What do elephants, Vancouver-based actors, and Welsh soccer managers all have in common?
They’re all on the same team. The ‘Poach Eggs, Not Elephants’ team.
‘Poach Eggs, Not Elephants’ is a campaign launched by actor Paul Blackthorne who is best known for his work on Vancouver-shot TV show Arrow. The weeklong campaign, which is now in its second year; aims to raise awareness for the planet’s rapidly diminishing elephant population, which is being hunted to the point of extinction by poachers.
To help raise awareness of the animals’ plight Blackthorne called upon Vancouver celebrities, including his close friend and Whitecaps FC head coach Carl Robinson, to show their support.
Robinson, along with Welsh footballers, Aaron Ramsey and Joe Ledley, have all donned charitable 'Poach Eggs, Not Elephants' t-shirts, which are being sold to help support anti-poaching initiatives.
“It's great to get involved with a charity like this and help as much as possible, Paul is doing a fantastic job of raising awareness to this terrible situation,” said Robinson. “To hear that 96 elephants a day are being murdered by poachers is horrific. We will have no wild elephants anywhere in the world in just 11 years time. It needs to be stopped.”
Robbo’s T-shirt is one of 5,000 the campaign has produced in order to raise funds for the Lindbergh Foundation – part of the Air Shepherd initiaitive – with the purpose of improving technology to benefit the ecosystem and environment, all in an effort to put an end to poaching in Africa.
The campaign has sold more than 3,250 shirts so far, and ‘Caps fans who want to show their support can buy their own up until August 16th.