Tuesday, February 10, 2009
IVORY SALE NOW LEGAL IN SOME COUNTRIES
It is now legal to sell some new ivory. Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe sold over 100 tons of elephant ivory to China and Japan to be used for jewelry and carvings. The United Nations sanctioned the sale because the ivory came from elephants that died of natural causes or were killed in a population-maintenance program. The money must go for conservation in Africa.
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11 comments:
That means they have been slaughtering entire families of elephants and then selling the traumatized babies or just leaving them there to die. How anyone with a conscience could buy new ivory I will never know. Shame on everyone involved.
I suppose this means that the number of elephants dying of "heart attacks" in those countries will now rise dramatically! As soon as something like this becomes legal, many loopholes will open up. It may be legal now, but it's not moral to further endanger the endangered species of the earth. Concerned Carol
The previous comment couldn't be further from the truth. Elephants populations have outgrown their available range in many areas of southern Africa. These excess numbers often cause significant ecological damage, plus elephants outside nature reserves destroy crops and threaten the safety of local people who are among the world's poorest. The harvest of elephants within appropriate quotas and the marketing of ivory and other products is a sustainable use--essential ultimately for the conservation of the species. The real shame lies on those who project their knee-jerk emotional reactions on people and circumstances about which they know very little.
Whether legal or not, the use or procuring of any elephant ivory endangers elephants: it encourages the "enjoyment" of elephant ivory which leads to a need for it gotten anywhere, anyhow. What is a natural cause of death? Starvation because of limited food supply due to human incursion or bad land management? Population Control? There is no population explosion, only elephants where people don't want them! Bad decision, bad UN!
If anyone believes these countries and the "very credible United Nations" then I'd like you to buy my original three nails from the Cross.
Products made from elephant ivory harvested after 1960 should never be allowed to be sold. And any company that does sell the product should be shunned by responsible collectors. This is necessary to prevent markets in this product, regardless of whether elephants
die of natural death or are intentionally destroyed. Any other
choice would lead to profit killing
of elephants.
Certainly the phrase "natural causes" is suspect, and does it include starvation due to human incursion or poor land management? There is also no population explosion, only elephants where people do not want them. Whatever happens to elephants, the ivory should not be a marketable product for this only increases ivory trade and results in the procurement of even more ivory
from anywhere, from any elephant, dead or alive.
Appalling. "Died of natural causes," eh? Sure they did. Who in their right mind could purchase ivory? I just don't understand that.... especially when the fake looks just like it.
Any sale of ivory encourages a market, thus creating an opportunity for all kinds of abuses. Humans have severely outgrown their available range on the entire planet. These excess numbers daily cause significant ecological damage, plus, humans outside reserves destroy other animal habitats and threaten the safety of all other animals on the planet. The harvest of people within appropriate quotas and the marketing of any useable product produced would greatly improve planetary sustainablity--essential ultimately for the conservation of the species. The real shame lies on those who don't recognize the truth of our situation.
POPULATION MAINTENANCE?? What do you suppose THAT means? How insane and terrible!
It is true that there is an over population of elephants in some areas that can not cope with their large grazing and water needs. It is also true that the "culling" methods involve destroying the entire herd or family of elephants, as they have such a tightly knitted society that the memory of the massacre would remain within the herd.
When I was in Botswana in 2004 I met two fellows visiting the national park from the UK who were there to study the large population of elephants just for this purpose. There were several thousand elephants inhabiting the park at that time and the threat was they would starve themselves out if allowed to continue to over populate the area.
The killings are a very unfortunate part of the long term picture to make sure the survivors have enough to eat. Unless there is a natural birth control, famine will take over and that is a very slow and painful death for all.
If the ivory is to be sold, let it be to help keep the surviving herds healthy and safe. There will undoubtly be poachers or others who want to make money out of unsavory methods, but that is true in most anything connected with monetary gain. The laws and law enforcers will need to be fine tuned and procurred to make this work.
There are programs that are supporting the young male orphaned elephants by training them to allow tourists to ride them. I rode on such an elephant and he was one of the fortunate ones who survived after his mother was killed, by means I do knot know. The ride was a safari/convoy around the park to observe other wildlife. We learned about the needs of the elephants and some of their behavior. The guides were each assigned to their own elephant and they also took care of their daily needs.
The killing of such a magnificient animal may never be fully justified, but it may be a lesser evil.
If we could control the human population, as it is their borders who are hindering many species from roaming their ancient territories, we may be able to allow the other species of animal life on this planet to roam a bit more free.
mmh
MD/USA
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