Ivory Sales Banned in U.S. as 35,000 Elephants Die Each Year

[ErikJ]

Source: Bloomberg

The U.S. will ban interstate sales of elephant ivory, a move aimed at cracking down on global wildlife trafficking that puts endangered species at risk, the Obama administration said today.

Imports of ivory to the U.S. were outlawed more than 20 years ago, and the new rules allow only limited exceptions for sales of antiques brought into the U.S. before the prohibition, according to a White House statement. Obama administration officials cited increased worldwide trade in elephant tusks and rhinoceros horns as they announced the ban.

“Record high demand for wildlife products, coupled with inadequate preventative measures and weak institutions, has resulted in an explosion of illicit trade in wildlife in recent years, with the increasing involvement of organized transnational criminal syndicates,” Associate Attorney General Tony West said today in an e-mailed statement.

President Barack Obama’s administration acted in advance of the London Conference on the Illegal Wildlife Trade, which starts tomorrow. Poaching claims about 35,000 elephants per year worldwide and took the lives of 1,000 rhinoceroses in South Africa last year alone.

At $45,000 per pound, rhino horn is worth $2,812.50 per ounce. That’s more than the $1,290.60 per ounce price for gold futures for April delivery at 3:39 p.m. on the Comex in New York.

Read more: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-02-11/ivory-sales-banned-in-u-dot-s-dot-as-35-000-elephants-die-each-year

---

Thankyou Pres. Obama!
More info. http://worldwildlife.org/stories/us-announces-ambitious-strategy-to-tackle-wildlife-crime?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=wwf-marketing&utm_campaign=wwf-marketing&utm_content=140211
?1372449779

[JI7]

1. they have been working really hard to try to put an end to this

[ErikJ]

4. Obama sounds serious.

"Record high demand for wildlife products, coupled with inadequate preventative measures and weak institutions, has resulted in an explosion of illicit trade in wildlife in recent years," President Obama said in a letter accompanying the new National Strategy to Combat Wildlife Trafficking.
"The entire world has a stake in protecting the world's iconic animals, and the United States is strongly committed to meeting its obligation," he wrote.
The U.S. is one of the world's largest markets for illicit animal parts, officials said. Much of the ivory, rhino horn and other animal parts end up in Asia, but they are often processed in the U.S.


http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-elephant-ivory-20140212,0,7418233.story#ixzz2t56PFSBm

[red dog 1]

7. thanks for the link.

[mountain grammy]

2. A good step, anything to help stop the slaughter.

[onehandle]

3. 99% of ivory ends up in fake boner pills and on mantles in Asia. nt

[ErikJ]

6. Rhino horn is for the fake boner pills which is also

putting the rhino in grave danger. You'd think Viagra would put an end to that. It seems the faster the Chinese middle class grows the higher the demand for rhino and elephant parts.

[onehandle]

27. It's a 16th Century society with 21st Century money. nt

[losangeleslibker]

29. This is so sad and disturbing

I went to Tanzania a few years ago as teenager. When my tour land cruiser and other groups were parked and eating lunch somewhere in the Serengeti I saw this beautiful male elephant. It was huge maybe 5-7 tons and was literally just a couple hundred feet away. It's so sad that thousands of these magnificent creatures are killed every year just for bullshit medicine and other ridiculous things.

[Behind the Aegis]

5. 35,000?!?!

That is almost the number of people in my town!

[red dog 1]

8. K&R Thanks for posting...

...and thank you President Obama.

[pipoman]

9. Not following what has changed?

Imports of ivory to the U.S. were outlawed more than 20 years ago, and the new rules allow only limited exceptions for sales of antiques brought into the U.S. before the prohibition, according to a White House statement. Obama administration officials cited increased worldwide trade in elephant tusks and rhinoceros horns as they announced the ban.

Did they outlaw importing antique ivory?

[ErikJ]

10. LA Times gives more detail

Under the existing system, ivory cannot be imported unless it is an antique. Commercial objects made before 1976 and antiques can be exported, and domestic sales are essentially unregulated.
The new measures also will ban the import of antique African elephant ivory and all exports, except antiques.

The administration will ban the resale of elephant ivory across state lines, except antiques. Sales within a state will be prohibited unless the seller can demonstrate an item was lawfully imported before 1990 for African elephants and 1975 for Asian elephants. People can still own ivory and pass heirlooms to descendants, officials said.
Exceptions to the current rules have allowed trade in ivory to flourish in the United States, environmentalists said.
"Because we have an antiquities exemption, everything becomes an antique," said a senior administration official who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak for his agency.

To qualify as an antique under the new measures, an item must be more than 100 years old and meet other requirements under the Endangered Species Act, criteria that sellers will have to demonstrate.
The biggest change will be that law enforcement will no longer have to prove that ivory it seized was illicitly acquired. Owners now have the burden of proof to show they legally obtained it. If they imported it before 1990, for example, they will need to produce export permits from the country of origin and a U.S. import permit.


http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-elephant-ivory-20140212,0,7418233.story#ixzz2t5ANRRu6
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The national strategy will focus on three key areas:

--Strengthening enforcement and mobilizing new federal agencies in the fight to stop wildlife crime, such as money-laundering authorities and intelligence experts;

--Reducing consumer demand for illegally traded wildlife; and

--Building international cooperation, commitment and public-private partnerships

It highlights the immediate crisis facing elephants and rhinos, while also calling important attention to lower-profile but equally exploited species such as pangolins, tunas, corals and tarantulas.

http://worldwildlife.org/stories/us-announces-ambitious-strategy-to-tackle-wildlife-crime

[pipoman]

24. eliminating the antiquities exemption is a stupid

feel good measure, imo. This will effect more than people realize in the antiquities world. From antique pianos to buttons on Victorian clothing...inlaid Georgian furniture to carpenters rulers. .nonsense it is..

