Government Bullies Mom & Pop Businesses Over Ivory
Your activism is why the federal government is taking its time publishing the regulation we expect will alter or revoke the Special Rule on African Elephants that allows pre-ban ivory to trade in the United States. Unfortunately, non-government organizations like the Humane Society of the United States and the Wildlife Conservation Society have been busy with a PR campaign against ivory. They are continuing to lobby both the federal government and many individual states for an ivory ban.
We are already seeing the results, and they are worse than expected. Agents from the New York Department of Environmental Conservation hit at least 2 vendors at the Pier Antique Show on November 22-23 in New York City.
The government has long maintained that they dont care about small time ivory owners. Instead, they want to catch and prosecute international criminal syndicates and terrorists to stop elephant poaching. So who were the kingpins that were busted in New York City?
Their first criminal mastermind was a lady of 72 years selling jewelry to supplement her Social Security income. Based in the Carolinas and in New York only for this show, the jewelry maker was stung by an undercover NYDEC agent who asked her questions about a necklace and earing set that she marked as containing beads from mammoth ivory. After freely identifying the ivory from long extinct animals, the NYDEC agent flashed his badge and others swooped in to search her entire collection. In total they seized two necklace/earing sets, a bracelet, a pin, and a set of earrings. She explained that she didnt know about the New York law, and that she bought the mammoth beads used to make jewelry at least 8 years ago. She made the other jewelry with scrap ivory that she had for much longer than the mammoth beads. The agents didnt care. The government seized $1400 worth of jewelry and issued a summons to appear i n court for violating the NY State Ivory Ban.
The second villain was a folk art dealer from New York. He also described NYDEC treating him like a drug dealer. His contraband a couple of sets of teethers crudely carved whale bone or ivory sticks made by sailors in the 1800s for babies to chew on when cutting their teeth. As with the senior citizen jeweler, agents seized what they believed to be ivory and issued the folk art dealer a summons to appear in court. He estimated the seized teethers to be worth about $250.00.
After the show, the folk art dealer and his wife contacted all of their elected officials to find out what they did wrong. His state representative warned him that he needs a lawyer because he faces a $5000 fine if convicted of dealing illegal ivory. When he asked about getting a license to sell ivory in accordance with New York law, he was advised that he could submit an application, but all of the applications to sell elephant ivory just sit in a pile on someones desk in Albany without further action.
This kind of government heavy-handedness is what we warned people about when the Presidents Advisory Council started talking about imposing an ivory ban in March 2013. Instead of going after Chinese smugglers and criminal syndicates, the government is persecuting the most vulnerable and least culpable citizens in zealous pursuit of ivory ban enforcement statistics. No living animal was helped by this, but innocent small businesses will be crushed.
Fight back now, before its too late.
Rob Mitchell
It's safe to say that you probably want to stay away from New York or New Jersey with knives that have what might look like ivory handles. I would say it's a good reason for everyone to stay away from New York and New Jersey knife shows.
