The US is the second largest market for IVORY in the world. This is abhorrent. Please sign

[Flaxbee]

this petition / letter from the NRDC to President Obama.

Add your own thoughts / comments (respectfully).

Life will be so lonely on this planet if we wipe out the rest of our fellow inhabitants.

https://secure.nrdconline.org/site/Advocacy;jsessionid=E1A7374A82C4B63BCC7BC6A286998D50.app337a?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=3563&autologin=true&s_src=EMOEPHPETMEM0814CUBG&utm_source=link&utm_medium=alert&utm_campaign=email

[SummerSnow]

1. wtf?

I thought the U.S. was not in the poaching business. This is disgraceful.

[kwolf68]

2. Signed

It's the least i can do. Want to do more.

[Arkansas Granny]

3. Done.

[AtomicKitten]

4. 100,000 elephants poached over the past 3 years.

Disgraceful.

[redqueen]

5. K&R nt

[montanacowboy]

6. Done!

kick

[SQUEE]

7. signed,

and an extra 20 dollars sent to the Elephant Sanctuary up the road.

[WinkyDink]

8. "..many of the ivory items found in the U.S. have been made after a 1990 ban on the ivory trade...."

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/05/080505-us-ivory.html

It's not as though this is LEGAL trade here.

[Jim Lane]

9. Two high school kids learned that the importation of "new" ivory is already illegal

The linked petition doesn't give any detail about the rules change. It may have to do with, for example, the standard for establishing that an item is "old" ivory (i.e. taken before 1976 and therefore legal for importation to the U.S.).

Earlier this month, two 17-year-old bagpipe players from New Hampshire went to a competition in Canada. When they tried to re-enter the U.S., they were stopped at the border because their bagpipes contained ivory parts (even though they had certificates showing that the ivory was old). They had to proceed without the ivory, which was confiscated. Some time, money, and hassle later, they eventually got their ivory back. A news story about it: "Agony and ivory: Teens' bagpipes seized at Canada-US border because of ivory"

So, without bothering to do any research, I'll hazard a guess that the regulations in question have to balance legitimate importation (or, as in this case, re-importation) of old ivory, versus the opportunity for scammers to exploit that loophole to bring in new ivory.

[Flaxbee]

10. kicking this thread. Please

help me keep this on the first page of GD, if only for a little longer.