This week, Hawaii Senator Will Espero (D-19) introduced S.B. 674, which roughly represents the number of elephants killed every week due to poaching for their tusks, and Rep. Karl Rhoads (D-29) will introduce H.B. 837 (Thursday, February 12th), to prohibit the brutal trade in ivory and rhino horn. These actions are being commended by Born Free USA.
The U.S. is the second largest ivory consumer in the world, with New York, California and Hawaii as the country’s largest markets for ivory. The illegal trafficking is directly responsible for the tremendous declines in wild populations in recent years, and the bill is a crucial step toward reducing the target market.
Adam M. Roberts, CEO of Born Free USA and the Born Free Foundation states, “The elephant poaching epidemic across Africa has reached crisis levels and rhino poaching is escalating exponentially. Unfortunately, the U.S. is the second largest ivory market in the world, and Hawaii is the third largest market for ivory in the states.
Born Free USA estimates that an average of 96 elephants are slaughtered daily by poachers, and more than 103,000 have been killed since January 2012, according to www.bloodyivory.org.
“If the killing rate continues, certain African elephant populations could be extinct within a decade,” explains Roberts. “As proven in our Born Free USA reports, Ivory’s Curse and Out of Africa, illegal ivory trafficking is exploited by transnational criminal networks that enable terrorism, weapons, and human trafficking, feeding devastating violence and instability in Africa.”
Senator Espero said, “It is sad and disheartening that magnificent animals may be driven to extinction. We must… save these elephants and rhinos and create a world where they can live without the fear of being slaughtered.”
Only 25,000 black and white rhinos remain across all of Africa. It is possible they could become extinct in the wild in as little as 12 years due to poaching for their horns at a rate of 1,000 rhinos per year in South Africa alone. The horns are used by consumers who falsely believe they have curative properties. There is no conclusive evidence to support this, according to Born Free USA.
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This breaks my heart. Baby elephants left without their mothers. It’s so disturbing.
Elephants are beautiful animals. These poachers who kill them for their ivory are vile human beings. I hope the needless murdering of them ends soon.
Why do people abuse or are cruel to animals? They use and abuse them for what? So they can make a buck. I pray this bill passes.
This breaks my heart to ear.