Elephant Mass Shooting In Kenya

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January 10, 2013 Alisa Manzelli

Alisa Manzelli, Global Animal

According to wildlife officials, a family of 11 elephants were recently killed in what is being referred to as the biggest mass shooting of the threatened species on record in Kenya.

An elephant forages at the Tsavo East National Park. Photo Credit: AFP/Getty Images

The killings took place on Saturday in Tsavo East National Park, one of the country’s tourism gems and Kenya’s largest single continuous ecosystem home to approximately 13,000 elephants.

The Kenya Wildlife Service said in a statement, ‘The entire family of 11 elephants have been confirmed poached and tusks chopped off. All the carcasses had bullet wounds.’

The service says its rangers are pursuing a poaching gang believed to have slaughtered the family of elephants for their ivory tusks. It says foot, dog, and aerial units are currently on the hunt for the estimated 10 attackers.

Elephants across Africa have become increasingly threatened by poachers in recent years as the demand for ivory trinkets continues to rise in Asia—particularly China.

And while a pound of ivory is now worth more than $1,000 in Beijing, poor African villagers are able to earn vast sums by killing elephants and removing their tusks.

Although elephant poaching in Kenya witnessed a sharp decline after 1989 when the government banned the ivory trade, there has been a rise in illegal practice in recent years with tens of thousands of elephants being killed—more than at any other point in decades.

“We’ve seen nothing as bad as this since the 1980s,” said Iain Douglas-Hamilton, a researcher in Kenya who has studied elephants for several years. “We’re right back to where we were.”

Sign the petition to help enforce a total ban on the sale of ivory.

Wildlife Service spokesman Paul Udo said this latest slaughter was the worst single incident of its kind recorded in Kenya.

Udo said, “(It) shows the great lengths these criminal cartels are ready to go to get ivory. It’s really tragic.”

Figures indicate approximately 350 elephants were poached in Kenya last year—though wildlife groups say the figure was just a small fraction of the true number of deaths as the carcasses of many poached elephants are never discovered. In addition, a total of six wildlife rangers were also killed in 2012—again, more than in any other recent year.

Despite the East African country’s ban on the ivory trade, illegal practices are more prevalent than ever before. And without cooperation from the Chinese government, these murders will only continue. Help protect these endangered animals and sign the petition telling Chinese President Xi Jinping to stop imports of elephant tusks and rhino horns.

Hong Kong seizes huge haul of smuggled ivory

AFP January 5, 2013, 12:06 am TWN
HONG KONG -- Hong Kong said Friday it had seized more than a ton of ivory worth about US$1.4 million in a shipment from Kenya, the city's third big seizure in less than three months.

Customs said they seized the 779 pieces of ivory tusks, weighing 1.3 tons, that were cut up and hidden in five wooden boxes along with stone plates in a container marked “architectural stones” on Thursday. The haul was worth an estimated HK $10.6 million (US$1.4 million).

“It is not very often that you see architectural stones from Kenya ... (that's why) we saw this container as possibly storing high risk goods,” customs official Clare Kwan told reporters. The department declined to say where the shipment, which passed through Malaysia, was headed for. No arrests have been made so far. The latest haul comes less than three months after Hong Kong made its record seizure in October of 1,290 pieces of tusk and a small number of ivory ornaments from Kenya and Tanzania that weighed a total of 3.81 tons. In November, customs officers intercepted another container from Tanzania carrying 569 pieces of unpolished tusks weighing about 1.3 tons.

Despite the large seizures, customs denied Hong Kong had become a smuggling hub for the illicit ivory trade “There is no information suggesting that there is an increasing trend of smuggling ivory tusks detected,” ports control head Vincent Wong told the same news conference. Under Hong Kong law, anyone found guilty of importing unmanifested cargo into the southern Chinese city — a major shipping hub — faces imprisonment of up to seven years and a maximum fine of HK$2 million.

An Elephant Fetus Born and left to die after her mother had her face chopped off  so the  Chinese can make Ivory Chopsticks. Elephants are pregnant for 2 years and are excellent mothers she  still has her umbilical cord attached

In addition, those guilty of importing, exporting or possessing an endangered species for commercial purposes face up to two years in jail and a maximum HK$5 million fine, customs officials said. The international trade in elephant ivory, with rare exceptions, has been outlawed since 1989 after elephant populations in Africa dropped from millions in the mid-20th century to some 600,000 by the end of the 1980s.

However, a rise in the illegal trade in ivory has been fueled by demand in Asia and the Middle East, where elephant tusks are used in traditional medicines and to make ornaments. Africa is home to an estimated 472,000 elephants whose survival is threatened by poaching, illegal game hunting and habitat loss.

High Demand in China: In China, ivory is seen as a STATUS SYMBOL and a sign of wealth, thus driving the demand. Worldwide consumption of Chinese manufactured goods has strengthened the Chinese economy and resulted in an increase in middle and upper class citizens with a high disposable income.