CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, lists the Clouded Leopard as an Appendix I species. This means that the Clouded Leopard is among the most endangered of all species. CITES prohibits international trade of Appendix I species except for singularly important reasons such as scientific research. The United States also lists the Clouded Leopard under the Endangered Species Act, further prohibiting trade in the animals or any parts or products made from them. In the countries of its native range, hunting of the Clouded Leopard is prohibited, however these bans are poorly enforced.
The Amur Leopard, a very rare and critically endangered big cat, is on the verge of extinction!
Noah Matson
Freedom - Not Exploitation! 
which is public land owned by all Americans. Their plan would effectively TRIPLE the number of gas wells to more than 10,000 – generating huge profits for gas companies at the expense of the American taxpayer, local communities, and wildlife. 
Conservation-minded members of Congress have just reintroduced legislation to help protect great cats and canids around the world. The Great Cats and Rare Canids Act of 2007 would assist in the conservation of rare cat and canine populations outside the United States. This legislation covers 13 species of felids and canids, from the endangered Snow Leopard of Central Asia to the critically endangered Ethiopian Wolf. 
Each year, thousands of sea turtles choke on plastic bags after mistaking them for jellyfish, a favorite food. 
The ASPCA is the oldest humane organization in the Western Hemisphere, and we're more dedicated than ever to our work preventing animal cruelty and finding homes for millions of animals all across the country. But we couldn't do it without the support of compassionate citizens like you, so please join us on April 10--our birthday!--in celebration of ASPCA Day. 
The Cook Inlet once teemed with up to 1300 beluga whales -- a genetically distinct population of these white whales. But sadly, their numbers have dropped to around 300 -- and they could vanish forever within our lifetime unless we act now! 
Last year, the hunt left more than 350,000 seals dead -- almost all of them were babies as young as 12 days of age. One of our most effective weapons against the hunt is a boycott of Canadian seafood. 
When the secretary of the interior proposed adding polar bears to the federal list of "threatened" species late last year, the reaction was thunderously positive. Editorial pages across the country, including The Post's, commended the administration for taking a step that acknowledges the impact of global warming. But the applause is premature.
The proposal to list the polar bear is just that, a proposal, and it will take years to have an impact. While I hope the Interior Department adds the polar bear to the list of endangered species, and fast, I am not holding my breath.
There is, however, something that can be done immediately to help protect polar bears: closing a loophole in domestic law so big that polar bear populations may not live long enough to experience the full brunt of global warming or the benefit of being listed as an endangered species.
That loophole? Sport hunting by Americans for polar bear trophies in Canada.
About three-quarters of the world's polar bears live in Canada. Unlike Norway and Russia, Canada allows sport hunting of polar bears. Over the past three years, for instance, more than a thousand polar bears were killed legally in the Inuit territory of Nunavut, Canada. American hunters were responsible for more than 200 dead bears.
Subsistence hunting is one thing. Sport-hunts by wealthy Americans who hope to nail a trophy over the fireplace mantel are quite another.
As a species, polar bears are important barometers of global environmental health. As the ice caps that comprise their habitat disappear, polar bears are among the first indicators of impending distress for other species, including our own.
Polar bears inside our borders are already well protected under a 1972 statute. The Marine Mammal Protection Act permits only subsistence hunting by Alaskan natives, and even that is regulated under a quota-setting treaty between the United States and Russia.
The immediate threat to polar bears is not addressed at all by the proposed endangered-species listing. While U.S. law cannot govern activities that take place in Canada, it can regulate what goods enter this country. That includes "trophies" such as polar bear heads or hides, which are prized by Americans who travel to Canada for sport hunts.
Originally, the marine mammal protection law banned the import and possession of all polar bear trophies. In 1994, the sport-hunting lobby pushed through an amendment that weakened this prohibition by allowing the importation of polar bear trophies from regions certified by Canada to contain healthy populations. This system worked for years, but now economics are trumping science again.
For sport hunters, a polar bear trophy is a prize, and the hunts are big business. American hunters often pay outfitters upwards of $25,000 to guide a polar bear hunt, even plunking down $2,000 just to get on a waiting list. But all it takes to get things started is $100 and an application.
According to the U.S. Safari Club, hunters spent $2.9 million in Nunavut in 2002. Since then, spending and hunting have increased dramatically. Two years ago the region's annual polar bear quota rose 30 percent, from 403 to 518. Since 1997, more than 800 permits have been issued to U.S. hunters, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Before the polar bear listing gets subsumed by the politics of global warming, let's do something for the bears that will have an immediate impact.
The mountain caribou needs more habitat than British Columbia's government is currently prepared to provide. And, without proper protection, one of the most endangered mammals in North America could disappear.
The Peru Free Trade Agreement would sanction the destruction of the Peruvian Amazon rainforest -- home to jaguars, long-haired spider monkeys, blue-headed macaws, giant river otters and other endangered species -- by failing to address the illegal harvest and trade in mahogany.
This year, by late March, the Canadian seal killers armed with clubs and rifles will go again to the nursery floes of the harp and hood seal, to massacre them in the largest mass slaughter of marine mammals on this planet! 
An innovative law that took effect January 1, 2007 will prevent dogs from being used as weapons. 
Rising temperatures due to global warming are threatening the entire Arctic ecosystem. Warmer temperatures means less pack ice - ice that polar bears depend on for hunting. 
Send in your public comment to support listing polar bears as a "Threatened" species!
![[photition!]](http://dingo.care2.com/petitions/icon_tinycamera.gif "photition!"){kind=icon}
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