Ivory to be destroyed

They should sell the ivory and use the money to fight poachers.
 
Phillip Patton said:
They should sell the ivory and use the money to fight poachers.
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Exactly correct. I read a study years ago, comparing elephant populations in different countries in Africa. In the country that allowed hunting and turned it into a legal and profitable venture, the cash that they brought in from hunting lottery permits and the cost of the hunts etc. gave the country enough money to really protect the herds, and the herds flourished. In the country where it was banned, the poachers just decimated the herds, and the country had no financial ability to stop it. Bottom line, if you allow the market to exist, they will be raising them like cows are here. No chance that they will go extinct here.
 
I had seen this type of public ivory destruction on TV... had the same reaction then.

This was an ivory burn done in Gabon---

BURNING-IVORY.jpg


They said that pile of tusks would have required killing ~850 elephants. It just strikes me as adding insult to injury...the animals have already been slaughtered, but there's NOTHING positive they can do with the ivory??? :confused:
 
There was an article about this in National Geographic recently. The argument for destroying it is that: As long as there is "Legal" Ivory there will be poachers trying to pass off their stuff as legal. If it is all illegal then there is no legal market and all sell or buy it are punishable. The article cites that the explosion in demand in countries like China, while based on a "legal trade" is ultimately causing a increase in poaching.
 
DavidZ said:
Exactly correct. I read a study years ago, comparing elephant populations in different countries in Africa. In the country that allowed hunting and turned it into a legal and profitable venture, the cash that they brought in from hunting lottery permits and the cost of the hunts etc. gave the country enough money to really protect the herds, and the herds flourished. In the country where it was banned, the poachers just decimated the herds, and the country had no financial ability to stop it. Bottom line, if you allow the market to exist, they will be raising them like cows are here. No chance that they will go extinct here.
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Its just ridiculous that these animals will be extinct in our life times just for their teeth.
Some of the countries are using eco-tourism to see the big five to build local industry that the people there can make money off of.

As far as Rhino's go, I support a full ban on any hunting because there are just too few left.
The elephants are on the decline and I think No ivory sales and eco-tourism is the only way to go long term.

Also when the local people have a livelihood from showing and protecting the big five. They will do so. When an elephant is just a large animal that can destroy your entire harvest of food in a few seconds. Why should they local farmers care what happens to them?

The BEST way to end poaching is to shoot the poachers! One of two countries did it and it worked! Then all the bleeding hearts complained that they were just poor people etc.. So the stopped and pouching came back.
 
What is crazy is there will ALWAYS be legal ivory. So they might as well sell this stuff to use to fight poachers. Poachers already did not gain from it.
 
No one loves ivory more than I do, and it hurts to se that lovely stuff destroyed. BUT....

The poaching has gotten out of hand in Africa. Why???, not because American and European knifemakers make some knives with ivory handles, and not because Steinway sells a lot of nice pianos....but because the Chinese nouveau riche want ivory to prove they are wealthy. They will pay any price, no matter how ridiculous, and don't care about elephants in Africa. There are dozens of customers in China for every single piece of ivory available for sale. Antique Chinese ivory art work in the USA and Europe is often purchased legally here, and smuggled back into China where it brings ten times the US value.

So, the confiscated raw ivory in Africa is burned and the contraband carvings in the USA are crushed and destroyed.

The theory is that if they create a market for this contraband by selling it, it will just create more customers. This will drive up the demand...and the price. Since the supply is low, and many who want these carvings don't care if it is poached or not, the sales will encourage the poachers. The saddest part is that the poachers get almost no jail time, and are usually just let go when caught. Corruption is so bad in many places, that the confiscated ivory sales would just make the fat cats in the government richer. In some cases, they are already part of the illegal ivory trade.

Burning the ivory is a very public way to permanently get it off the market. It also sends a visceral message to the consumers that this is really bad stuff. The social taint of ivory may decrease the demand, and thus remove the reason for the poaching. As Yao Ming says in his great commercials aimed at the Chinese market...."When the buying stops, the killing stops, too."
http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt...i+ivory+commercial+video&fr2=sb-top&fr=mcafee
Yao Ming Blocks Bullet is my favorite.
 
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