By Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D.

Ivory Trade Is an Elephant Death Sentence, But Don’t Blame CITES

"No matter how far you have gone on the wrong road, turn back."
-- Turkish Proverb

"At first people refuse to believe that a strange new thing can be done,
then they begin to hope that it can be done,
then they see that it can be done
then it is done
and all the world wonders why it was not done centuries ago."
-- Francis Hodgson Burnett

Today, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) agreed to allow the sale of elephant ivory for the first time in three years. CITES will allow Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa to make one-time sales of ivory of 10, 20 and 30 tons, respectively.

Elephant in Botswana (Photo credit unknown)

Environmental organizations, animal welfare groups, and people around the world are shocked at this ill conceived decision. But we must remember that the CITES treaty was never meant to preserve wildlife.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species was not created to protect the world’s wildlife from brutal murder and exploitation. The main purpose of CITES is protect wildlife from what the signatory governments deem to be over-exploitation. While I deplore their decision to allow the sale of elephant ivory, it is not really surprising when you look at the mission of CITES.

The opening paragraph on the “What is CITES” page of the Secretariat's website says very clearly that CITES “is an international agreement between governments." Its aim is "to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival.”

Chimpanzees may spend decades in a tiny cage. (Photo courtesy Humane Society of the United States)

Just as it is unrealistic to look to wildlife agencies in the United States to preserve wildlife when part of their funding comes from the sale of hunting licenses, it is a mistake to look to the CITES treaty for complete international wildlife protection.

As long as the brutally butchered pieces of majestic animals from around the world are considered commodities, those animals are in danger.

The worldwide trade in wildlife is extensive, and the suffering of millions of individual animals nets billions of dollars for the perpetrators.

The trade includes animals captured to be sold as pets, such as birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish; or to stock public or private game farms and hunting ranches, such as deer, antelope, rhino and wild sheep; or for sale to zoos and safari parks, such as elephants, giraffes, rhinoceros, large cats, monkeys, birds, and reptiles; or for food, such as reptiles, amphibians and fish.

The capture of chimpanzees for sale to medical research facilities, often in the United States, is particularly brutal. A baby chimp is usually chased up a tree by dogs, and when its parents return, they are killed and any other siblings captured.

Turtles kept in stock at a turtle jelly restaurant in Hong Kong. (Photo by Peter Paul van Dijk courtesy TRAFFIC Southeast Asia)

Possibly the most gruesome aspect of the wildlife trade is in animal parts. Thousands of elephants have been killed for their ivory, and their feet are often cut off to make trash cans as well. Ashtrays have been made from the hands chopped off slaughtered chimpanzees and gorillas.

Bears suffer tragically in China where over 7,000 of them are kept in cages so small that they cannot get up or turn around. Tubes are inserted into their gall bladders and they are milked twice each day for small amounts of bile, considered to be an important ingredient in some traditional Chinese medicine practices. After five to 10 years of this torture, the bears often stop producing bile and are allowed to starve to death or die of illness.

Many rhinos are killed each year for their horns, also considered important in traditional Chinese medicine. Although commercial trade in rhino horn is banned by CITES countries, the laws are often ignored. A study by the World Wildlife Fund four years ago surveyed traditional Chinese medicine stores in seven cities in the United States. The WWF researchers found medicines containing rhino horn and parts of other protected species in half of the 110 stores surveyed.

The elephant ivory trade is predicated on some of the most reprehensible acts committed upon any species by humans. Elephants are shot and, often while they are still alive, a chainsaw is used to cut out their tusks. Imagine the terror, the horror, the pain experienced by these animals, long known to be highly intelligent and social, with strong family and community behavior patterns.

Few resources are available to hunt down and punish the poachers. Instead, these butchers are the leaders of an industry that represents the worst that humans can do. The legalized sale of even one ounce of ivory sends a message that the poaching can continue.

Illegally traded elephant ivory seized by Japanese Customs officers on display in Tokyo (Photo courtesy TRAFFIC)

If the situation is this bad during a ban on the commercial sale of ivory, imagine how much worse it will get with the promise of legitimate markets for stockpiled ivory that serves to mask a thriving illegal trade in poached ivory.

Trade in elephant skin, ears, trunks, and feet also occurs. Elephant hide boots are easily obtained through a number of leather companies in the United States.

The international support for the trade in slave animals or in animal parts of any kind must end. Animals and animal parts must not be viewed as legitimate items of commerce. Rather than look for ways to provide a few temporary dollars to struggling countries, we should be looking for ways to rekindle a sense of reverence for all life.

Let’s create an international convention whose purpose is the preservation of species and an end to brutality and inhumane practices.

RESOURCES

1. The CITES website can be found at: http://www.cites.org

2. Learn more about the wildlife trade from the Humane Society of the United States at: http://www.hsus.org/ace/12094

3. See a fact sheet on the elephant trade at: http://www.hsus.org/ace/12025

4. Learn about threats to the rhinocerus at: http://www.sosrhino.org/news/rhinonews081402a.php

5. Learn about TRAFFIC, the international wildlife trade monitoring network established by WWF and IUCN-World Conservation Union at: http://www.traffic.org/

5. If you live in the United States, now more than ever is the time to write your Congressional representatives. Tell them the trafficking in wildlife and wildlife parts must not continue under any circumstances. If you know your Zip code, you can find them at: http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ziptoit.html

6. If you live in other countries, urge your leaders to place a priority to ending wildlife poaching and the commerce in animals and animal parts.

{Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D. is a writer and teacher in Seattle and the author of "Healing Our World", A Journey from the Darkness Into the Light," available at: http://www.xlibris.com/HealingOurWorld.html or your local bookstore. His new book of photographs and thoughts on interconnectedness, “Of This Earth, Reflections on Connections,” is now available. Learn about it at: http://ofthisearth.org. Please send your thoughts, comments, and visions to him at: jackie@healingourworld.com and visit his website at: http://www.healingourworld.com}