doing this. This is the story of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu as well. There are 40 elephants in Karnataka and 40 in Tamilnadu in the temples. They live alone, tethered permanently outside the temple premises. Most of them suffer from tuberculosis. Why do these temples keep them? To earn money from tourist festivals and begging.
No forest officers, or doctors, are trained in elephant management or elephant medicine.
What is a common way of killing an elephant and claiming insurance? You make the elephant walk on rusted nails. She gets gangrene and dies in agony, and you collect the money. Or, you wrap heavy iron chains round her and push her into the water to drown.
Are temples the only culprits? Delhi had 23 elephants rented out daily, to advertise products to walk the streets with heavy wooden banners on their sides. They eat on the move – plucking the leaves of pipal trees. Of these, only 6 remain. The rest have been mowed down by vehicles. The six were ordered to be removed from Delhi 4 years ago. The Chief Wildlife Warden will not do so because the owners earn money and will do “anything” to stop the elephants from being moved. Two elephants were struck by a truck some years ago. One was killed outright. The other broke her legs and ribs. The owner abandoned her in the middle of the road and ran away. She was taken at private expense to an elephant sanctuary in Mathura and nursed back to health. As soon as she was well the owner claimed her back, even though he had no papers for ownership and should have been in jail.
Circuses have been forbidden to keep elephants. But several of them still keep them, and they are dragged from district to district. Zoos have been banned from keeping elephants. 64 still remain in state zoos that refuse to surrender them. The single government rescue centre, made by Haryana twenty years ago, lies empty, because the government will not allocate any money to keep a single suffering confiscated animal. Maharajas of Kuchnahipurand Talukdars, who own a little land, keep elephants and rent them out for weddings and elections.
Recent investigations have found that the people who hold the elephants captive do so illegally- without a valid ownership certificate from the authorities, or any other documents as required by the law.
A sample of 1,545 elephants, covering 13 different states and 6 different management regimes, has shown that only 44% of captive elephants have ownership certificates, and only 48% of those captive elephants have been implanted with microchips (Baskaran et al, 2011). This is corroborated by the findings of the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI).
I have not understood how any of these groups, or individuals, can keep elephants. When the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, was passed it clearly said that the elephants that were already owned could stay with their owners. But not a single new elephant could be added. But the elephants in custody now are all young. They were not even born in 1972. How can they be allowed to be kept? But for that we need to understand the fence eating the grass –the forest department.
In this dark, dark scenario there are a few rays of light. The Sonpur mela in Bihar has been banned from displaying elephants for sale. It was the main selling market in India. While it may have no effect on the illegal trade, now poachers, buyers and sellers will have to be even more secretive, instead of openly flouting the law.
The second may go down in the history of elephant welfare, and also be the turning point for animals in India. The High Court of Uttarakhand, under his Lordship Justice Rajiv Sharma, has passed two landmark judgments that usher in a paradigm shift in the way we treat animals.
The judgments have -
1. Conferred personhood on all non-human animals in the State of Uttarakhand; not just alleviating them from the status of being 'property' but also affording them rights.
2. Prohibited the commercial use of elephants in the State
However, it is not just the elephants in captivity that ensure cruelty. Our elephants in the wild are not safe either. Shrinking habitats, in the garb of mindless development, are resulting in a constant conflict between man and animal. Reports of brutal attacks on elephant herds, that wander into human settlements, are on the rise. See the heart-breaking images of helpless calves being chased, with handmade fire-bombs. Illegally installed electric fences with enough voltage to kill the largest land mammal, and irresponsibly laid railway lines in forest areas and elephant corridors, are all contributing to diminishing their population. The railways do their own share of decimating them. In the last ten years more than 500 elephants have been killed, simply because the train would not slow down on seeing a herd crossing the track. Nor do the railways listen to advice on how to handle the crossings –– developing underpasses, installation of animal detection systems, getting rid of steep embankments, continuous whistling and slowing down in recognized elephant corridors.
