Protect Cecil's legacy
Donation protected
You may not have heard of Johnny Rodrigues. But when you hear his story, you will know of his work, the tireless hours, days and years he has put into animal conservation in Zimbabwe.
You will all have heard of Cecil the lion and how he was illegally killed by a 'hunter', but what you may not know is that if not for Johnny, you may never have heard Cecil's story.
It was Johnny who researched, verified and told the world that story that made headlines around the world.
I have followed Johnny's frequent email reports from the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force (ZCTF) for a decade now, awful stories of illegal hunting and poaching in the Hwange region of north-west Zimbabwe, from the poisoning of waterholes with cyanide to kill elephants for their tusks, to drunks shooting elephants with AK47s, and these crimes are often linked to government officials.
As a journalist in Australia, I have used the information he provided in those emails - it helped me to break the news of Cecil and to inform on conservation in southern Africa generally ... and more recently it has kept me informed on an even bigger threat to wildlife there: the government-sanctioned exportation of animals to zoos in China. Dozens, probably hundreds, of lion cubs and elephant calves are being taken from their mothers, put in crates and shipped to China, and the only way we know about this is because of the tireless work of Johnny Rodrigues and the volunteers who work with him on the ground.
But Johnny has had a terrible year. Cheryl, his wife of 42 years died earlier this year, and apart from the emotional toll on his family, there has been the crippling cost of her hospital bills. Johnny fell ill while attending a Cecil the lion rally in Washington DC in July, and back in Zimbabwe there has been covert pressure on him over his campaign against the exportation of animals to Chinese zoos (and it's not just lions and elephants - giraffe, baboons, antelope, monkeys and many other species are on the list). Johnny has become their spokesman - without him they will not have a voice.
All of this has made it hard for his ZCTF work to continue. Without financial help Johnny will have to give up his conservation work, and that would be a disaster for the animals of Zimbabwe.
Running a service like the ZCTF takes a lot of time and money. There are the trucks and fuel needed to transport wounded or endangered animals, there is the feed for those animals, there are the vehicles needed to cover the vast area of north-west Zimbabwe in and around Hwange National Park to report on poaching and illegal removal of animals. You can't put a price on this work, but it does cost real money.
And that monetary cost is too much for one man and a small army of volunteers, no matter how dedicated they are.
We have to help.
All money raised will go towards animal conservation on the ground, from rescues to gathering information that will help inform the world of what is happening in Zimbabwe.
My name is Martin Sherrard and I have never met Johnny, but appreciate what he does and would not want that work to end.
The ZCTF website is at zctfofficialsite.org.
You will all have heard of Cecil the lion and how he was illegally killed by a 'hunter', but what you may not know is that if not for Johnny, you may never have heard Cecil's story.
It was Johnny who researched, verified and told the world that story that made headlines around the world.
I have followed Johnny's frequent email reports from the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force (ZCTF) for a decade now, awful stories of illegal hunting and poaching in the Hwange region of north-west Zimbabwe, from the poisoning of waterholes with cyanide to kill elephants for their tusks, to drunks shooting elephants with AK47s, and these crimes are often linked to government officials.
As a journalist in Australia, I have used the information he provided in those emails - it helped me to break the news of Cecil and to inform on conservation in southern Africa generally ... and more recently it has kept me informed on an even bigger threat to wildlife there: the government-sanctioned exportation of animals to zoos in China. Dozens, probably hundreds, of lion cubs and elephant calves are being taken from their mothers, put in crates and shipped to China, and the only way we know about this is because of the tireless work of Johnny Rodrigues and the volunteers who work with him on the ground.
But Johnny has had a terrible year. Cheryl, his wife of 42 years died earlier this year, and apart from the emotional toll on his family, there has been the crippling cost of her hospital bills. Johnny fell ill while attending a Cecil the lion rally in Washington DC in July, and back in Zimbabwe there has been covert pressure on him over his campaign against the exportation of animals to Chinese zoos (and it's not just lions and elephants - giraffe, baboons, antelope, monkeys and many other species are on the list). Johnny has become their spokesman - without him they will not have a voice.
All of this has made it hard for his ZCTF work to continue. Without financial help Johnny will have to give up his conservation work, and that would be a disaster for the animals of Zimbabwe.
Running a service like the ZCTF takes a lot of time and money. There are the trucks and fuel needed to transport wounded or endangered animals, there is the feed for those animals, there are the vehicles needed to cover the vast area of north-west Zimbabwe in and around Hwange National Park to report on poaching and illegal removal of animals. You can't put a price on this work, but it does cost real money.
And that monetary cost is too much for one man and a small army of volunteers, no matter how dedicated they are.
We have to help.
All money raised will go towards animal conservation on the ground, from rescues to gathering information that will help inform the world of what is happening in Zimbabwe.
My name is Martin Sherrard and I have never met Johnny, but appreciate what he does and would not want that work to end.
The ZCTF website is at zctfofficialsite.org.
Organizer
Martin Sherrard
Organizer
Cheltenham VIC
