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Bazuki Muhammad / Reuters
Malaysian customs officers on Wednesday show elephant tusks smuggled inside wood planks.
Some 1,500 African elephant tusks — the biggest seizure ever — were found this week hidden within timber planks and destined for China's ivory market. Shocked conservationists noted 2012 will now go down as the worst year in 24 years of records — and warned that 2013 could be even worse.
"In 2011 we thought the threats to elephants couldn't get any worse and 2012 draws to a close with the depressing news that the slaughter of elephants hasn't even drawn close to their zenith," said Jason Bell, who runs the International Fund for Animal Welfare's elephant program. "The illegal trade is simply voracious in its appetite for ivory."
Hidden in 10 crates shipped in two cargo containers, the tusks were found Monday by Malaysian customs officials at the port near Kuala Lumpur. The shipment had come from Togo in West Africa.
The tusks weigh about 20 tons, nearly as much as all that was seized in 2011 — a year when an estimated 25,000 elephants were slaughtered for their tusks. For all of 2012, about 34 tons have been seized.
Ivory can fetch up to $1,000 a pound, the World Wildlife Fund said in a new report on poaching of elephants, rhinos and tigers.
"The bloody ivory trade has reached new heights of destruction and depravity in 2012," echoed Will Travers, head of Born Free USA.
"No part of Africa is now safe," he added. "Across the continent, for the first time, the number of carcasses recorded as a result of poaching exceeds the number reportedly dying from natural causes."
The groups worry that the start of Africa's dry season will fuel a new round of poaching in the coming weeks. Since 1979, when Africa still had an estimated 1.3 million elephants, the population has declined to an estimated 450,000 in 2007, according to the group Save the Elephants.
Some 150 armed Sudanese men were seen riding on camels and horses across the Central African Republic a few weeks ago and locals suspect they were looking for elephant herds, according to a report on nationalgeographic.com.
Conservationists fear another massacre like the one in Cameroon earlier this year when some 600 elephants inside a national park — half the local population — were killed.
The tusks from that slaughter were never recovered, Bell noted.
A poaching resurgence has pushed up the price of ivory, resulting in more elephant carnage. But some of the baby elephants orphaned in the wake of such violence will survive -- thanks to the dedication of naturalist Daphne Sheldrick. NBC's Chelsea Clinton reports.
"It is an indication of an illegal industry completely out of control that lawmakers still have no idea where the massive amounts of ivory poached in Cameroon have gone," he said.
The groups urged the international community to fund a protection plan already endorsed by African nations with elephant populations.
Bell said needed actions include "swift DNA identification of seized ivory, so that we know how and where to point our efforts to prevent further poaching and close down transit routes for smuggled ivory."
Related: Religious groups rally to save elephants, rhinos
China's status as an authorized ivory trading nation is also under fire from conservationists, who want it revoked until it can prove that the only ivory traded is from legally authorized stockpiles.
Born Free, for its part, has started an online campaign at bloodyivory.org to build public pressure against China.
As for the latest seizure, Malaysian officials did not make any arrests but are investigating a local trading company involved with the shipment. It could face fines and any individuals found guilty of knowingly trading in the tusks could get up to five years in prison, customs officials said.
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Leave a Comment:
Poison the horns and let them go through customs.
Exactly what I was thinking.
All this to fix a tiny broke dick?
TRY VIAGRA
Time for a war on the poachers and the customers. Stay the god damn hell out of Wal mart for one thing- and boycott Chinese goods where possible. The nation who lives to consume ivory must be starved if they will not control this. Ivory needs to be banned worldwide, with summary executions for all smugglers, poachers and merchants.
save the environment,
I like how you think. That would stop these people from eating bengal tiger penises and ground rhino horn if they didn't know whether it will kill them or not.
...take care of it from this side if the Chinese authorities won't from that side.
Damn fine idea!
Time to impose sanctions on China trade?