This is a major crisis. 26,000 today, from 30,000 last year, means they will be gone in twenty years. The report Gaja, submitted by the Elephant Task Force constituted by the MOEF, has recommended that elephants be phased out of all commercial use, including logging.
At least 20 rescue & rehabilitation centres must be established, and the elephants in private ownership must be re-homed on priority. Sustainable development plans must take into consideration the natural habitats, ensuring that we protect our elephant herds on the ground and not just on paper. There are 101 identified elephant corridors. None of them have been secured by the government. We have fragmented their habitat, and allowed illegal villages who deny them any right of way. We even had an Environment Minister who stated that elephants must be killed as revenge for every human that is hurt by them – even if the human is in the wrong.
India prides itself on its compassion. In actual fact we show none to any beings, including our own species. The elephant is an example of our own viciousness and shortsightedness. When the elephant finally goes, we will lose over 100 varieties of trees and bushes whose seeds are spread by its dung. God knows what else we will lose – apart from our souls.
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- Denis Giles
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By Maneka Sanjay Gandhi
Every few years the Chinese fixate upon an animal and come to the conclusion that its parts will cure everything from acne to cancer. It doesn’t matter where the animal is; it could be the Totoaba, a fish found only in one lake in Mexico, which is almost totally decimated because the Chinese wanted its swim bladder. It could be the hair from the nose of a rhino (one species of the rhino has become completely extinct this year and there are a few hundred left of the other), the pancreas of the Indian bear, the pangolin whose scales are used by the Chinese to cure "excessive nervousness and hysterical crying in children, women possessed by devils and ogres, malarial fever and deafness". The Chinese have finished entire species in dozens of countries including India. India’s tiger and shark poaching is due to their greed for their parts. Africa’s elephants are almost gone and Australia loses millions of native birds to Chinese fetishes for keeping caged birds. Dried abalone, a status food that can sell for more than $90 per pound in China, forms the nucleus of a criminal economy worth millions each year in South Africa, with documented links to money laundering and the drug trade. There are virtually no animals left in their own country and their greedy, uncaring fingers pull out animals from the most environmentally conscious nations.
Now it is the turn of the donkey. Donkey hide gelatine, obtained by soaking and stewing the skin of a donkey, is used as a new ingredient in “old” Chinese medicine. It is called ejiao. The gelatine is sold in 3-4 inch rectangular or square blocks. It is hard and brittle, brown and shiny, translucent and slightly sweet – as dried glue is.
It is supposed to enrich the blood (whatever that means), strengthen bones, and cure dizziness, anaemia, palpitations, insomnia, cancer, and prevent miscarriages, stop bleeding and dry coughs, help the liver lung and kidneys, fatigue, chronic diarrhoea, phobias, obsessions, compulsions and excessive anxiety. The Chinese also eat donkey glue as a snack bar mixed with nuts and seeds. It's called Gu Yuan Gao. Ejiao is made into liqueurs. Put into creams it is used for leg ulcers or anti aging, rosy cheeks and glossy skin.
According to a 1723 account, by the French Jesuit Dominique Parrenin, ejiao was only made for the emperor’s court from the skin of a freshly killed well-nourished black donkey. Since black donkeys were, even then, in short supply a large amount of "fake" ejiao was also manufactured, using skins from mules, horses, camels, pigs, and even old shoes. Since what it was supposed to cure was equally vague, I am sure it worked well.
The earliest known historical record of ejiao gelatine is in the ancient Chinese medical document entitled Shen Nong's Materia Medica, made during the Qin (221 BC - 206 BC) and Han (206 BC - 220 AD) dynasties. In that document, ejiao is made from any animal skin. The Pharmacopoeia of the People's Republic of China (the 1990, 1995 and 2000 editions), however, refer to donkey-hide gelatine as the only certified ejiao product. And businessmen picked this up. In the 1990s ejiao was rebranded as a consumer item and beauty product, causing sales — and demand for donkey skins — to skyrocket.
