YOU CAN POACH AN EGG, BUT YOU SHOULDN'T POACH AN ELEPHANT

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Message source: [animal_net] <MaryFinelli

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YOU CAN POACH AN EGG, BUT YOU SHOULDN'T POACH AN ELEPHANT

Elephants Massacred as Ivory Trade Picks Up

Daily Grist, Feb. 28, 2007

 

As many as 23,000 elephants may have been killed in just one year, as

an international effort to stem the ivory trade has fallen to the

wayside, particularly in Africa. Increased demand for white tuskiness

in Japan and China, combined with declining funding for anti-poaching

programs, has overwhelmed the intentions of a 1989 ban on

international sales of ivory. In the year ending in August 2006,

54,000 pounds of ivory were confiscated in 12 international seizures

-- and customs officials assume that they find only 10 percent of the

smuggled goods. " Right now, things are really much worse than before

the ban, " says Samuel Wasser, lead author of a recent study on using

DNA testing to determine where poached elephants were killed. With the

advent of the new technology, an aggressive resuscitation of

anti-poaching programs could be very effective, but there's no time to

waste. Says Wasser, " f we don't open our eyes to the problem, we

can kiss our elephants goodbye. " ; Get your stepladders ready.

The Washington Post, Marc Kaufman, 27 Feb 2007

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/26/AR2007022600932.\

html

MSNBC.com, LiveScience, Robin Lloyd, 26 Feb 2007

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17352833/