Of course I abhor trade in new ivory, but there are countless applications used throughout history that are historically significant and should be exempted.

[Archae]

11. I know I sound pessimistic...

But I think the elephant is headed for extinction, especially African ones.

The ivory trade, and encroachment by population growth is dooming them.

We can advocate against this, but it still is happening.

[Doremus]

22. I've seen estimates that predict wild elephants will cease to exist within 20 years. n/t

[yuiyoshida]

12. They may have to crack down on shops in Chinatown

I always see lots of ivory carved items, including whole tusks that have been carved out, selling for ... well lets just say, a lot of money.

[ErikJ]

13. Which Chinatown? San Francisco?

[yuiyoshida]

15. All of them, however

the photo was taken in SF Chinatown.

[ErikJ]

16. If I find those in our Chinatown I will confront them

with some "info".

[yuiyoshida]

17. You probably won't have to...

I am sure the feds already know about it, if not the State.

[MADem]

19. That looks synthetic to me....

There's nothing wrong with synthetic or "vegan" ivory; so long as people know what they are getting. It's quite deocorative, can be very artistic, and of course it is guilt free.

[yuiyoshida]

20. I have seen that very item in the window in Chinatown...

I wish it was synthetic ... but its clearly marked as ivory. When I saw that it came from an Elephant some where in Thailand (Thailand label), I was appalled. They tend to take care of their elephants, not kills them for ivory.

[MADem]

21. Of course there's no way to tell from a picture, but it is very common for items marked as ivory to

be hippo or some other bone, or synthetic resins (sometimes mixed with assorted bone) or tagua--which is also called "vegetable ivory." Retailers will lie, and they'll do it with a smile.

You'd have to do a pin test to figure out if it was real or not. A red-hot pin will sink into a resin item; if it smells like a root canal at the dentist, it's ivory (or mammoth, but that's quite rare).

[yuiyoshida]

28. I don't really think its fake.

Even people in Chinatown have some integrity.

[MADem]

31. Well, the stuff in the windows is for tourists.

And there is such a thing as "vegetable ivory." It's ivory--just not off the tusk of an elephant.

If that were real, it would be a ripe item for a smash-and-grab.

[yuiyoshida]

32. No one would smash and grab during the day

Without a dozen people seeing it... Chinatown is a tourist section that is mobbed and crowed ...and people would see someone coming with a baseball bat. As for night time, strong iron cage like fences come down over the glass. No one is going to get to it. The windows probably have alarms as well. Things are pretty safe in Chinatown and no one dare rob any thing..

[MADem]

33. Those cages are bolted to the ground! The way they get "broken into" is with a crowbar!

Your everyday (or every night) thief just crowbars up the locks and raises the fence. By the time the alarm is ringing the prize is in a sack and in a car and gone!

It could be real, but I get the sense it's a "replica piece." Made out of synthetic or vegetable "ivory" or maybe a combo. Or maybe even walrus tusk... The workmanship is likely real (not a laser cut thing) and it's probably not cheap even if it didn't come off an elephant.

Samples:


This is plastic.


Blocks of bone carved to resemble ivory.


Cow bone....

http://www.realorrepro.com/article/Ivory-genuine-fake--confusing

Walrus tusk:



More views here: http://www.sellingantiques.co.uk/114408/wonderfully-carved-19th-century-chinese-walrus-tusk-carving/

[yuiyoshida]

34. I am pretty sure its real ivory..

I am sure it had a tag saying so. I guess the only way to know is to go down to Chinatown and find out. Next time you are in San Francisco, visit Chinatown, you can check for yourself.

[tofuandbeer]

14. Awesome!!!!

[Judi Lynn]

18. Not a moment too soon. Thank you. n/t

[CFLDem]

23. Wow 35k per year

I'm amazed they haven't gone extinct already.

[liberalla]

25. 35,000 Elephants a year? I had no idea the number was that high

The cruelty, greed, selfishness and stupidity is astounding. I'm just stunned and so sad.

What the hell is wrong with us?

[zazen]

26. I wish we could offer a 35k bounty for each proven elephant & rhino murderer

but people would start turning in innocents, like in Afghanistan.

[Xithras]

30. I own an ivory piece covered by this.

I inherited a beautiful chess set from my grandfather that was made out of elephant ivory in the 1930's or 1940's. While the new law destroys its value and completely blocks my ability to sell it, I have absolutely no problem with its impact (California law already prohibits me from selling it in the state, and the new regulations block me from selling it out of state, so I'm now legally limited to GIVING it away). We need to do everything we can to block the ongoing slaughter of these magnificent animals, and if the price of that protection is the devaluation of a few antiques, then its a price we need to pay. It's certainly one I'm willing to pay.