Millions of donkeys were immediately killed in China. Their population took a steep dive. Donkey hides became rare and expensive - up to £300 per kilo. There were also restrictions on importing animal hides from outside the country. So, first the manufacturers got the Chinese government to lift the restrictions. And then they went hunting across the world, starting with Mongolia, Afghanistan, Africa and South America.
In ten years donkey prices began to rise steeply around the world. African countries found they had no donkeys left. Uganda, Tanzania, Botswana, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Senegal have banned donkey exports to China. Has it stopped donkeys being killed? Nope. Donkey skins have become a hot commodity on the black market, and wildlife traffickers have moved in. Agents of the Chinese go from village to village, steal animals at night and strip their skins off on the spot. In November 2017, eyewitness footage showing baby donkeys being bludgeoned to death with sledgehammers, or killed by having their throats cut.
Has India escaped this illegal poaching? When was the last time you saw a donkey? At last count we were down by 40% of our donkeys – a massacre of over 3 million - in just the last two years. In fact, the wildlife mafia, that used to supply tiger skins and parts, has switched to donkeys. Sales of ejiao in China rose from 6.4 billion yuan in 2008 to 342.2 billion yuan in 2016. China's donkey population has dropped from 11m in 1990 to 1m today. At least 2-3 million donkey hides are brought into China every year . And their demand is 10 million skins.
With the decimation of the donkey, many rural communities in Africa and South America have lost their livelihoods for a product no one needs. The price of donkeys has risen steeply in some countries, making them unaffordable for people who use them to take goods to market, cultivate land, and fetch water. The cost of a donkey in Burkina Faso, for example, has increased from £60 in 2014 to £108 in 2016. In Niger, the price has climbed from $34 to $145. In Kenya, the prices are even higher.
Entire criminal mafias have emerged in many countries. Illegal, or “bush” slaughter, which frequently involves stolen donkeys, has been reported in Egypt, South Africa and Tanzania, Brazil, Mexico and Peru. The stolen donkeys are mostly working animals, which means their owners then have no transport and can't get to market, fetch water or get children to school. Africa has been badly hit because the animals are such an important part of life for transport and farming - particularly in poorer communities. Their steep cost makes it impossible for the owners to replace a stolen donkey. In Egypt, one of China’s main suppliers, the cost of buying a donkey has increased from £17 to £170.When Niger banned donkey skin export the Chinese moved to Nigeria where the prices have gone up from 15,000 Naira per donkey to 75,000 Naira.
Unfortunately, Kenya has started three large donkey slaughterhouses. While their own population is almost done (number of donkeys have fallen by 70% and is now about 5 lakh), donkeys are being smuggled in from countries that have banned their slaughter, or export of donkey hides – South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania, Botswana, Mali, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Niger (which lost 80,000 donkeys in just 9 months), for instance. A firm in Zimbabwe has been caught for buying thousands of illegal skins from Botswana and shipping them to China via Mozambique. Now Ethiopia, which had the largest population of donkeys in the world, has started slaughterhouses for the Chinese as well. Chinese buyers monitor the process in both countries - making sure everything is properly packed and prepared. Each donkey hide produces 1 kilo of ejiao.
The Chinese pay $48 per skin, making it very lucrative to break all the laws. South Africa allows the export of a maximum of 7,300 donkey skins a year. Yet, when the police investigated just one firm, they found they had exported 15,000 in less than a year. Firms in Nigeria, Chad and Cameroon are openly advertising donkey skins – as well as pangolins whose international trade is forbidden. The Chinese buy both from the same firms.
Efforts are on by the Chinese to start donkey slaughterhouses in Pakistan and Australia.
Even though the Chinese know that most of these skins are from the black market, on January 1, 2017 the Chinese government brought down import duties on donkey hide from 5% to 2%. Dong EE-Jiao is the largest company in China and handled 7 lakh donkey hides in 2014, increasing to one million in 2018. Its profits were $295 million in 2016.
