03/07/07 Ivory Trade

It's appalling for us in the Untied States to conceive in this era of heightened environmental awareness ivory is still a coveted commodity in Asia. In one bust, more than six tons of ivory was seized in Singapore in 2002. Unlike Global warming, where our efforts to stop air pollution fall completely on deaf ears throughout the Asian continent we are making an impact on the Ivory trade. US Scientists, funded by our Fish and Wildlife Department are fighting black market ivory by using DNA analysis. The Singapore Ivory that was seized was tracked by matching DNA samples of elephants throughout of Africa and remarkably traced to a small area centered near Zambia alerting law officials and conservationists to this trade route. It is time for strong arming through sanctions and boycotts to bring Japan (in the case of dolphins and whales) and China with a track record of exploiting a host of animals to realize the rest of the world has grown quite weary of their blatant disregard for our natural kingdom..