There is a high number of elephants being killed every year, too high a number. And the only reason being the small, exclusive and illegal ivory market. There are organizations holding conferences to "fight" for the prohibition (of something which has been illegal, although not in all countries,) of this activity.
I have a clear opinion on the theme, I'm against killing any animal for just a part of the creature. It's not like a cow which is farmed and then slaughtered for it's meat, in which case practically all of the cow is consumed - yes, I'm a meat eater and I'm against the stupid reason of farming elephants for ivory as much as farming tigers or bears for their skin. And considering the technological advance that we have, I think it's possible to clone ivory or even come up with a synthetic substitute (which I believe already exists.
I mostly blame the world, meaning the society that we live in, where greed and money have more power than solidarity and caring. Okay, there is some caring... for oneself. Since it's prohibition, the price of ivory has gone up... and so has poaching. Recently, I've read an article in the newspaper stating that in Barcelona, poachers sell their illegally obtained ivory which is "washed" to look as if it is old ivory to auction houses which don't require a CITES certificate and then sell the said ivory to a buyer with a proof of purchase (usually of Asian origin), who then goes to China where he/she can sell it to any tourist who wants to buy it. The thing is that there is a big market in Eastern Asia for these items. But there is also a problem, anyone buying ivory there and comes back to Europe and can't provide a CITES certificate is in trouble.
The said thing is that there are countries that are too poor to support the prohibition on this mass butchering of elephants and rhinos. The problem being that they don't get or get little support from other countries. And it's not only that, but the people in these countries have other problems which can be easily solved but due to political interests are still further abused or prolonged without reason.
What I've come up with is hunt the hunters. Yes, killing a fellow human is considered murder, but isn't killing a fellow living thing just for it's tusk or horn as well? I for one, when I have children, I will take them to Africa to see elephants and rhinos for real, and hope that they can do the same with their children.
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