Ten years ago there were approximately 44 million donkeys spread over Asia, Africa and South America. Ten years from now , they will be down to less than a million. As of today, countries that have counted their donkeys report this : Botswana down by 70%. Kyrgyzstan and India, down by 40%, Columbia and Brazil down by 15%.
Why have the Chinese been allowed to carry out this genocide?
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- Denis Giles
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By Maneka Sanjay Gandhi
Is someone known to you going “crazy”? Suspicious, swings from being extremely happy to morose, hyperactive, insomniac, angry without reason. Check to see how much meat he is eating. Specially pre-packaged or restaurant meat, like ham, sausages, hot dogs, dried beef or turkey jerky, salami.
Cohort studies follow groups of individuals over time to investigate the causes of disease, establishing links between risk factors and outcomes. Many major findings about the health effects of lifestyle come from cohort studies. Johns Hopkins, founded in 1876 in Baltimore, is America's first research university and its research is considered world class. A detailed cohort study done by Johns Hopkins, evaluating diet in people with mania, has been published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.
Mania is a serious state of abnormally elevated arousal characterised by lack of inhibitions, racing thoughts, diminished need for sleep. It ranges from euphoric to irritable and, as the mania intensifies, violence or extreme anxiety. Fancy, irrational ideas, delusions, disorientation, incoherence, catatonia and finally death.
What is it caused by? Genetics, drugs, certain diseases like multiple sclerosis, hormone imbalances, have been the standard diagnosis. But experts have veered to the opinion that it could also be food.
Johns Hopkins scientists studied diet and its role in a cohort of individuals with mania and other psychiatric disorders, as well as individuals without them. They found that a history of eating nitrated dry cured meat was strongly and independently associated with mania.
The study done by scientists at John Hopkins Medicine was led by Dr. Robert Yolken, a professor of Neurovirology. Yolken was originally interested in studying the effect foods may have on mental illness, and conducted a demographic study of 1,101 people, both with and without mental disorders, from 2007 to 2017. It was from that pool of data that Yolken noticed the association between mania and nitrate consumption.
It was found that people who had been in hospital for mania were about 3.5 times as likely to have eaten nitrates, as people who were with no history of a serious mental disorder.
The addition of chemical nitrogen compounds in the form of sodium nitrite, or potassium nitrate, is used to preserve processed meats, preventing decay and bacterial growth, adding colour and reducing oxidation.
This is called “curing” meats. They are commonly found in processed meat products such as hot dogs, beef jerky, ham, sausages and salami. Nitrates have been linked to cancer and neurodegenerative disease as well
Once the scientists had isolated nitrates, they experimented on rats. They found that the feeding of meat preparations with added nitrate to rats, resulted in hyperactivity and irregular sleep, reminiscent of human mania, within two weeks. These rats also showed changes in their intestinal microbiota, as well as changes in their brain pathways, similar to what is seen in humans with bipolar disorder. These changes were not seen in the group of rats whose food did not contain any nitrates.
The rats, who were fed the meat daily, were given an amount equivalent of what a typical person would eat: one hot dog per day. "We tried to make sure the amount of nitrate used in the experiment was in the range of what people might reasonably be eating," says Yolken.
Experts are increasingly of the belief that, in addition to genetic circumstances, diet plays a role in causing mental health issues. The theory, according to Johns Hopkins researchers, is that gut bacteria may be one contributing cause to mania and other brain disorders – which would mean that people with mania could reduce their problem by changing their diet. Dr Yolkien surmises that the reason is probably inflammation of the gut.
Nitrates in food are linked with cancer, which is in turn linked with inflammation. Other studies have shown that people who have manic episodes show signs of inflammation in their bodies.
A previous study from Yolken’s group showed that mania patients are less likely to be re-hospitalized if they are given probiotics, which can affect gut bacteria. “There’s growing evidence that germs in the intestines can influence the brain,” Yolken said. That evidence includes a 2016 study which found that people with migraine headaches have higher levels of a bacterium that causes the absorption of nitrates. Nitrogen compounds affect the bacteria in the gut. The changed bacteria now allows for a larger amount of nitrates to be digested, causing their blood vessels to dilate more than usual and cause intense pain in the form of a migraine.
