Written by: Oliver Payne
For: National Geographic News
The sale of ivory is banned or at least very restricted in most countries, as it led to a drastic decline in elephant population. In only ten years, during the second-to-last decade of the twentieth century, the population of elephants in Africa dropped from 1.3 million to 600 000 (source - Wikipedia). However, despite the ban, elephants are still being killed in order to get ivory. According to the article, it is mostly used for creating religious items such as figures of Jesus or Buddha, rosaries, amulets etc. Ivory is considered 'precious' and using anything less than it or gold would be considered disrespectful.
This article is yet another reminder that humans are leading to the extinction of species for their own gain. While I understand the importance of religion to people I am highly skeptical of why ivory needs to be used for making merchandise. Why would any god want its own creation to be killed off just so another one could make money? Those elephants are being killed only for the personal gain of the ivory sellers, some of them may be deluding themselves with religious ideas, but in reality they are just putting a whole species in great danger. This sort of reminds me of what happened to the American Buffalos, and while some action is taken to protect elephants I am afraid that it is not enough to stop them from having the same faith. Selling ivory is illegal, and more needs to be done to stop it before it takes its toll.
First off, elephants are my favorite animals and it broke my heart when I read your article/saw the video! Honestly, sometimes I really can not understand people and how they can be so inhuman and selfish. When I try to understand possible reasons of such cruelty towards animals, I think of all of the poor countries who's main purpose and/or jobs are pretty much such as the ones you've stated. I mean, these people don't have many choices or right, and it pretty much all depends on the overseas companies that pay them for work. Nevertheless, we're just sinking deeper and deeper and OBVIOUSLY things need to change!
ReplyDeleteAs we mentioned in class last week, the elephant is a keystone species, and its conservation is really important not only because elephants are beautiful, but because their survival affects so many other species as well as the productivity of the land within it lives.
ReplyDeleteThanks for including the video! Very effective for your readers!
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