Yesterday US officials took a stand against the illicit ivory trade. Their message was clear as one ton of elephant ivory was crushed in the middle of Times Square. The ivory was turned to powder as a massive rock crusher destroyed thousands of carvings, statues, and raw elephant tusks. Lawmakers, wildlife officials, conservationists and supporters all attended this important and moving rally. Check out the video after the jump.
Elephant poaching has reached an alarming rate, nearly doubling since 2007. A rate so alarming that elephants population is reducing rapidly especially in countries like Africa. According the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which organized the Times Square crushing “Elephant poaching is at its highest level in decades and now exceeds the species’ reproductive potential.”
A majority of the ivory crushed on Friday was seized during nationwide undercover operations. This included ivory confiscated from a Philadelphia art dealer who smuggled the African elephant ivory into the United States.
The United States is one of the world’s largest consumers of ivory and other illegal wildlife products.
The president of the Wildlife Conservation Society Cristian Samper said, “Today, we are not just crushing illegally poached ivory; we are crushing the bloody ivory market,” he continued “We are crushing any hopes by the poachers that they will profit by killing off our Earth’s majestic elephants. Criminals, take notice.”
About 35,000 elephants are poached annually as the demand for ivory grows. This is not the first ivory crush to take place in the US. In 2013, the United States crushed six tons of ivory in Denver. Other nations have made the similar statements to bring awareness to the growing problem, including the Philippines, Kenya and Gabon.
Source ABC