Most of the problem stems from corrupt government officials in both Africa and China.
My first response was: just nuke China. I realize that would kill a lot of animals, so more precisely targeted killing of just humans is in order. Kill all the poachers, the bosses, and their customers. All of them, and as massively and violently as possible. No trials, no letting them pay their way out of prosecution.
Repulsive, backwards, inferior, superstitious, and pathetic.
Tell us, China, once the elephant is gone, once you've powdered the last tiger, what new animal will quench your thirst for erections?
And as for the poachers - way to manage a finite resource! You stay classy!
Easier said than done. They have teams targeting poachers. But poachers are heavily armed and hard to find. Let me and you lose in a park 1 mile squared and Im willing to bet I could avoid you for at least 2 weeks. Now imagine trying to find a group of people in a park the size of a continent. It just isnt easy, but dont think that people are not trying to catch them.
Sam, Any poachers they catch are just replaced. They end up chasing their tails.
Tragically, this latest seizure is just a call for more poaching. The same as if you purchase a fur coat: it just puts out a call for more animal skins. Please don't buy fur.
The Malayan Customs should have removed the cargo, refilled the container and shipped it on its way and let the recipient figure out what happened to his 20 tons of ivory @ $1000 per pound = $40 Mil.
We should just revoke China's partnership in the WTO, which, if I recall, they're now a member?? Can anyone out there, confirm that??
The best way to get China's attention, is to hit them in their pocketbook!!
I tried Viagra without water. It got stuck in my throat and I ended up with a stiff neck :)
@peteMT
Elephants are only a "finite resource" in the countries where hunting them is illegal. Other countries, Botswana for example, allow controlled and regulated hunting and the elephant populations are booming. Counter intuitive you ask? Well the reality is that elephants are a terrible nuisance for people who live near them, destroying crops and fences, so in most cases the locals just look the other way when the poachers come. But where hunting is allowed these elephants become a source of much needed revenue giving the local populations incentive to protect them.
As hard as it will be for many to accept the reality is that the best way to save the elephant would be to decriminalize the trade in ivory and allow hunting under strict control. You can't deny this fact because it is proven already. Of course there are those who would rather see the last elephant die off than allow them to be hunted and, unfortunately, the BS these types of people spread is mostly accepted as truth.
Every poacher needs to be killed on site, period.
Stop buying the Chinese products in Walmart. But of course that will never happen.
The problem is it's too hard to find the poacher. So, when an elephant is murdered for its body parts, just burn the closest village. This will force locals to protect the animals, and eradicate the poachers.
Ivory is not used as a medicinal like rhino horn people. Poachers these days can use helicopters to find herds, drop down, shoot them all, cut out the tusks, and get away. We need to fight this somehow! It makes it all the more sad to know these are among the most intelligent animals on the planet with us, with strong family ties, emotions, self-awareness, altruistic, etc.
This is already being done in much of Africa and while I fully support it, it doesn't seem to be a sufficient deterrent. Perhaps a poacher hunting safari would work, no limit, bag as many poachers as you can. Perhaps capturing the poachers. locating their families, executing the entire family in front of the poacher and then executing the poacher would work better. Harsh, yes, but mankind isn't facing extinction at the hands of elephants. Perhaps we should also stop being so pc and call the chinese(would rather use a name that would get me banned) out and hold them accountable, with say a 3000% tariff on anything built, assembled, or otherwise touched by china. This would work two fold as it would force our corporations to move their business from china, to India you say, perhaps, but it could be a first step. then maybe a 1000% tariff on India, and say 2000% on pakistan.
Save the elephants, rhino and other innocent animals and bring our jobs back home, sounds like a win win to me.
Woodrat, then lets make them radioactive so the handlers and end users can all die of induced cancer.
There's something indigenously wrong with how organized this system that the poachers have from slaughter to shipment. Why aren't there red flags coming up through the process? And why aren't the recipients held to account?
