by Astrid Mitchell
US-based animal rights activist Konrad Juengling has launched an important campaign.
Juengling is fighting to save Grenada’s endangered species. He is particularly concerned about the tiny Eleutherodactylus euphronides frog. This frog is only found in Grenada. It lives in the rainforests on the island’s central mountainous spine.
Juengling is no stranger to animal rights activism. He protested the Ringling Brothers Circus in 2012 when they went to the Rose Garden in Portland, Oregon. Juengling has also campaigned to end the sale of foie gras online. And, he fought to outlaw imports from trophy hunting into the United States. He is one of the official supporters of Million Dollar Vegan. This campaign is to get high-profile celebrities, including the Pope, to go vegan for Lent.
In December 2013, Juengling petitioned the Idaho Senate and House of Representatives. He sought to ban the sale, distribution and transporting of shark fins within that state. Now Juengling intends to petition the Grenada Parliament. He has already started a Care2 campaign, https://www.thepetitionsite.com/886/811/399/protect-endangered-animals-in-grenada/.
Once that campaign gets 1,000 signatures, he will approach our parliament. The campaign is already near the halfway mark, with signatories from all over the globe. People from as far away as Poland are rallying behind the cause, and from New Zealand, Sweden, and Chile.
Juengling has already reached out to the Grenada Tourism Authority. He has encouraged that body to consider the concept of “ethical tourism.” Grenada has reopened its borders following the Covid-19 shutdown. Tourists are trickling in. Juengling is positing the country can benefit from a law protecting endangered species.
“Enacting endangered species legislation will help Grenada be more eco-conscious. It will also help people who practice ethical tourism to feel comfortable visiting,” says Juengling. “Voting to pass this legislation will show a commitment to Grenada’s biodiversity, longevity, and unique animals.”
With ethical tourism on the rise, so is public support for endangered species. A University of Michigan study found “…species conservation is of greater concern than other issues and attitudes that have become associated with the concept of environmentalism.” Grenada has a law focusing on the mistreatment of domestic animals. At present, the country does not have anything on the law books to protect endangered species.
Grenada has varied and fascinating wildlife. The rare 9-banded armadillo (known to locals as tatou) lives here. Feral goats roam the countryside. The Grand Etang Rainforest is home to bright green iguanas and mona monkeys. On Frigate Island, near Carriacou, you will find red-legged tortoises. Known to locals as morrocoy, these tortoises also live on the mainland, and sometimes appear in peoples’ gardens.
Grenada has several animals on the endangered list, including quite a few fish species, such as great white and hammerhead sharks. It also includes 11 different species of coral and 9 birds. Among the birds are the brown pelican (known to locals as grand gougier, found in Carriacou). The Grenada Dove, which is the island’s national bird, is also endangered.
In 2014, the Ministry of Agriculture submitted endangered animals to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) for consideration. This list included Robinson’s mouse opossum (manicou), the tree boa (serpent), and the cribo. The IUCN lists the mona monkey as near-threatened.
The leatherback, which is the largest of the marine turtles, is a frequent visitor to Grenada. These turtles travel 10,000 miles every year to feed and mate. This critically endangered species has a nesting site on Levera Beach, at the north of the island. Grenada is home to other endangered turtles such as the loggerhead, green, and hawksbill species.
We must protect Grenada’s endangered species. If Juengling is successful, not only the endangered animals will benefit. It will enhance our tourism product, and thus the people of Grenada stand to benefit as well.
Oh come on my people get real, open your eyes and see what’s really taking place in this once beautiful island . it is high time to stop politicizing every thing and see things for what they really are.
If the current trend, related to the destruction of wet lands, forest ,over fishing and hunting is permitted to continue at its current rate we would one day wake up and discover, that the island has environmentally collapsed. Unfortunately by then it will be too late to do something about it, so please let up as a people unite to save this beautiful land of ours.
yes tell the poor people with their so called hunting and mass cruelty killing traditions to stop. has nothing to do with tourism.
Since you are so quick to point out that most of us are poor in your edit, then also perhaps you can include reccomendations to the government to bargain and negotiate for a better wage packet for the island’s poor national since they give so much away to the foreign investors that are so wanting to come here like 20 years duty free concession, and yet for all the basic wages is still in the plantation era, can we please be reminded that service charge is not your basic pay, your basic pay should be decent enough to sustain your needs. No grenadian in the hospitality industry should be working for less than $6 an hour to start being on your feet 8 plus hours a day,
The poor souls as you so valiantly pointed out are the ENDANGERED SPECIES , secure better wages and then perhaps we can impart the value of our species and their conservation of habitat to our people
Remember the hunting of wildlife is also a part of our tradition which we need to observe carefully and do what must be done to preserve both.
Take a walk up to the ministerial complex in tanteen on your way up you will encounter a large lion head that use to be the top of a water fountain to quench your thirst at the zoo, perhaps a significant start to assist the populace and investors with understanding how much we value our diverse wild life flora and fauna is to bring back the Botanical gardens and zoo like we had in the 70s
Our island is far too beautiful to not have one to show what we can be so proud of, the children would love it I am sure and it will give a respite from modern technology and hopefully bring back a degree of valued family time.
In fact it is not the foreign investors that get everything but the poor. What do you expect. What about the Housing Projects, Book Programs and Free school lunched for the poor is not a big package. The poorer population of Grenada takes up a huge ammount of tax and concessions from the Government. Kieth Mitchell like poor people so much so what do you expect. Foreign investors get nothing but the poor gets all of the money donations and hand outs. So much is given away to the poor. And no one should be working for more than $6 a day because China started out with cheap labor of $3 a day and the minimum Fast food worker in america makes a $7.45 an hour. What do you expect. Grenadians wouldnt be payed at all because they are so lazy and never do the work correctly. Every grenadian needs a decent amount to sustain their needs but they are not willing to work for it. why you think the country has such a high poverty rate.
