Stop Hunting Elephants to Extinction for Ivory

Target: Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada

Goal: Protect elephants from being ruthlessly slaughtered for ivory.

Every year more than twenty thousand elephants are brutally killed for their ivory. At this rate, both African and Asian elephants will be extinct in the wild in only a few decades.

Africa was home to more than a million elephants in the year 1980, while today the number is reduced by half. With humans destroying the elephant population, these majestic animals are on the verge of extinction.

As a product of high value, ivory is linked to organized terrorism. Terrorist groups commit mass slaughter using helicopters and rifles to obtain the precious good. Poachers use vicious methods like chainsaws to cut off the elephants’ tusks, mutilating the corpses of the animals while doing so.

The United States wrongfully lifted the ban on the importation of elephant trophies, decreasing the protection of elephants that is so urgently needed. Additionally, Canada was one of four countries to be against the closure of domestic ivory markets across the globe.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) prohibited 1989 the sale of elephant ivory internationally. Each country, however, creates its own laws regarding the trade of ivory within its borders. Despite the international trade ban, ivory poaching has more than doubled since 2007. The legal ivory trade permits illegal ivory that is poached after 1989 to be sold because of the difficulty differentiating between old and new products.

Our generation could be the one that lets elephants become extinct. Canada has to become one of the many countries changing their laws to protect the world’s largest land mammal before it is too late. The only way to protect elephants from extinction is to ban all elephant ivory trades. Sign this petition to prohibit the ivory trade in Canada.

PETITION LETTER:

Dear Mr. Trudeau,

You are responsible for the deaths of thousands of elephants by allowing the trade of ivory in your country. I ask you, why is Canada contributing to the destruction of elephants by keeping its ivory market open for business?

Elephant trophies are legally permitted to enter Canada. Between 2007 and 2016, Canada allowed the importation of hundreds of items, including feet and ivory, that were torn off the elephants after they were brutally slaughtered.

Although China is known as the largest consumer of ivory in the world, it shut down its domestic ivory trade at the end of the year 2017. Canada should follow China and many other counties’ lead. The barbaric killing of these majestic creatures has to stop.

Ban all domestic trade of elephant ivory, make the import, export, and re-export of all elephant ivory illegal, including hunting trophies.

Sincerely,

[Your Name Here]

Photo Credit: Ray in Manila