Fifteen elephants are dead in southern Kenya, and at least ten of them
spent their final hours in partial paralysis before their bodies gave out. Autopsy results found traces of cyanide, a poison so fast-acting that an elephant who ingests it has no more than a day or two to live.
These elephants are highly endangered.
Every elephant life lost is not just a gutting tragedy for that elephant and its herd; it is a threat to the entire population.Sign the petition demanding a full, transparent investigation into these deaths and immediate emergency protections to stop more elephants from dying the same way.The elephants died in and around the Kimana sanctuary and Kuku Group ranch near Amboseli National Park.
1,600 elephants call this region home, meaning
we must act quickly before more elephants are killed!When wildlife veterinarians examined one of the dead elephants, they found its stomach full of tomatoes, a strong sign that the animal had eaten from a farm treated with a cyanide-based pesticide. Stopping this poison from reaching the mouths of vulnerable elephants is of the utmost importance, which means investigating all potential scenarios. While this cyanide-based pesticide is used by farmers to control predators and pests, it has also been linked to
intentional poisonings against wildlife – by both poachers so that they can harvest their body parts, and by farmers in retaliation when wildlife eat or destroy their crops.
And the danger doesn't end with elephants. Goats and cattle graze the same land where these elephants died, and wildlife officials have already warned that livestock could be poisoned next,
putting the health of local herds and the people who depend on them at risk too.Amboseli's elephants are among the best-protected in Africa, the product of decades of community conservation work that has all but ended poaching in the region. A cluster of deaths like this hasn't happened there in years, and without a clear accounting of how this poison entered the food chain,
it will happen again.An investigation alone won't keep the next herd safe. Kenya needs emergency measures now, tighter controls on cyanide-based pesticides near protected wildlife areas, monitoring of farms bordering the park, and support for farmers so they have safer alternatives to a chemical this lethal.
Sign the petition and tell Kenya Wildlife Service and the Kenyan government to fully investigate these elephant deaths and put emergency protections in place before more elephants, livestock, or people are harmed. 