Red flags? What red flags would that be? When a population is poor and can make vast amounts of money illegally, then that is usually what happens. (Just look at mexico). The people receiving it wont be caught because I doubt you would use your real name. Getting fake ID's etc is not very hard. I agree that something should be done about it. But this is no different than drugs being smuggled into the USA via Mexico.
Why isn't anyone doing anything? Slaughter inside a National Reserve? That's outrageous. Who's paying off whom?
The problem isn't one person "paying off" someone else, even though I'm sure that happens at various steps along the way from feild to market. The real problem is that there isn't any money or incentive to "pay" for their protection.
Disgusting !
The past couple of centuries definitely have their issues. But I wonder how my preschooler will react to Dad's stories about how when he was a boy the oceans were once clean and fish edible, exotic wild animals roamed free on the continents, air was clean and snow covered the arctic.
I'm not sure, does he enjoy fiction? Because I'm pretty sure he's going to be scratching his head wondering why you're telling him about all of those things in the past tense.
This is comment #4. And that is why the slaughter continues...nobody really cares to any appreciable degree. Man is a cancer on the Earth.
Not only does the slaughter continue, as the numbers decline rapidly, the selfish, enthusiastic customers offer more and more and rush to drive these animals into extinction. The poachers even venture into protected preserves now in order to provide their "product" to a market that does not care one bit if they carve up the last elephant tusk or rhino horn as long as they get what they want.
Actually elephant populations are expanding at a nearly unsustainable rate in parts of Africa. Only in West Africa are they being decimated by poachers. In Southern Africa they are rebounding in part thanks to unconventional conservation methods (legal hunting).
I hate the Chinese and their total disregard for animals and being the biggest partner and at the bottom of all poaching whether its bear parts, Rhino horn, Elephant horn, fish and even wild ginseng
We have limited say btw China and Africa but I would LOVE to see massive raids of every Chinese shop and anyone caught with any illegal contraband shipped immediately home forever, regardless.
This kind of bull@!$%# shouldn't be tolerated here.
I was in Chinatown in a northern west coast city a while back and walked past an ivory store. The place was filled with a carved ivory from ceiling to floor...the front window even displayed a tusk carved like a sailing ship. How places like this are allowed to stay open is beyond me...there's no way this was all grandfathered in.
The problem is the Chinese love money more than anything else. To them, wild animals are just another resource to make money off of. They don't give a rat's a$$ about the environment either.
Up to 5 years in prison? Doesn't seem like much of a deterent.
I think that some African nations have adopted a "shoot on sight" approach to poachers. They might want to extend that to the traders/dealers as well.
One mammal killing another. Life cycle.
Really Jenny!!! WTF!!! one mammal with high powered rifles and one peaceful mammal. This is not a food chain thing. I really cant believe you could say such an ignoramus thing...but then again you are a human!! the worst mammal of all!!
I was hoping this would happen after National Geographic's recent expose'. The biggest culprit, by far, is always China. Officials will finally act only after losing face internationally.
And if you notice the tusks are much smaller than those in pictures from the past. The animals are being taken smaller and younger...not good.
China, the most disgusting nation in the world!!
I will try to stop buying anything from this pariah....
once majestic creatures to be admired by thousands of tourists annually were slaughtered for potential trinkets to amuse and adorn stupid people. i suggest we round up all those people with their ak/47's and pay them to practice on these poachers. i'd pay to hire soldiers of fortune to wipe out these poachers. this is so sad----and preventable.
This is sad but will stop when extinction takes place. Shouldn't be too much longer
And the real sad part is...after they are gone "science" will come up with a way to synthesize the chemicals (so what is wrong with viagra) for everyday use and a lot of people will become richer still. And the elephant will be just as gone.
The ivory isn't for erectile dysfunction.
That would be tiger paw.
Well, there is a bright side. No more rhino, elephant, or whatever the Chinese use as an aphrodisiac, means no more Chinese. Gotta break an egg to make an omelette, you know.