In another study done, by Djordjevic VV, Stojanovic et al (2010), on plasma nitrite/nitrate concentrations in 40 patients with schizophrenia and 36 persons without it, it was discovered that the schizophrenics had a significantly higher concentration, almost double. And women had higher levels than men.
Another study, done by Dr Valerie Taylor of the Women’s College Hospital in Toronto, showed that people with severe bipolar problems improved after antibiotics were given to flush out their gut bacteria – a clear connection between gut bacteria and mental health issues
What Johns Hopkins has proven through science, a parent instinctively knows – that food can impact on their child’s behaviour and mood. Sugar can cause bouts of hyperactivity, depression, cognitive delay and sleep problems. Any form of milk can make a child irritable, cranky or aggressive. Artificial colouring has been linked to ADHD, anxiety, hyperactivity, and headaches in children. Because artificial colouring is found in many sugary foods, parents often blame behavioural changes on sugar. Artificial colouring is also often hidden in unexpected foods, like bread and yogurt. Avoid products with yellow No. 5, red No. 40, and blue No. 1 if you’re concerned about your child’s mood swings. Preservatives like nitrates, nitrites, sodium benzoate (found in children's juice products) cause behavioural problems in children. Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is a flavour enhancer that also causes mood and behaviour changes, including headaches and hyperactivity. If you notice behaviour changes, or mood swings, in your child, consider keeping a food journal. Track what they eat and when they exhibit “bad” behaviour.
Preventing mania could be as simple as not eating processed meat – or any meat at all.
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- Denis Giles
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By Maneka Sanjay Gandhi
Every few years a company's marketing strategy becomes a hit and a new “superfood” is born. Currently, it is Macha tea which solves all problems including weight, diabetes, rheumatism. It comes on the heels of quinoa, chia seeds, Leh berries, Brazil nuts, blueberries, turmeric, spirulina, goji berries, dark chocolate, red wine, coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil and, if you believe the Chinese, gelatine made from donkey skin.
Of these, the biggest marketing gimmick that has seduced millions of people for three decades is Omega 3 fatty acids made from fish oil. Especially from wild caught fatty fish such as tuna, mackerel or salmon. Many people take a daily omega 3 supplement in the belief that it is good for their heart. Sold as pills, capsules and oils in supermarkets, pharmacies and everywhere else, these are the most popular type of supplement, with more than a quarter of people, who take any kind of supplement, choosing them. The market is estimated at 500 million pounds annually.
Omega 3 fatty acids were touted as miracle supplements that promoted brain health, protected against dementia and depression and rheumatoid arthritis, reduced symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome, reduced weight, increased cardiovascular health, and helped in cancer prevention. Each year the claims became more exaggerated: “Omega 3 fatty acids are essential for the functioning of the body, lowering fat levels in the blood, reducing blood pressure and stopping blood clots.” The main emphasis was on preventing heart attacks, heart disease and strokes.
Now we learn that this was another gimmick, like most of the ones listed above. While all of them are healthy foods, so are all vegetables, grains and fruit. Omega 3, sold over the counter supplements, has just made companies billionaires without having any effect on heart problems.
Omega 3 is a type of fat. Small amounts of omega 3 fats are essential for good health. The main types of omega 3 fatty acids are; alphalinolenic acid (ALA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). ALA is normally found in fats from plant foods, such as nuts and seeds (walnuts and rapeseed for instance). EPA and DHA, collectively called long chain omega 3 fats, are found in fatty fish, such as salmon and fish oils including cod liver oil. Omega 3 fats, it is believed, will protect against heart disease by reducing blood pressure or reducing cholesterol.
