Troubling elephant slaughter discovery in Africa

Disgusting.

I posted a story not too long ago about this, different source, different area but same horrible poaching. Comment from this CTV article is bang-on:


yep.. sounds like some people nowadays.

Unfortunately it's not always about just providing ivory for luxury items, which I will agree, most of, if not all the ivory is sold for that purpose. With the overwhelming poverty in Africa that's probably the only way some of these people can provide themselves and their families with the very basic necessities of life. There is no way I would ever condone the poaching of elephants or any other animal for that matter, just pointing out the realities of the situation.

Send in the army, good way for them to get training. Tracking and hunting poachers.

I understand that part of it. It is a sad reality of life in many parts of Africa that poverty would drive people to carry out these crimes.

However, without a market for the product and thus a demand for it there would be no need.

Ivory has no other use today except for luxury items, and all of that is being fueled by Asians (especially Chinese). The same issue exists for rhino horn. Thousands are being slaughtered in Africa for their horns to be exported to Asia (mostly Vietnam) to be used for bullshit home remedies. Unfortunately the vast majority of Asians seem to have little regard for where their raw materials come from or for the animals as do the majority of Africans. There are too few people who care to make a difference. The African nations involved would be unwilling to send in their military as they would not want to start a civil war over this.

It should be noted that the majority of the problem with destroying wildlife in Africa is linked to the demand from the Asian market for ivory and folk-medicine aphrodisiacs like rhino horn and etc.

End the demand and the killing will stop.