86 Elephants Killed for Ivory
Recently there has been seemingly much more news coverage regarding the wanton destruction of the African elephant. The linked story says that 86 elephants were found slaughtered in Chad yesterday, including 33 pregnant females and 15 calves. This is on top of the news that a staggering 62 percent of African forest elephants were killed in the last decade.
I cannot express how disgusted and sickened I was and am to hear such news. The description in the latter link of an elephant mother trying to shield her calf with her body, sacrificing her life in the process, brought tears to my eyes and nausea to my stomach. I have never been a PETA type, by any stretch, but such wholesale destruction of a magnificent species, all for worthless trinkets, has really brought such matters to the forefront of my political consciousness.
It is nearly beyond comprehension that these intelligent and awe-inspiring creatures are being killed for such a small part of their body, and even more mind-boggling that such slaughter for this small body part is for the manufacture of crap trinkets and jewelry, with the demand for the ivory (per the article) originating almost entirely in China. I know that people in the US should probably not cast too many stones when it comes to environmental matters, but it seems that Chinese demand for "exotic" delicacies and trinkets and "natural remedies" is causing massive environmental destruction throughout the world.
Do the people buying these little tchochkes not care that their desire for an ivory ballerina (or whatever other tacky thing they're buying) is literally pushing a marvelous species to extinction? Do the poachers not care that once they extinguish the last elephant, their gravy (or rather, blood-based gravy) train is done? It seems they would be perfect Republicans: not looking past the tip of their own dicks, and not caring for anything further, to boot.
Here is my question: what can I (or we, for those who care about this issue) do to help save these animals? Call my congressman or senator? Yeah, like that ever works (see: calling Claire McCaskill's office on the day Sandy Hook happened and being told she would support an assault weapons ban--yeah, right). Giving money to WWF? (I am a broke-ass student, so this is not possible right now). The only thing I can think of is to boycott Chinese products, which will probably be difficult considering the profusion of cheap Chinese shit in every category of consumer good; that being said, hitting these creeps where it hurts (in the pocketbook) is the best thing I can come up with. The thought that my purchases are indirectly funding the slaughter of elephants is simply unacceptable to me. Perhaps stiffer penalties for ivory trafficking as well?
Any other ideas on actions to be taken to help stop this senseless destruction?