The Cochrane Library was founded in 1993. It was developed for up-to-date, systematic reviews of all scientific trials of health care, and is used by scientists and policy makers as high-quality, independent evidence to inform healthcare decision-making. Each Cochrane Review addresses a clearly formulated question and summarises the results of healthcare studies (controlled trials) and provides evidence on the effectiveness of healthcare interventions. 130 countries work together to produce credible, accessible health information that is free from commercial sponsorship and other conflicts of interest. Cochrane reviews are the international gold standard for high quality, trusted information.
A new Cochrane systematic review, published in the Cochrane Library, combines the results of seventy-nine randomised trials (including 25 deemed highly trustworthy) involving 1,12,059 people. The duration of the follow-up ranged from one year to eight years.
These studies assessed the effects of consuming additional omega 3 fat, compared to usual or lower omega 3, on diseases of the heart and circulation.
The studies recruited people, some healthy and others with existing illnesses from North America, Europe, Australia and Asia. Participants were randomly assigned to increase their omega 3 fats, or to maintain their usual intake of fat, for at least a year. Most studies investigated the impact of giving a long-chain omega 3 supplement in a capsule form, and compared it to a dummy pill. A few assessed whole fish intake. The ALA trials added omega 3 fats to foods and gave these enriched foods, or naturally ALA-rich foods such as walnuts, to people in the intervention groups, and usual (non-enriched) foods to other participants.
The Cochrane researchers have found that increasing long-chain omega 3 provides no meaningful effect or benefits. The risk of death from any of the above mentioned diseases remains the same.
They found that taking more long-chain omega 3 fats (including EPA and DHA), primarily through supplements or fish oil, makes little or no difference to the risk of coronary heart deaths, coronary heart disease events, stroke or heart irregularities. In fact, long-chain omega 3 fats reduce HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol), which makes the heart vulnerable to disease, as HDL is known to protect arteries from damage.
Increasing long-chain omega 3, or ALA, probably does not affect body weight or fatness.
Cochrane lead author, Dr. Lee Hooper from the University of East Anglia, UK, said: "We can be confident in the findings of this review which go against the popular belief that long-chain omega 3 supplements protect the heart. This large systematic review included information from many thousands of people over long periods. Despite all this information, we don’t see protective effects."
"The review provides strong evidence that taking long-chain omega 3 (fish oil, EPA or DHA) supplements does not benefit heart health or reduce our risk of stroke or death from any cause. When we separated out the 25 studies that used the best methods, such as “blinding” the participants and the researchers to which group was getting the omega 3 and which the placebo, the effect of omega 3 on the outcomes was even weaker. This suggests that when we reduce the potential for bias in omega 3 trials, there is even more clearly no effect of omega 3 supplements."
"It looks as though our belief in omega 3 supplements over all these years may have been driven by a few flawed studies and our own bias."
"This systematic review did find moderate evidence that ALA, found in plant oils (such as rapeseed or canola oil) and nuts (particularly walnuts) may be slightly protective of some diseases of the heart and circulation. However, the effect is very small."
This belief in the heart health benefits of omega 3 fat sprang from observations suggesting that the Inuits don’t suffer from heart disease because their diet is mainly fatty fish/cod liver oil, and two other trials suggesting the benefits of eating fish and of taking fish oil supplements. The companies making Omega 3 poured millions into advertising and hid the fact that follow-up studies from both research groups had negative results. In fact, in one of the studies, men with angina who were randomly assigned to take omega 3 supplements were at greater risk of “cardiac death” than those who weren’t assigned to take the supplement.
While the American Heart Association claimed that Omega 3 supplements were beneficial to people with, or at risk of , heart disease, the European Society of Cardiology refused to do so saying there was no evidence to justify the supplements. The WHO wanted to understand the health benefits of omega 3 fats, as it is updating its guidance on fats, and they commissioned the review.
The British Heart Foundation has backed the study and urged people to focus on healthy food rather than pills.
Stop wasting your money on fish oil supplements and spend the money on fresh vegetables. Fish won’t save you, but beans and berries might.
