14 DAY TRIAL // Yesterday, about six tons of ivory confiscated either from traffickers or from tourists were arranged in a neat pile at the National Wildlife Property Repository outside Denver and then fed into a steel rock crusher that turned it into a fine powder.
Conservationists, African leaders and members of the international media were all present at the event.
As previously reported, the destruction of the US' national ivory stockpile was meant as a message to poachers. More precisely, the country wanted to prove that it would not, under any circumstances, tolerate wildlife crime.
On the contrary, the Obama administration is ready and willing to go to extreme lengths to end both poaching and illegal wildlife trafficking.
“Rising demand for ivory is fueling a renewed and horrific slaughter of elephants in Africa, threatening remaining populations across the continent,” said Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell in a statement, as cited on the official website for the US Fish & Wildlife Service.
Furthermore, “We will continue to work aggressively with the Department of Justice and law enforcement agencies around the world to investigate, arrest and prosecute criminals who traffic in ivory. We encourage other nations to join us in destroying confiscated ivory stockpiles and taking other actions to combat wildlife crime.”
There is no way of telling for sure, but conservationists estimate that the 6 tons of ivory destroyed this past November 14 came from over 2,000 elephants that had been killed and stripped of their tusks by poachers.
The bits and pieces of ivory that the steel rock spat out are to be temporarily stored at the US Fish & Wildlife Service's National Wildlife Property Repository.
Apparently, the agency is currently trying to figure out how best to use this material to raise awareness of the need to put an end to the ongoing poaching crisis and safeguard the world's remaining elephant population.