Venezuelans killing flamingos and anteaters to stave off hunger

[Independent voter]

Well let's hope things get better down there. The US is home to a couple million Venezuelan-Americans.

The lack of food has even earned its own nickname: “The Maduro Diet.”




http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/02...od-crisis.html


Venezuela’s food crisis has gotten so bad that people are apparently killing pink flamingos and other protected animals in order to stave off hunger.

While flamingo hunting is both illegal and uncommon in the South American nation, investigators from Zulia University in the northwestern Venezuelan city of Maracaibo have noted at least 20 cases of bird carcasses being discovered with their breasts and torsos removed.

And flamingos aren’t the only unusual animal to become a victim of Venezuela’s worsening food crisis. Remains of everything from dogs and cats to donkeys and even giant anteaters have been found in garbage bags at city dumps around the country.

“Sometimes we only find the animal’s heads, guts and legs. We used to see this very little in the past, but this practice is now out of control and on the rise,” Robert Linares, a Maracaibo waste disposal worker, told the Miami Herald. Linares added he recently found on the street the remains of a dog that had been skinned and dismembered.
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The once-wealthy oil producing nation has fallen on hard times since Nicolás Maduro took power following the death of socialist leader Hugo Chávez in 2013. A drop in global oil prices has crippled the country’s economy and Venezuela has been plagued with the worst inflation rate in the world, close to 700 per cent last year, according to International Monetary Fund.

The collapse of the country’s economy has made it difficult to import basic goods such as food and medicine, created acute shortages and stirred deep-seated anger toward Maduro. A recent study conducted by three universities found that in 2015 87 percent of Venezuelans didn’t have enough money to buy sufficient food for their families.

The lack of food has even earned its own nickname: “The Maduro Diet.”

“We find these killings grotesque, but how can we be critical of someone who hunts a pigeon, a dog, a cat or any animal because he or she is hungry?” Doris Rubio, CEO of the Venezuela-based Animal Protection Association, said to the Herald. “People used to hunt lizards for sport. Now they do it out of necessity.”
A baby giant anteater hides beneath its mother's tail in their enclosure at Chester Zoo, northern England October 21, 2011. The 11 week old baby is the first of the species to be reared at the zoo. REUTERS/Phil Noble (BRITAIN - Tags: ANIMALS ENVIRONMENT) - RTR2SYLC Expand / Contract

A baby giant anteater hides beneath its mother's tail in their enclosure. (Reuters)

Researchers in Venezuela warn that eating animals that are not raised for the purpose of consumption – whether that be a wild flamingo or a stray dog – is extremely dangerous to people’s health as they could possibly host bacteria and viruses that could be deadly.

“In France, they eat horses and in China they eat dogs and cats, but after being raised according to sanitary programs," Hugo Hernández, a veterinary sciences professor in University of Zulia, said. "In our country, these animals are being hunted in the wild or in the streets and cannot be consumed by humans."

In Venezuela, two pounds of sugar or corn flour cost about 7,800 bolivares, or $2 dollars, on the black market, while two pounds of good meat goes for about 10,000 bolivares. Adding these three items together results in a cost that is around half of the country’s official monthly minimum wage of 40,000 bolivares, or $11 dollars.

Besides killing “vulnerable” animals, many Venezuelans have taken to scavenging for discarded items of food to supplement their diet – a move that had previously only been done by the country’s homeless and mentally ill population.

Adding to the overall misery is a drastic rise in violent crime, especially in the capital city of Caracas, rolling blackouts and widespread and often times bloody protests against the government. There have been casualties and deaths on both sides of the protests and accusations from the international community of human rights abuses and political oppression.

“The pressure that Venezuelans face every day is tremendous because of all the uncertainty,” Sonia Schott, the former Washington, D.C., correspondent for Venezuelan news network Globovisión, told Fox News. “Nobody knows what will happen the next day.”

[Deleted]

Will people come along and claim them to be flamingo poachers so they should be shot like the posts in the in the rhino thread I wonder.

