ivory questions need help

Evan Martin

Evan Martin

Joined
Aug 6, 2007
Messages
521
I know there have been ivory treads in the past i don't remember a whole lot about them but I am pretty sure this one is new. I work at a taxidermy for the few that may not know what that is I mount dead things. Recently our flesher who visits many shops in the area asked if I could use elaphant ivory for some reason or another one of the shops he visits had some basically scrap ivory laying around which isn't uncommon in a shop where they do alot of african game more times than not they trim the bit off that is inside the animal because a form is not made to slide the entire tusk in the only bondo what will be shown to the form and discard the rest. I will be more than willing to bet it is not pre 76' or whatever year it is more than likely recent but brought back legally

sorry for the rambling do you think I will have problems or not. This man is willing to give me this ivory should i take it.

evan
 
hevy ev's said:
<< snip >> I will be more than willing to bet it is not pre 76' or whatever year it is more than likely recent but brought back legally
evan
Click to expand...

I think I'd want some sort of document showing the provenance of the ivory, especially if it were going to be transferred to somebody else later (as part of a finished knife or whatever.) IANAL and I have no idea what would be required legally but forewarned is forearmed.

rmd
 
I spoke with the guy who runs Boone Trading Company when I visited him. He buys and sells ivory of various types and has for years,. He said a few small pieces will not cause any problems. Manyy of those undocumented in circulation. But, if you have or aquire very much you had better start getting some documents. If you can show you got it from a legal source you should be ok.
 
Has anyone tried using camel bone?

Since ivory has gotten scarce Camel bone has been used for many carvings and such.
 
Get a receipt, showing , if possible, the hunter's license information issued by whatever country and the imort permit number for that elephant. That should cover your fanny. The receort is documentation, so even if it says gift, you are covered. There are a number of grace periods where ivory can be lawfully inported into the US. If you have the USFWS (US Fish and Wildlife Service) permit number for imporation, you are about as cleared as can be.

All it takes is one poorly trained or overzealous agent to create a problem for you.

Another source of vory that slips completely through the cracks is domestic elephant ivory. That's from animals held here in captivity, whether zoos, exotic gamebreeders licenses or whatever. Just have the paperwork.

Gene
retired game warden
 
Gene Martin said:
All it takes is one poorly trained or overzealous agent to create a problem for you.

Gene
retired game warden
Click to expand...
Or one with his own interest. I once met a guy who had done a lot of hunting and had legally taken a polar bear before that became impossible. He had the hide and it was made into a fantastic rug. He was raided by the some US wildlife goveernment branch. Can't remember exactly who. He went to court and proved it was legally his and then still had to wait and then finally go back to court and get a court order for its return. He found later it had been "kept" in some high officials den for the whole time. He had to spend a ton of time and his own money to keep his own rightful property.
 
having spent most of my life in tanzania and my father being one of the leading advocates of ivory bans, i think i would insist on seeing some documentation..... in fact i would raise alot of hell if i saw someone selling something that wasnt documented....... i have alot of ivory, but mine is all prior to 1971.....
 
Valleytinworks,

How do you document that ivory is prior to 1971? Is each piece that is cut from a &#8220;legal&#8221; tusk marked or numbered someway with that mark or number corresponding to a document of some sort? If the object, say a knife handle is made from &#8220;legal&#8221; ivory, how is that documented or established. If I can prove that I have had at sometime in the past some &#8220;legal&#8221; ivory, how do I establish that my knife handle or pistol grips or whatever is made from that particular ivory?

Bill
 
all ivory exported from legit sources in africa during any time prior to 1967 would have come with a customes sheet of some sort, this sheet would be photocopied with any splitting of sections of tusk, i would have to ask my father if any other documentation is needed.

i have six sets of tusk that i have in storage, i would never sell them due to my belief that any marketed ivory or sale of ivory would only reinforce the 'market' for such.....
 
I'm not sure if documentation is possible most shops around here are at each others throats the other taxidermist is a major competitor of ours if he knew it was going to me I would never see it my friend is doing this because he doesn't want to see it go to waste like the other stuff
 
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