2 tons of seized ivory crushed to protest illegal trade

Despite the global embargo on elephant ivory that has been in place since 1990, the rate of elephant slaughter for tusks is at a crisis point. In this picture, three female African bush elephants travel as a small herd in Tanzania. Photo by Ikiwaner, taken July 29, 2010, licensed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2.

NEW YORK (AP) – Trinkets, statues and jewelry crafted from the tusks of at least 100 slaughtered elephants were fed Thursday into a rock crusher in Central Park to demonstrate the state’s commitment to smashing the illegal ivory trade.

The artifacts placed ceremoniously onto a conveyor belt to be ground into dust. Many of the items were beautiful. Some were extremely valuable.

But state environmental officials and Wildlife Conservation Society members, who partnered with Tiffany & Co. for the “Ivory Crush” of nearly 2 tons of ivory, said no price justifies slaughtering elephants for their tusks.

“By crushing a ton of ivory in the middle of the world’s most famous public park, New Yorkers are sending a message to poachers, traffickers and dealers who try to set up shop right here on our streets,” said John Calvelli, the Society’s executive vice president and director of the 96 Elephants Campaign. “We won’t stand for the slaughter of elephants. Nobody needs an ivory brooch that badly.”

The sale of ivory across international boundaries has been banned since 1990, but the U.S. and many other countries have allowed people to buy and sell ivory domestically, subject to certain regulations that gave smugglers loopholes. Last year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service instituted a near-total ban on the domestic commercial ivory trade and barred sales across state lines.

Since August 2014, New York law has prohibited the sale, purchase, trade or distribution of anything made from elephant or mammoth ivory or rhinoceros horn, except in limited situations with state approval. Enforcement efforts have focused on New York City, the nation’s largest port of entry for illegal wildlife goods, state officials said.

The ivory pieces sent to the crusher included more than $4.5 million worth seized by undercover investigators from Metropolitan Fine Arts & Antiques in New York City in 2015. In pleading guilty last week to illegally selling ivory, the store’s owners agreed to donate $100,000 each to the World Wildlife Fund and Wild Tomorrow Fund for their endangered species protection projects.

Also headed for the crusher was a netsuke, depicting three men with a fish, worth an estimated $14,000, and a pair of elaborately carved ivory towers worth $850,000.

More than 270 tons of ivory have been destroyed by governments and conservation groups in high-profile public events in 22 countries, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Some critics have argued that destroying ivory could drive up black market prices by increasing scarcity, thus encouraging more poaching. Others argue that it’s wasteful and that it would be better to sell confiscated ivory to pay for conservation efforts in poor African countries.

Wendy Hapgood, founder of Wild Tomorrow Fund, said crushing events send a signal that laws banning the ivory trade will be strictly enforced.

“It’s a way to tell the world that ivory shouldn’t be coveted, it should be destroyed. It belongs only on an elephant,” she said.
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By MARY ESCH and JOSEPH B. FREDERICK, Associated Press

Esch reported from Albany, New York.

AP-WF-08-03-17 1833GMT

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