Illegal ivory trade continues within U.S. borders

Poaching; to steal life from another to gain profit for yourself. Selling vital animal body parts to earn enough money to drape yourself in the fur of others. These definitions are more descriptive of the underground organization that occurs.

Greed is the underlying cause.

Greed causes the hunters to kill.

Poaching can not be done by just one individual. The process is like a pyramid, from the dirty poachers who actually do the slaughtering, to the “boss” of the corporation covered in animal prints, who holds an ivory scepter.

A lot of ideas have been thought of to stop poaching, most recently being the staining of an elephant’s ivory tusks with paints.

Coloring the tusks does minimize the risk of the animal being poached but it does not fully eliminate the risk of an animal being killed for other reasons. For example, poachers ironically posted a picture of a knocked out elephant covered in splatters of pink paint.

But the pictures of an elephant with pink stained ivory tusks turned out to be manipulated along with the pictures of an elephant being drugged and then covered in paint. But just because the pictures are fake does not mean that the solutions are invalid.

If the tusks were to be colored, it could not be done by physically painting the tusks. And delivering the dye into the animal’s system is a whole other story. Animal activists have been discussing the idea of lacing fruit with dye but have not tried the actual experiment.

I am an animal’s rights activist and I became more influenced to help wildlife when I visited Kenya and Tanzania in the summer of 2014. Even though I have traveled to Africa before, it is not realistic for me to go every year and even more so I alone do not have enough power to take the necessary action against poaching.

Astonishingly the United States has become one of the largest ivory markets in the world. Even though it is illegal, loopholes have easily been found. Some sellers claim that their new ivory were actually antique tusks of more than a 100 years old and others just find ways to smuggle them in.

The fact that this is happening in the United States, within our own borders, is aggravating. Officials are looking the other way, not only in Africa but in America too. Ivory is used in common products such as jewelry, chopsticks, ornaments and even billiard balls.

Individuals can only help by not purchasing and supporting ivory products. Poaching will only stop if the demand for the ivory stops – if the demand runs out then so will the supply.

So the next time you eat Chinese food with chopsticks, or put on a necklace, take a second and see what you are doing to help in this cause.