
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Respository's confiscated wildlife items
Ivory Belongs on Elephants
UPDATE: Take action to help ban the sale of ivory in Massachusetts. Contact your local representative in support of Senate Bill 496 and House Bill 772- An Act to Prevent Trafficking in Ivory and Rhino Horns.
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Every day, 96 elephants are killed in Africa—that’s 35,000 a year. The Wildlife Conservation Society finds that the demand for ivory has caused the slaughter of 65 percent of all forest elephants over the last decade. African forest elephants now face extinction in the next 10 to 20 years.
Wildlife trafficking is an escalating global crisis fueled in part by the U.S. ivory market – one of the largest globally.
A rhino is killed for its horns every nine hours in South Africa, and approximately 96 elephants are slaughtered for their tusks daily—that’s one every 15 minutes. In fact, if poaching continues at the current rate, scientists estimate some African elephant populations will be extinct within the next few decades. All five rhino species are already endangered, with some species on the brink of extinction.
Elephant and rhino poaching is a brutal and bloody practice – animals are chased with helicopters and shot down with military-grade weapons, and tusks and horns are cut off faces of sometimes still-living animals.
Illegal ivory trade activity worldwide has more than doubled since 2007 and tripled since 1998, and Massachusetts plays a role in this market. The wildlife trafficking business has become so widespread that 37 countries and hundreds of organizations, including Zoo New England, have joined together to stop the killing, stop the trafficking and stop the demand for ivory.
You Can Help
Zoo New England supports the Wildlife Conservation Society's efforts to protect these vanishing species. WCS is steadily bolstering methods of protection, including ivory-sensitive sniffer dogs, radio-collaring, high-tech field tools, helicopter surveillance, and highly trained ecoguards.
How can we help?
First, educate ourselves, our children, our neighbors. Bring the cause to the attention of our Massachusetts legislature, where legislation to ban the sale and trade of ivory in our Commonwealth can be accomplished. Let the popular TV program Antiques Roadshow know that we oppose the subtle commercialization of the elephant’s precious ivory as appraisers announce the monetary value of carved ivory artifacts.
Today’s pianos have a message to give us. Sixty years ago, premiere piano manufacturers like Steinway and Baldwin abandoned the tradition of capping piano keys with ivory. They found that the new high-quality plastics were superior in many ways to the material from tusks of slaughtered animals. The music didn’t stop just because the ivory left the keyboards. And living elephants and rhinos is music to our ears.
Visit 96elephants.org to learn more and "join the herd" of supporters.
Just for Kids
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Zoodopt an Elephant or Rhino
Our Zoos spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on hay, grain, produce and other special diets to feed our animals. Through your generosity, Zoodoption helps us defray some of these costs and provide excellent food, care and enrichment for all of our animals.
With each elephant and rhino zoodopt, you'll receive more information about these amazing species and the ivory crisis that threatens their existence. While we do not have elephants and rhinos on exhibit here at our Zoos, ZNE is working to raise awareness and protect them from extinction.
Zoodopt Today!