Full citation: Abdelhamid AS, Brown TJ, Brainard JS, Biswas P, Thorpe GC, Moore HJ, Deane KHO, AlAbdulghafoor FK, Summerbell CD, Worthington HV, Song F, Hooper L. Omega 3 fatty acids for the primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2018, Issue 7. Art. No.: CD003177. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD003177.pub3.
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- Denis Giles
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By Maneka Sanjay Gandhi
When I was young, India was flooded with comic books of Archie, Superman and War. The two central pages and the back advertised things for sale in America: party treats, Halloween costumes. The maximum space was given to advertising seahorses for aquaria. For one dollar you could get 6 sea horses who were “magical”. They would make you gasp with their tricks. Millions of seahorses lost their lives to these advertisements before people realized that the chances of seahorses surviving in a home aquarium were nil.
From then to now, seahorses continue to be poached and killed in different ways, even though all 40 species are endangered and some close to extinction. India has 5, the Spiny, Great, Yellow, Hedgehog and Three Spot Seahorse. UK has two, but they have not been seen for the last two years and may be extinct.
The Seahorse is indeed magical in its uniqueness. Seahorses are fish with heads shaped like tiny horses. Their size varies from half an inch to 14 inches. They inhabit mainly tropical and temperate coastal waters, living in coral reefs, mangroves, sea grass beds and estuaries.
Unlike most other fish, seahorses have an exo-skeleton. Their bodies are made up of hard, external, bony plates that are fused together with a fleshy covering. They do not have scales. They also have a neck and a snout that points down. They breathe through gills and have a swim bladder. They have a long, snake-like, tail. This allows them to grip onto sea-grasses and corals, preventing them from being washed away by strong currents. Seahorses live in shallow, weedy areas. In winter they move into deeper waters.
They are poor swimmers. They propel themselves by using a small fin on their back that flutters up to 35 times per second. Fins located near the back of the head are used for steering. They swim upright and avoid predators by mimicking the colour of nearby plants, and they can change colour very quickly. They eat small crustaceans, like shrimps. Since they have no teeth and no stomach, food passes through their digestive systems so quickly that they must eat almost constantly to stay alive. They can consume 3,000 or more brine shrimp per day. Their long, thin snouts probe into small nooks and, when they find it, they vacuum it up through their snouts which can expand if their prey is larger than the snout. Their eyes are as remarkable as the rest of them. They work independently. This means they can look forwards and backwards at the same time. This is particularly useful as they hunt for food by sight.
Seahorses pair for life. They meet daily to reinforce their pair bonding with an elaborate courtship display. As they approach each other, they change colour. The male circles around the female and the pair often spiral around an object with their tails linked together. Then the female goes back to her territory.
The male is the only male creature who can actually get pregnant. The female transfers her eggs to the male, which he self-fertilises in his pouch. The number of eggs can vary: from 50-150 for smaller species, to 1500 for larger species. The babies are born in 14 – 28 days in the pouch. Giving birth can be a long process, with contractions lasting up to 12 hours.
Baby seahorses are on their own as soon as they are born. They hatch after 45 days in the brood pouch. They float together in small groups, clinging to each other using their tails. They must find food and hide from predators as soon as they’re born. They spend the first two to three weeks of their lives drifting along in the plankton layer of the ocean. Less than one in a thousand will survive long enough to become an adult due to predators.
Will you ever see a seahorse? Probably not. They are expected to be gone in another 20 years. Eight species are severely endangered, and the Cape Seahorse of South Africa will disappear in the next two years due to water pollution and development. India’s hedgehog seahorse and the flat faced seahorse are also expected to be gone in five years. Habitat degradation and destruction due to coastal development, marine pollution, coral reef destruction, and land-based deforestation. Deforestation leads to increased siltation in surrounding marine waters, suffocating sea grass beds and killing coral reefs.
But none of the above is as bad as the commercial reasons that are killing them.
