By Anne Dillon
Ivory Free Vermont (www.ivoryfreevermont.org), of which I am a member, is an all-volunteer organization working to pass bill H.297 which would outlaw the sale of elephant ivory and rhino horn in Vermont. One elephant is killed every 15 minutes for its ivory, putting elephants on the fast track to extinction. Indeed, at this rate of slaughter, it is expected that they will be gone from the wild in 10 short years given that they are being killed more quickly than they can reproduce. One rhino is slaughtered every eight hours for its horn.
In the 1940s, between 3 million and 5 million elephants roamed Africa, but their numbers plummeted in the 1950s as global demand for their ivory grew. Today, African elephant numbers have fallen to approximately 350,000 animals. Traditionally, only the bulls were killed; however, poachers are now also gunning down the matriarchs and young elephants with tusks the size of a ruler.
These sentient, highly intelligent animals are being killed in a variety of barbaric ways – with AK47s, as a result of eating poisoned watermelons or drinking water laced with cyanide, by hacking off of their tusks and horns while they are still alive, paralysis darts so the elephant or rhino cannot move yet is fully cognizant of machetes slicing into its skull and by poisoned darts – leading to weeks and weeks of extreme suffering before a long, unspeakable death.
Elephants are incredibly intelligent creatures with highly evolved methods of communication and the apparent ability to experience and convey very complex emotions and behaviors. Lawrence Anthony was a noted conservationist who oversaw a game reserve in Zululand, South Africa. In 1999, he was asked to take in a herd of rogue elephants that otherwise would be shot. He did so and over the years he and the elephants became very close; indeed, he became part of their family. Sadly, he passed away in 2012 at the age of 61.
After he died, the elephants he had nurtured on his reserve traveled for over 12 hours to his house. They stayed for two days and then solemnly departed. They hadn’t visited his home for a very long time and had no reason to do so then, unless they were paying tribute to the man who had saved them from certain death, a man who was their friend, who they trusted as one of their own. Every anniversary of his death they make the same trek back.
Dr. Joyce Poole, elephant researcher and expert, tells us that elephants know that humans have become the enemy. She cites one particularly telling example: In years past, whole herds of elephants would annually use a particular migration trail on the (Maasai Mara) game reserve in Kenya. They would rumble down the trail in broad daylight, announcing their collective arrival with great fanfare and joy, trumpeting as only the elephants can. Now, according to Dr. Poole, they make this yearly journey at night, slinking down the trail, clearly frightened and deathly silent.
We must all do what we can to preserve these iconic creatures. That’s why Ivory Free Vermont is advocating that Vermonters everywhere contact their state senators and members of the Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs (http://legislature.vermont.gov/committee/detail/2016/32), where our bill, H.297, presently is under consideration. Washington County’s elected officials, state Senators Bill Doyle and Ann Cummings, are members of this Senate committee. Please contact them and encourage them to successfully vote H.297 out of their committee, thus moving it on to its next step of a vote in the Senate proper.
Why is it important that Vermont pass H.297 into law?
In the last three years, President Obama has issued various mandates designed to clamp down on illegal wildlife trafficking. These federal actions are steps in the right direction, but they only address imports, exports and interstate trade. They do not address trade within each state. State legislation is designed to complement, not replicate, the federal actions and in so doing, close loopholes that perpetuate the problem.
When Obama issued his 2014 executive order (National Strategy for Combating Wildlife Trafficking), he also said this: “The United States must curtail its own role in the illegal trade in wildlife and must LEAD in addressing this issue on the global stage.” As it stands now, China is the largest market in the world for illegal ivory – the U.S. is second. It is critically important that China shut down its legal trade in ivory, for it provides a cover for massive amounts of illegal ivory to be sold there. Where there is legal trade, there is demand and the demand is what spurs the killing. As part of the work I do in elephant conservation, I have been to Beijing twice in the last three years. My takeaway is that while China is beginning to bow to Western pressure to outlaw its trade, it ultimately will waver in taking decisive action unless and until it sees the United States doing the same thing.
Four other states have passed legislation to protect these marvelous animals and almost 20 other states are working on the same.
Vermont has always been a state of firsts, enacted to make the world a better place. It was the first state to abolish slavery, to recognize civil unions, to ban fracking. We would not be the first state to ban ivory sales, but we would be in the forefront of this movement and that is its own reward.
Please contact your elected officials (http://legislature.vermont.gov/people) and state Senators Bill Doyle (
Please be proactive on this critically important issue by voicing your support for a total ban on the sale of ivory and rhino horn in the state of Vermont today.
Dillon lives in Waitsfield.
