More than a tonne of ivory confiscated from New York and Philadelphia was crushed in Times Square yesterday to show intolerance for elephant poaching and the illegal ivory trade, federal wildlife authorities said.
The event demonstrated the urgency for stopping the criminal trade, which is killing elephants faster than the animals are reproducing, imperilling their populations, the US Fish and Wildlife Service said.
The carved ivory, some of it still in the form of an elephant’s tusk, was on display on a table in Times Square.
Officials held it up piece by piece, then placed it on a conveyer belt, above, that fed into an enormous mechanical crusher, where it was pulverised it into dust.
“This is an illegal product and we feel that burning it or destroying it gets it out of commercial use and, therefore, there’s less of a chance for it to find its way into the marketplace,” said Wildlife Conservation Society spokesman John Calvelli.
The ivory was confiscated from dealers and retailers in New York City and Philadelphia.
About 35,000 elephants are killed in Africa every year for their ivory, according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service, which organised the event in partnership with the Wildlife Conservation Society.
New York City is the largest port of entry for illegal wildlife goods in the US, according to the New York department of environmental conservation. – (Reuters)