Elephants are dying every day to the lifeless hearts of poachers to what you may ask, well for their ivory. According to WWF GLOBAL, about every day 100 elephants are killed which means about 100,000 die every year. Tens of thousands of elephants are being killed every year for their ivory tusks. The ivory is often carved into ornaments and jewelry – China is the biggest consumer market for such products.  

The government doesn’t do much to stop the ivory trade, in fact the most that they have done is ban the ivory trade in 1989 until the population has went back up. What the government is doing now is patrolling along the elephant’s main habitat to stop the poachers, but this doesn’t do much because by the time the patrols reach the poachers, they are already gone. That means it’s up to Donald Trump to do something about this bloody slaughter. Mikas Padilla, 8th grader, said, “I’d have to say the government should demand or give a warning or make a law where it’s held.” She’s right because that way the elephant population can increase.

Reported wildlife trafficking and seizures of animal parts have increased dramatically the past few years. The illicit wildlife and plant trade is estimated to be worth $70-213 billion a year (PDF) and infringes on the natural resources of countries and wealth of businesses around the world. An lot of people believe that they need to stop what they are doing because it’s not fair to the elephants.

The Ivory Trade is illegally done in several countries, but is most common with China. Ivory is used to make sculptures and similar items. Selling ivory is hard to stop because  of how much money people make off of it they don’t care about the animal’s life.

Also, some small shop owners that sell ivory do not know that it’s illegal.What is sad about the tradition of carving ivory is that it has been happening ever since the prehistoric times but the people back then killed the elephants and mammoths for food and warmth to not just for the tusks.

In Conclusion, elephants are endangered because of poaching for their tusks so this slaughter needs to stop. Numbers are going down each day, and will soon become extinct if people don’t stop this crime.