Consumer Education, Ivory Sale Ban Needed to Save Elephants

WASHINGTON—Despite global restrictions and domestic law designed to protect elephants from poaching, illegal ivory is sold on a massive scale throughout the United States, according to an investigative report issued today.

The Humane Society of the United States and its international arm, Humane Society International, as well as Care for the Wild International, Save the Elephants and the John Aspinall Foundation, provided funding to help make the investigation possible.

"American consumers want no part in the decimation of elephants—and they should avoid buying ivory of any kind no matter how it is labeled. Ivory traders are taking advantage of consumer confusion, legal loopholes and the practical difficulty of identification to continue to sell ivory from poached elephants," said Andrew Rowan, Ph.D., the CEO of Humane Society International." The United States government and those individual states identified as centers of the illicit ivory trade need to react swiftly with better laws and enforcement. Otherwise, the unlawful trade here will continue to take a significant toll on elephants abroad."

The investigative report concluded that the United States was the world's second largest consumer of illegal ivory. Most ivory objects for sale here were jewelry or small carved figures—about one-third of them carved and imported illegally from middle-men in China. This has occurred despite an 18-year-old ban on the international trade in elephant ivory under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Between 1979 and 1989, the number of African elephants plunged from about 1.2 million to about 600,000. The trade ban halted the precipitous decline of African elephant populations but the pressure on these majestic animals is keen today because of high demand for ivory.

Although U.S. law generally bans the commercial importation and sale of ivory, loopholes are widely manipulated to keep the trade alive. For instance, ivory objects found for sale in the United States were often mislabeled as "antique" or "mammoth ivory" in order to take advantage of legal loopholes that allow the sale of such ivory.

The report comes in advance of an important CITES meeting in July 2008 during which a proposal for a one-time, legal export of stockpiled ivory from four southern African countries—Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe—to China will be discussed. The HSUS and HSI strongly oppose this short-sighted proposal.

To read the summary and report, click here.

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Humane Society International is the international arm of The Humane Society of the United States, the nation's largest animal protection organization — backed by 10.5 million Americans, or one of every 30. For more than a half-century, The HSUS has been fighting for the protection of all animals through advocacy, education, and hands-on programs. Celebrating animals and confronting cruelty — On the web at hsi.org.

The Humane Society of the United States is the nation's largest animal protection organization — backed by 10.5 million Americans, or one of every 30. For more than a half-century, The HSUS has been fighting for the protection of all animals through advocacy, education and hands-on programs. Celebrating animals and confronting cruelty — On the web at humanesociety.org.