eBay ivory trade "threatens elephants"

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Elephants are being threatened with extinction by a “rampant trade” in ivory on eBay, says a leading wildlife charity. The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) examined 2,200 ivory items on eBay sites in the UK, Australia, China, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Canada and the US. It found that more than 90% of them breached eBay’s own rules on the sale of ivory items. Laws on the sale of ivory vary from country to country, but generally ivory may not be sold unless it’s a worked antique item accompanied by a certification of age.

The charity has now called for a global ban on ivory sales, and on eBay to lead the way on this. An eBay spokesman said that “we are committed to working with [the IAFW] to tackle the problem of illegal ivory sales.”

2 Responses

  1. I for one have a pretty old bit of worked ivory (maybe 100 years old..certainly ain’t new) but I have no certification and I wouldn’t know where to start. IFAW believe I shouldn’t sell that piece of ivory and probably hold that by owning it or selling it I would be encouraging trade in new ivory. Seems a bit silly to me.

    I can’t say I much approve of this stirring up of nonsense when we all know the vast majority of this ivory being sold is a) old b) in now related to the current elephant slaughter and c) is being sold by people who hold no ill will towards the lovable pachiaderms.

    Should we prevent new ivory goods from being sold? Absolutely. Does it do much good to pretend that old ivory is anything to do with this fight? Not really.

    No elephants were hurt in the posting of this comment.

  2. I had to remove a piece of ivory some time back because, although the silver was hallmarked and so could be dated, there was no certification for the ivory content. As it had been bought second hand at auction (which I would expect most old ivory would be) the chances of getting any certification are dim to say the least.

    Question is, why would someone want to report something so obviously old?

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