The first reason is the same for all wild animals across the world : the Chinese nonsensical native medicine (TCM). This takes 150 MILLION seahorses from the wild annually for “growth” and aphrodisiacs. Seahorses have high levels of collagen, which Chinese women use as a substitute for Botox .
The Curio Trade takes approximately ten million seahorses from the wild. Along with shells and starfish they are sold as souvenirs and jewellery after being left to die in the sun so that their dried bodies are intact. Dried seahorses range from 600 – 3000 dollars per kilo, almost the weight of gold. For instance, in UK alone, the Seahorse Trust says that seahorses, corals, pipefish baby sharks and crocodiles, brought in from Asia, are sold in hundreds of beach shops as mementoes – even though they are banned for sale in the UK. It is illegal to kill, take or disturb seahorses in British waters, so they are imported from abroad. The majority of seahorses, found for sale in the UK, come from the Far East and some are sold here for as little as a few pounds. The import and export of seahorses has been controlled under CITES, an international treaty that protects trading in wildlife, since 2004, but countries like Indonesia, Japan, Norway and South Korea chose to opt out of the trade rules set by CITES. Sites like ebay are selling seahorses openly – and illegally.
The aquarium trade takes an estimated ten million seahorses from the wild. Less than .01 % survive more than two weeks. The aquarium trade is exclusively driven by North America (thanks to generations growing up on Archie comics). In Maharashtra, seahorses are sold openly in unlicensed aquarium shops.
The second big reason seahorses are dying out is because of the trawlers. They are a by-catch in the shrimp trawl and other fisheries off of Florida, Mexico, Central America, and South America.
In India, millions are being killed every day in Tamil Nadu alone. Tamil fishermen drop heavy nets from their trawlers that go deep into the ocean. Every living creature in the area is caught. Brought out of the water, they die. The fishermen choose what they want to sell and all the rest – the tiny fish, seahorses and sea cucumbers (both protected by law) – are mashed and sold to the poultry industry to be fed to chickens, to the aquarium industry as pet food or to be made into oils. They are sold for next to nothing (Rs 2- Rs 4 per kg). This kind of bottom trawling is wreaking havoc in the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait by destroying the habitat as well. So we are destroying our waters, marine resources and all our species to feed chickens? Does this make sense?
The State fisheries department has no records of the trawlers, or what they catch. They have no record, or knowledge, about which species are caught, or even what species actually exist in the waters of Tamil Nadu. This became obvious when researchers from the University of Columbia, Canada did an investigation.
No checks have ever been made on what the trawlers bring in, even though nothing is hidden. In Tuticorin and Rameshwaram, for instance, the researchers said that mounds of marine life, brought in by different vessels, is strewn all over the beaches.
Project Seahorse did an undercover investigation in India and found not just the illegal sale of the fishing “by-catch”, but that India is also illegally exporting seahorses by mislabelling them. Till 2000 the Marine Products Export Development Authority MPEDA was exporting 4 million seahorses a year. Then it became illegal under the Wildlife Protection Act. But the export is still going on from Chennai. The Forest officials take no interest in marine wildlife and know nothing about wild sea species, even though the Act comes under them. Not a single raid has ever been conducted on illegal exporters of seahorses, even though they are well known.
Seahorses are an important part of the marine world, and saving them is an imperative. They serve as flagship species for a wide range of marine conservation issues. Are we going to sit back and let seahorses become the dinosaurs of our generation?
You can make a difference by:
1. Refusing to buy seahorse souvenirs and wild caught seahorses for aquarium. You should also report to me all shops that are selling these.
2. Promote re-aforestation along coastlines.
3. One of the more effective ways is to make those areas into wildlife reserves and allow the ecosystem to return to its natural state. Marine reserves are very important.
4. You need to help change by bring public pressure on the government. Current fishing practices and laws have to be changed. MPEDA and the Forest Departments must start patrolling.
5. Sea horse cultivation must take the place of taking them from the wild. Captive breeding projects are being done abroad, why not in India?
To join the animal welfare movement contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., www.peopleforanimalsindia.org