Every day I come across articles about people deciding which animals should be included in the Endangered Species List and which ones shouldn’t. What gives us the right to decide? 

Every species, and every individual animal, is part of an ecosystem at a micro and macro level, and needs our protection and stewardship. Humans systematically wiped out wolves in North America, only to reintroduce them to Yellowstone National Park once we became more “educated”. But the slaughter of wolves continues outside of our fake protective boundaries.

Why does anyone feel the need to hunt a wolf or a bear? Why do we need an Endangered Species Act when good old common sense is surely enough to realize that human beings are part of the same ecosystem that is constantly being raped by senseless and needless killing? Scarface, the famous Yellowstone grizzly bear No. 211, a favorite among wildlife watchers and photographers, who was immediately identifiable by the line of scars running along the right side of his face, was shot and killed in November 2015 because he dared to roam across the invisible human-declared boundary of a state park.

What about Canned Lion Hunting - a fast-growing business in South Africa - where thousands of fully-grown, captive-bred lions are taken from their tiny pens to an enclosed area. There, they wander aimlessly for hours, before being shot dead by some wealthy, foreign, trophy-hunter trying desperately to justify his or her pitiful existence while standing safely on the back of a truck.

There is so much more to this subject than one can express in a small section of a news feed.

I have decided to pay tribute to the innocent animals that share our planet through my paintings. “Stop the War on Wildlife“ will be my signature collection of oil paintings. They will be available for sale starting Fall 2020. I will be donating 15% of all sale proceeds to different organizations of my choice. The first in the series is “Amigos of the Rockies”, paying tribute to the meaningless slaughter of wolves around the world.