1 Ton of Ivory Destroyed in Times Square
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A ton of illegal ivory carved into decorative objects was destroyed in New York’s Times Square on Friday as U.S. officials denounced poaching that kills thousands of elephants a year.
Under the gaudy neon lights of the most famous square in the world, the objects, most of them seized from the store of a jailed Philadelphia art dealer, were placed one by one on a conveyor belt before being dropped into the crusher to the sound of applause.
“Today’s ivory crush serves as a stark reminder to the rest of the world that the United States will not tolerate wildlife crimes, especially against iconic and endangered animals,” said U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell.
U.S. officials say that between 2011 and 2014 the poaching of African elephants reached the highest level ever recorded.
In just three years, around 100,000 elephants were killed for their ivory, Jewell said. She said there was a growing demand for ivory, with international organized crime networks seeing it as a low risk, high-profit market.
Dozens of demonstrators held up posters in Times Square saying that 96 elephants fall victim to the illegal trade each day. It was the second time that U.S. authorities have staged a massive public destruction of ivory.
In November 2013, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which comes under the department of the interior, organized the destruction of more than five tonnes of ivory in Denver.
Friday’s event was organized by the USFWS, the New York department of environmental conservation and animal-rights charities.
“Today’s message is this: We plan to crush the ivory trade and crush the profits of the traffickers,” said Cristian Samper, president of the U.S.-based Wildlife Conservation Society, one such charity.
The WCS said other ivory destruction events had taken place across the world, including in Kenya, Zambia, China, Hong Kong and France.
The international trade in ivory was outlawed in 1989. It is also banned or severely regulated in a number of other countries.
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