Very sad - but it ends with a tiny bit of hope.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyl...sGO/story.html

By Elizabeth Marshall Thomas Globe Correspondent December 29, 2015

First third:

Hundreds of species are facing extinction due to human impacts on the environment. Among other factors, we can blame climate change and habitat destruction. But one of the most important threats to wildlife is almost completely ignored. In the Western world, the facts are too gruesome to attract publicity, and countries that promote the damaging practices don't see them as gruesome.

A few valiant scientists and science writers have tried to point this out, notably including Dale Peterson, the Arlington-based author of around a dozen books concerning wildlife. I read all of Peterson's work, and much of the information offered here is from his most recent book, "Where Have All the Animals Gone?"

They're gone because people ate them, mostly in Africa and Asia. Together with Karl Ammann, a Swiss wildlife photographer, Peterson traveled in these continents to observe and document the destruction. Their findings were so appalling that all publishers except one, Bauhan Publishing, rejected their work. So did environmentally involved publications such as National Geographic, believing their readers did not want to see a dismembered chimpanzee, or an elephant's trunk prepared for the table, cut into circular slices, or a bowl of wild animal soup with the animal's little paws floating in it. These photos were not taken in the homes of the poor, where food would be scarce and anything edible would be valued. These photos were taken in fancy hotels and restaurants...


(snip)


Lenona.