Photo Credit to Soila Sayialei
"Poached eggs are good, poached animals are not" - Erma Bombeck
Ivory Poaching
Ivory poaching is the act of illegally killing animals (dictionary.com, n.d), more specifically elephants, for their ivory tusks. The demand for ivory in Africa between years of 1979 to 1989 increased, which causing the killings of elephants to increase as well (PBS.org,1997, The Poaching Problem). Ivory becoming a popular method of income is what is causing the increase in the killing of these mammals.The tusks of the African elephant are made of a valuable, resourceful and strong element as previously stated called Ivory. Ivory is considered the mammalian teeth of animals such as African Elephants (Paul MacKenzie,2001).These "teeth" are made up of materials similar to that of our teeth. Elephant tusks can be easily be structured by method of carving to be shaped into pretty much anything (National Geographic, n.d African Elephants, African Elephant Pictures, African Elephant Facts ).
Ivory trade as well as the killing of African Elephants is currently illegal in the United States according the the U.S Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES) ban the trade of ivory in the 1990's (PBS.org, 1997 The Poaching Problem ). But what about in Africa? Africa has also made it illegal to kill these mammals (PBS.org, 1997 The poaching problem). But seeing in the map below how these "laws" have not been working, elephants continue to be killed for their ivory daily.
Ivory trade as well as the killing of African Elephants is currently illegal in the United States according the the U.S Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES) ban the trade of ivory in the 1990's (PBS.org, 1997 The Poaching Problem ). But what about in Africa? Africa has also made it illegal to kill these mammals (PBS.org, 1997 The poaching problem). But seeing in the map below how these "laws" have not been working, elephants continue to be killed for their ivory daily.
Many civilians continue to kill these animals, regardless of it being illegal to use there tusks for illegal trade and smuggling into countries such as China and Thailand where these countries make accessories, chopstick and other items out of the ivory from the tusks (National Geographic, n.d. African Elephants, African Elephant Pictures, African Elephant Facts ) By trading and smuggling these tusks, civilian's gain a significant amount of profit. Many of these civilian do not see how they are affecting the breed of elephants by killing them for profit, though the profit gained from the ivory allows these civilians to provide for their family, there must be a way for these civilians to gain income without killing off the elephant breed. The video down below explains the different methods used to kill these elephants:
Aside from profit, civilian brutally kill these mammals out of pure revenge. These animals mainly travel in herd making it a large group of guests when they travel into civilian habitats. Civilians consider these animals "pests", and a burden to their daily lives, so they murder them out of spite of getting rid of them (PBS.org, 1997 The Poaching Problem). Instead of finding a different way to get rid of these animals, they settle for the easiest and quickest way to take of the problem. Even though these animal cause some burden to civilians, they are not at fault for trying to find a place living. Unwillingly many elephants can damage the property of the civilians such as farmers with large stocks of crop. These elephants roam into these farmers crop, ruining these stock (PBS.org, 1997 The Poaching Problem).