endangered animals - introduction

photos found on http://www.arttoday.com and disk: Classroom Clips by Creative Pursuits

As we are entertained by mankind defeating King Kong, the same is happening in many forests of Africa. Gorillas are slaughtered every day for many reasons. Deforestation, logging, and farming wipe out their habitats. Some gorillas are killed for souvenirs. Tamers take them away from their home and try to train them. Gorillas also eat some poisonous plants, which can harm them. If the gorillas are gone, it will be a very dull world. To loose them would mean disturbing the ecosystem.
Why destroy our closest relatives? To help save them, we could raise money into building up there habitats, we could construct an adopt a gorilla program and we could en force harsher laws against poaching. By raising money to build up their habitat, it will help many other species besides gorillas. This solution would really help the gorilla by protecting what habitat it has now and making it larger.
What we would do is send out flyers with an envelope inside of it. You would send donations for a certain amount of time and it would be split in half. Part of it would be used to buy tools and trees and such. The other part of it would be used to save what forest there is already. Unfortunately, it would be hard to reproduce the rain forest because rain forests are very complex.
Another downside is just by building up the rain forest will not stop the poachers. Another way to stop the loss of gorillas is to construct an adopt a gorilla program. This would be advertised on the television with an address to write to. We would send the people who wrote us an information packet explaining the whole idea. If you give a small amount of money each month, we would tag a gorilla just for you. The money would go to make sure it has a place to live and something to eat. You would get an update each month with pictures and a letter telling you how your gorilla is doing. Hopefully, it will save a lot of gorillas.
Besides constructing programs, we could enforce harsher laws against illegal poaching. We would hire more guards to be in the African jungles to protect the gorillas. The guards would wear camouflage so the poachers couldn't see them. Just like a speed trap, the guard would jump out and surprise the poacher. Then we would enforce harsher punishments. The poachers would be confronted in court and if found guilty perhaps, get the death penalty. Of coarse, all of the poachers would not be caught, but lessening their numbers would help gorillas.
I feel that the most effective solution would be to start an adopt a gorilla program. I feel that way because more and more people would want to adopt a gorilla. Then more and more gorillas would be tagged and that would give them a chance to reproduce. Because of the monthly update, the kids would want to adopt a gorilla. There would be a lot of interesting pictures of their gorilla and they could read the letter to see how their gorilla is doing. It would be a very fun learning experience. If the children tell their parents, then they might adopt a gorilla for them. Are you going to let an entire race of gorillas die?

Nederlandse vertaling volgt z.s.m.

(Dutch translation follows asap)

Written by

Jennifer O.

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