US crushes 6 tons of illegal ivory to send message to poachers, traffickers
A massive stockpile of elephant ivory
was crushed by the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service on Thursday as part of
an escalating push to stamp out illegal
wildlife trafficking around the world.
The destruction of more than six tons
of seized tusks and carvings at the
Rocky Mountain Arsenal National
Wildlife Refuge outside of Denver was
meant to draw attention to a global
poaching crisis, driven by organized
crime syndicates, that has decimated
the population of African elephants.
"We're doing this to send a signal to
the world that we need to crush the
illegal trade in ivory and wildlife
products in general," U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe said
on Thursday. "These magnificent
animals are in great jeopardy because
of the commercial trade for their
parts." The ivory was pulverized into
powder and small nuggets using a rock
crusher that was about the size of two
dump trucks.