Frickin heathians......Why arent the whinning, regressive liberals in an uproar over this nations blatant ingnorance to the eniviroment. They are polluting millions of times more on a daily basis than The U.S. has in its entire exsistence.
I think this is a good use for the drones if we ever get out of the Middle East... Just make sure they are flying hot.
to bad that 120ft meteor that just passed the earth tuesday didn't hit the Chinese emperors home dead on and eradicate these EVIL ivory, shark fin, bear bladder loving scumbags!
The list goes on with these foolish morons of China with their murdering campaign of innocent animals for China's f-up voodoo medicine's...
To bad another meteor doesn't hit Africa and kill all the blacks.
RIGHT?
"It is an indication of an illegal industry completely out of control that lawmakers still have no idea where the massive amounts of ivory poached in Cameroon have gone."
Maybe they should've allowed the shipment to continue so that they could identify and bust the people who create the demand?
They can't follow it into China.
In China ivory is legal.
We created the beast called China. Thank you Nixon !!!
We fed the beast called China over all these years since then. Thank you businessmen and (believe it or not) us as consumers !!!
We have to live with it now. Thanks to our greed !!!
Thank you Nixon??????
China is 5,000 years old.
Thank you Nixon. LMFAO
It is obvious that you don't understand the concept of context. But that is OK. It takes all to make a community.
Before we started business relationship with China (Nixon's visit to China gave that a jump start. You would know this if you are old enough to remember it. Or you may just be a pseudo China patriot or a juvenile), it was a poor country. We, the consumers of USA, wholeheartedly contributed to the transfer of our wealth to China which resulted in her becoming the beast that it is now. It is this beast that has the purchasing power to buy such things to cater to their fetishes.
Mocking some is OK as long as you know what you are talking about. Go and laugh your a$$ off at your elementary school and try to learn comprehension and context. There may still be some hope for you.
I just got back from China.
I know a thing or two about it.
that's a bit ridiculous to blame Nixon for 1.2 billion people doing what everybody else does.
Ok so what about those 150 poachers? How about we organize some counter-poaching teams to go in and be authorized to take them out. Meanwhile, find out where the demand is and cut the head off the snake. Let's get to the source and destroy it before they destroy our world's vanishing elephant population
People expect Obama to heal the world, but turn a blind eye to China's environmental, climate and human abuses. Elephants, tigers and sharks are just a few of the species in peril because of their 1. Population 2. Superstitions/junk science and 3. Indifference. They're more outraged by what some old GOP fart says about contraception, not quite ready to take on China. Obama may make them feel good, but until he at least attempts to have some influence in China his speeches about climate and the environment are just hot air. Which are enough for his supporters.
You're right. Nobody says a Damned thing to China about Anything. It seems the World is Paralized when it comes to dealing with China. Bunch of $#@!$%%$# wimps. They must be afraid China won't sell them their Crap.
Far from condoning the killing, let's not be too quick at blaming the Africans or the Chinese. The US government is sanctioning the slaughter of wolves on its land.
If we're serious about slowing if not stopping the killing of elephants over thousands of square Km, let's equip the authorities with unmanned drones (with missiles ?) that can survey vast territories and optionally take corrective action. I'am just saying.
The people in China and the rest if Asia are just Disgusting. They would kill every animal on the earth if they had their way. Japan isn't too far behind China with all the whales that they kill for "Research". And that's a bunch of Crap. Could be the Earthquake and Tsunami was 'Karma' for the killing of Whales and Dolphins.
I'm sure every single person in Asia thinks exactly the same.
All 2 billion have a single thought and behave in a single fashion.
Another reason to boycott anything made in China. They are the worst when it comes to animal welfare. Until there is a world wide ban and stiffer penalties for having any ivory in your possession and the young educated to know how inhumane and destructive this is to the future of the elephant I do not see it ending anytime soon. And as far as poachers, they should be shot on site. No questions asked.