Our Compass

The Japanese camera manufacturer makes a rifle scope designed specifically for killing large game, the £170 “Monarch African”.

Nikon’s marketing literature boasts that the scope is perfect “for those seeking their dangerous game adventure on the dark continent” and is “the proven choice for dangerous big game hunting”, adding: “Africa has long been a continent of dreams for hunters around the world.”

In its latest catalogue for amateur and professional photographers, meanwhile, Nikon describes itself as being “at the heart of nature”. Next to a photograph of two polar bears, it states: “Nature is full of moments of timeless beauty, to be captured before they are gone forever.”

Many leading wildlife photographers use Nikon’s cameras to catch elegiac scenes of wild animals. Stefano Unterthiner, winner of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year in 2008, criticised Nikon’s connection to hunting.

“I’ve used Nikon since I was a young boy, fascinated by nature and wildlife. I always saw Nikon as a company close to nature, but I was wrong,” he said.

“I don’t understand and can’t agree with their support for trophy hunting, which sends out entirely the wrong message to global photographers who love nature. Wildlife needs protecting now more than ever, and I urge the company to end its support for trophy hunting.”

Nikon in the UK failed to respond to The Independent’s questions. Animal welfare campaigners criticised the stance of the company, part of Japan’s vast Mitsubishi conglomerate. Trophy hunting is highly controversial among wildlife campaigners. Wealthy western hunters typically pay tens of thousands of pounds to shoot big game. South Africa earns around $100m a year by sanctioning the hunting (which it classes as “eco tourism”), leading to the deaths of approximately 54,000 animals. Hunters typically target the biggest and strongest animals, who provide the more attractive trophies (stuffed animals and fur rugs etc). In the case of lions this is often the dominant male.  In the absence of the dominant male, a rival lion will move in and kill any cubs fathered by the absent male, diminishing the lion population.

According to Scientific American magazine, trophy hunters  have played a part in the halving of lion population in Africa over the past 30 years.

Most of Nikon’s hunting optics are produced for the US market, where it makes rifle scopes for turkey hunting and one called the Coyote Special – saying it is “…proud to introduce the first line of rifle scopes built specifically for predator hunters”.

Nikon previously marketed its rifle copes on a website called Nikon Hunting which has recently been renamed Nikon Sport Optics. Gruesome photos of grinning hunters have disappeared from the redesigned site, but the same rifle scopes are still for sale. Joe Duckworth, chief executive of The League Against Cruel Sports, said: “Big game hunters slaughter tens of thousands of animals, many of which are listed as endangered or bordering on extinction.”

BACKGROUND

Home to about a dozen miserable bears, the Cherokee Bear Zoo is a small remote tourist trap located off a highway in North Carolina—blink, and you’ll miss it. The dilapidated roadside attraction keeps these intelligent animals in grossly inhumane conditions. They are confined to virtually barren concrete pits, where they have no other option but to pace back and forth, walk in endless circles, and beg tourists to toss them a morsel of food.

Highly intelligent animals capable of empathy and a wide range of feelings, bears are active for up to 18 hours per day in their natural habitat and spend their time exploring diverse terrain. In the wild, bears forage for a wide variety of foods and dig in soft earth, brush, and leaves—but the concrete pits that the Cherokee bears are forced to call home deprive them of everything that is natural and important to them. Surrounded by four solid walls, the bears cannot scan the horizon, gain a perspective on their surroundings, or make much use of their acute sense of smell.

Cherokee’s roadside zoos have made no effort to simulate the animals’ natural habitat or provide them with stimulation. They have also been cited repeatedly by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for failing to meet minimal federal standards established in the Animal Welfare Act. Check out PETA’s investigation of a bear park in Cherokee similar to the Cherokee Bear Zoo here to see the filth, hunger, and misery that these captive bears are forced to endure.

You can help close this cruel animal prison by urging the owners of Cherokee Bear Zoo to release the bears to a reputable sanctuary. They are already feeling the heat from locals and thousands of others who have demanded that the bears be moved to a more natural environment at a reputable sanctuary—one that exists exclusively to benefit and rehabilitate animals.

WHOM TO CONTACT

Use the address coggins4@msn.com to e-mail Cherokee Bear Zoo owners Barry and Collette Coggins.

SAMPLE LETTER

Wikimedia Commons

BACKGROUND

In October 2011, sheriff’s deputies armed with assault rifles opened fire on dozens of “mature, very big, aggressive” lions, tigers, cheetahs, and other animals in Zanesville, Ohio, after the owner—who opened cage doors and left fences unsecured before killing himself—allowed the animals to escape. The tragedy in Zanesville is far from an isolated incident. Incidents involving big cats in the United States have resulted in more than 235 human injuries and the deaths of more than 85 cats and more than 20 people. According to news reports, in June 2013, an Indiana woman shot and killed a leopard who was roaming in her backyard. Fortunately, U.S. Rep. Buck McKeon, R-Calif., has reintroduced the Big Cats and Public Safety Protection Act (H.R. 1998), a bill that would mean unparalleled improvements for big cats who are kept as “pets” in the United States.

Today, there are no federal regulations mandating minimum standards of care for the thousands of big cats in private hands who—having grown from cute cubs into unruly, inherently dangerous predators—are confined to tiny, barren backyard cages and left to languish or for those who are sold on the black market for their skins, bones, and other body parts. The Big Cats and Public Safety Protection Act would put an end to this by banning private individuals from owning and breeding large cats. Violators would be subject to steep fines, jail time, and confiscation of animals.

WHOM TO CONTACT

For the animals’ sake, take a moment now to contact your U.S. representative and urge him or her to co-sponsor H.R. 1998! You can find your representative’s phone number here. Please follow up your call with a brief e-mail (you can find your representative’s e-mail address here). Feel free to use the form letter below, but personalized comments are always preferred. Don’t forget to share this urgent alert with your friends and family!

SAMPLE LETTER

Subject: Please Co-Sponsor H.R. 1998, the Big Cats and Public Safety Protection Act

As a constituent, I am writing to ask you to co-sponsor H.R. 1998—the Big Cats and Public Safety Protection Act. This important legislation would prohibit private individuals from owning and breeding dangerous big cats, such as lions and tigers. Not only would this help ensure the physical and psychological health and well-being of thousands of captive big cats currently languishing in cramped, barren backyard cages in the U.S., it would also subject violators—including irresponsible big-cat owners who currently threaten public safety by allowing public contact or by failing to supply secure enclosures for these dangerous wild animals—to steep fines, jail time, and confiscation of animals.

Incidents involving big cats in the United States have injured more than 235 humans and have resulted in the deaths of more than 85 cats and more than 20 people. As you probably know, in 2011, sheriff’s deputies armed with assault rifles opened fire on dozens of “mature, very big, aggressive” lions, tigers, cheetahs, and other animals in Zanesville, Ohio, after the owner—who opened the animals’ cage doors and left fences unsecured before killing himself—allowed the animals to escape. According to news reports, in June 2013, an Indiana woman shot and killed a leopard who was roaming in her backyard. Many other big cats are sold on the black market—the global illicit wildlife trade is worth an estimated $20 billion per year—for their bones and other body parts.

Thank you for considering this urgent appeal.