[shrunken]

I think we can all agree that Venezuelans are just starving for more Socialism.

[ParanoiD84]

Will people come along and claim them to be flamingo poachers so they should be shot like the posts in the in the rhino thread I wonder.

Yeah because it's completely the same, facepalm.

[Whitedragon]

I feel bad for the birds, but this isn't something that can be cured over night, so the best i can do is Pray for them and wish them all well (The people not the birds).

[khazmodan]

just like the Russian famine of 1932, after the communist revolution, the Venezuelans will soon be resorting to cannibalism...

[Trassk]

I watched a documentary recently about a trope of macaques in a forest in indonesia. Beautiful animals that keep to themselves, staying the forests. However, due to the growing population of people in the region, macaques are hunted, along with dozens of other animal species from the jungle, and sold in markets, for food, despite it being illegal, and so steadily wiping out the macaque population.

The more people there are in the world, the greater chance of it wiping out species. The sad part is that because in poorer countries that lack the money for agriculture, this is what will happen.

[Zogarth]

inb4 "SEE WHAT SOCIALISM DOES!"-people come.

[Jingoism]

I think we can all agree that Venezuelans are just starving for more Socialism.

They're sharing the wealth!

[Aeluron Lightsong]

inb4 "SEE WHAT SOCIALISM DOES!"-people come.

Right on queue to. They came out of the woodwork.

[shrunken]

They're sharing the wealth!

Pass the flamingo, comrade.

[Celista]

Socialism isn't what is relevant to what's happening in Venezuela, it is hyperinflation. There are plenty of socialist countries that do not have to deal with hyperinflation because their economic advisors took at least one intro-level economics course during college. Venezuela, however, is apparently not one of them.

[Theinquisition]

Socialism isn't what is relevant to what's happening in Venezuela, it is hyperinflation. There are plenty of socialist countries that do not have to deal with hyperinflation because their economic advisors took at least one intro-level economics course during college. Venezuela, however, is apparently not one of them.

apparently they went to the Bernie Sanders school of economics, when in doubt just say "the top 10% hold 90 % of the wealth" no matter the question.

OT...did anyone else see Sen. Cruz spank Bernie in the CNN debate? it was epic!

[Celista]

apparently they went to the Bernie Sanders school of economics, when in doubt just say "the top 10% hold 90 % of the wealth" no matter the question.

OT...did anyone else see Sen. Cruz spank Bernie in the CNN debate? it was epic!

Sounds better than the Donald Trump School of Economics, where we implement tariffs and blame illegals for our problems despite the well-established evidence of the implications of tariffs on economic growth and cost of goods in domestic markets. And ignore the fact that immigrants fuel our economic growth by taking jobs that Americans do not want.

And oh yeah, pissing off other countries enough to worry about trade wars will be really great for American consumers, I'm sure.

"Is a strong or weak dollar better for the economy?" Apparently Trump didn't attend any of his classes at Wharton, this is econ 101 shit.



OT: Did you see Elizabeth Warren school the entire Senate? It was epic!

[Sevyvia]

I think we can all agree that Venezuelans are just starving for more Socialism.

Indeed. The world just needs more of this, it always ends well.

[wowaccounttom]

you mean people are killing animals to eat them????!!!

NOOOOO........

[callipygoustp]

Flamingo... kind of like turkey. I liked it.

[Celista]

And? There are Americans who kill squirrels and eat road kill to stave off hunger.

I had a biology professor who did his dissertation work on squirrel physiology, by collecting roadkill off the side of the road. He went to the University of Alabama. Lol. Had this thick Southern drawl.

He was one of my favorite professors.

[the game]

There's a difference between poaching and hunting to survive.

[Osmeric]

There's a difference between poaching and hunting to survive.

And there's a difference between hunting to survive and hunting to provide.

In the US, to hunt deer for your personal consumption is also to provide a public service, helping keep over-abundant deer populations down.