Last night I saw three men hunting in the St. Georges area for my friends and pet iguanas around 2 am in the morning. Cmon! Hunting is more dangerous than you think. I mistook them for Robbers or thieves. Hunting is not safe at all and it is a tradition in Grenada that will make animals go extinct.
IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH HOTELS AND THAT IS PERIOD. IT HAS TO DO WITH THE WAY GRENDIANS CARRY ON SUCH A CRUEL TRADITION TOWARDS THE HUNTING OF ANIMALS SUCH AS IGUANAS, CRAB, MONKEYS AND FROGS. Please stop blaming the Foreigners for everything. Grenada needs for investment for the Development of the country. No other country developed itself without foreign investment so please. it has nothing to do with Hotel Projects. We are the reasons why animals are starting to go extinct in Grenada because we hunt too much. We need more hotel projects in Grenada to develop the country out of Poverty. We can’t have democracy taking down tourism. Successful countries like Singapore and China has no democracy. We can’t let small minded people put an end to tourism. Agriculture can’t pay for a single mile of Asphalt pavement. That’s why our country is so bad so let’s allow foreign investment.
We Need To Stop Being Lazy. How incredibly reductive and small minded of you. You speak of Singapore and China, yet see hotels as a solution to lack to development? Are you mad? I’ve been reading your comments for a while now (based on your ludicrous usage of bad grammar, all-caps and lack of punctuation of other things. These alone tell me that you aren’t savvy enough to understand the bigger picture. The world is about to be locked down again. You think empty hotels/tourism will solve our problems in Grenada? Please research how small, successful countries like Singapore became that way before you start spewing this narrow, ignorant viewpoint to the world.
Grenada has closed season on a number of small animals, like sea turtles, lobster and conch / lambi. Without anyone to enforce the Laws they continue to be a farce. No one on Grenada gives a crap how much they take from nature. When the closed seasons are pointed out the local response if that the closed only applies to Tourists no locals. Tourists don’t shoot, kill and eat Mona Monkey, Manicou, Iguana. Open your eyes and realize there is GREAT VALUE in your tropical forest, NATURAL wonders and small animals that excite the Tourists when they are fortunate enough to actually see them. Locals tell me of all of the poaching that goes on year round. No one cares that your nature is being sold off to the Chinese and others who don’t give a damn that areas are protected. You have better tourism with respect and protection of your natural world than another stinking concrete frigging hotel that causes destruction. Wake up!!
Most people do not know why we need wildlife and what they bring to the forest and the Environment. Look it up you will be surprise. Grenada needs to bring wildlife back to where they were 50yrs ago.
We can’t care for the Environment without caring for wildlife.
Chad Chen. You are so uneducated. Please stop posting your idiotic comments. The land is overdeveloped already!
Well said. Chad should back to where he came from since we he serves no constructive function on our island.
He should remember that he is a guest and should conduct himself like a guest.
Every year, the list of “rare wildlife” and “endangered species” in Grenada grows longer.
Grenadians should know that the protection of wildlife and marine vegetation can certainly make money (“ecotourism”), but it also costs money. It can cost more than it can make, and at the rate we are going, visiting environmentalists would have most of the island turned into national parks, wetland conservation zones, and other Nature reserves
This is getting ridiculous. Grenada is the most densely populated island of the Windwards group, and the second most densely populated island in all of the English-speaking Caribbean. Most of its people are poor, so it is questionable to allocate more and more land to wildlife and wetland conservation.
A reasonable balance should be struck between land devoted to economic development — so that living standards can be improved — and land reserved for Nature’s plants and animals. Given the increasing influence of environmental zealots, we may be making decisions that are against the welfare of the Grenadian people.
Chad Chen! Densely populated !! I would say not. Grenada’s population is 100, 000 and going down as we speak!!
Definitely not China!
And in this times of worldwide economic reassesment and climate change rampant development that involves tourism will prove to be anathema to any country considering that path. Now agro industries on the other hand…you definitely cannot go wrong there. For rather than depending on little handouts from countries like China while the populace remains poor and payouts are huge these smaller countries can hope to keep afloat from what is coming. You sound critical and your name is Chen…you might be an Asian or not!! But poverty is not a crime it is a condition. Keeping men in poverty by raiding what they have is the crime. Blessings.
Grenada is densely populated and he is right. Really when you think about it the poorer hunting population lives more inland and are the innermost habitants of the island while the Foreigners and Richer ones live more to the Outlands near the Coast. Really when you think about it you will see that the poorer population carries on a careless act of Hunting towards wildlife. Grenada is bigger than you think. Try driving the backroads of St. Andrews and St. John. You will see a village or a small community ever couple miles. The population might be small but is spread out. You just support poverty and that is it. No wonder why Grenada is still a poor third world country with small minded people like you. The world is ahead of us because they want to get out of Poverty but Grenadians want to stay in Poverty for handouts.
What about mongooses and iguanas? There are people hunting at Woodlands, St. George’s at nights – around 10pm – 1:30pm using rifle and flashlinght and nobody does something about it. Is there any authority in charge?
The first thing to do is stop hunting and eating Mona monkeys. We recently lost a young one who was visiting our farm as it was shot by hunters!