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-   -   'Tusk': Mick present at 'Ivory Crush' in NYC's Central Park (http://ledge.fleetwoodmac.net/showthread.php?t=57397)

Gypsy 08-04-2017 08:24 AM

'Tusk': Mick present at 'Ivory Crush' in NYC's Central Park
 
From the Daily Mail, 8/3/17:
http://http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ne...-New-York.html

Brought to tusk! New York's black market in ivory is smashed to smithereens in Central Park as sculptures and carvings worth $4.5 MILLION are fed through a rock crusher

'Mick Fleetwood and Kristen Davis were there to watch the Ivory Crush. Both are passionate anti-poaching activists.'

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/...1832522741.jpg

Two tons of ivory worth $4.5million was destroyed in Central Park on Thursday in a milestone showcase of New York City's war on the trade.

Trinkets, statues and jewelry crafted from the tusks of at least 100 slaughtered elephants were fed into a rock crusher in Central Park to demonstrate the state's commitment to smashing the illegal ivory trade.

The artifacts were placed ceremoniously onto a conveyor belt to be ground into dust included piles of golf-ball-sized Japanese sculptures, called netsuke, intricately carved into monkeys, rabbits and other fanciful designs.

Many of the items were beautiful. Some were extremely valuable.

State environmental officials and Wildlife Conservation Society members, who partnered with Tiffany & Co. for the 'Ivory Crush', said no price justifies slaughtering elephants for their tusks.

The ivory pieces sent to the crusher included pieces that were seized by undercover investigators from Metropolitan Fine Arts & Antiques in New York City in 2015.

The store's owners pleaded guilty last week to illegally selling ivory, the store's owners agreed to donate $100,000 each to the World Wildlife Fund and Wild Tomorrow Fund for their endangered species protection projects.

Also headed for the crusher was a netsuke, depicting three men with a fish, worth an estimated $14,000, and a pair of elaborately carved ivory towers worth $850,000.

More than 270 tons (245 metric tons) of ivory have been destroyed by governments and conservation groups in high-profile public events in 22 countries, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Some critics have argued that destroying ivory could drive up black market prices by increasing scarcity, thus encouraging more poaching. Others argue that it's wasteful and that it would be better to sell confiscated ivory to pay for conservation efforts in poor African countries.

Wendy Hapgood, founder of Wild Tomorrow Fund, said crushing events send a signal that laws banning the ivory trade will be strictly enforced.

'It's a way to tell the world that ivory shouldn't be coveted, it should be destroyed. It belongs only on an elephant,' she said.

'By crushing a ton of ivory in the middle of the world's most famous public park, New Yorkers are sending a message to poachers, traffickers and dealers who try to set up shop right here on our streets,' said John Calvelli, the Society's executive vice president and director of the 96 Elephants Campaign.

'We won't stand for the slaughter of elephants. Nobody needs an ivory brooch that badly.'

Since August 2014, New York law has prohibited the sale, purchase, trade or distribution of anything made from elephant or mammoth ivory or rhinoceros horn, except in limited situations with state approval. Enforcement efforts have focused on New York City, the nation's largest port of entry for illegal wildlife goods, state officials said.

The sale of ivory across international boundaries has been banned since 1990, but the U.S. and many other countries have allowed people to buy and sell ivory domestically, subject to certain regulations that gave smugglers loopholes. Last year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service instituted a near-total ban on the domestic commercial ivory trade and barred sales across state lines.


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