[Jewelry making - Article 00020] - Re: [Orchid] Endangered species materials

[Ian W. Wright]

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HI Ive,

>     my philosophy on elephant ivory, poachers, seizure and destruction
>     is this: instead of destroying the confiscated ivory (which
>     benefits the poachers by limiting supply), they should store all of
>     it and two or three times a year have an auction to sell the
>     confiscated martial. the money gained from such auctions would then
>     be divided among the parks and rangers charged with the protection
>     of elephants; more, or better motivated, rangers should result in
>     less poaching. 

    So you reckon that paying the rangers a bonus based upon the amount
    of iv ory poached from their parks will make them stop the poachers
    who are pro viding that bonus?? I think not..... Also, there is a
    high probability t hat many of the poachers in the African game parks
    are actually relatives of the rangers. So, how about the opposite -
    penalise the rangers for ev ery elephant killed in their reserve -
    would that work or would the poach ers learn to tip the rangers so
    that they were no worse off?? I have a sm all stock of ivory which I
    obtained about 15 years ago from a closed-down cutlery factory and,
    whilst I know from talking to a former employee tha t, from its
    position in the back corner of a dusty and long-unused attic
    storeroom, that it originates from at least the 1920's or 30's, I
    have no way of proving that and thus cannot use it commercially -
    except, perhap s, for repairing antiques where it can be blended in
    with original old st uff. This is a real shame as, you might say, the
    animal died in vain - ev en though I would personally never condone
    killing an animal just for so small a part of its anatomy. The sooner
    someone develops a reliable, affo rdable and accurate dating test,
    the better. There should also be a way o f determining whether an
    animal died a natural death or not as, again, be ing unable to use
    parts of an animal found dead already is a real waste. 

Best wishes,
Ian
Ian W. Wright
SHEFFIELD UK
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