Aug. 25–On Friday, Alec Strauss showed off a large, engraved elephant tusk at the home of local scrimshaw artist and African elephant advocate Linda Stone, whose Kerrville house is a treasure trove of ivory objects.
Stone has been a scrimshaw artist for 37 years whose nationally known work includes an engraved design on an ivory leg that appeared in the 2013 film “The Lone Ranger,” starring Johnny Depp.
Before June 24, Strauss, Stone and most people in the U.S. could sell their ivory without being considered criminals by the federal government. But a new U.S. Fish and Wildlife rule, spurred on by the Clinton Global Initiative and a 2013 presidential executive order, makes the sale of most African elephant ivory imported after Jan. 18, 1990 illegal. It’s still possible to trade in ivory, but the federal rule requires documentation proving the ivory was imported before 1990 — paperwork that was never required before and which most people don’t have.
“Every new law they have passed does not save one living elephant — it only hurts collectors, museums, musicians and artists like me,” said Stone, who’s part of a small community of people lobbying for a change in the rules to allow sales of elephant ivory from animals that weren’t poached. “I attended the Third Advisory Council meeting in Washington on June 9 to speak on this issue. That committee, whose members were calling for an ivory ban before they held their first meeting, made their first recommendation only four days later for a ban.”
Strauss and his wife, who lived for decades in Zimbabwe, where they owned a safari company, were in town this week for a meeting of the Hill Country chapter of the Safari Club International, which funds and directs programs intended to conserve wildlife.
The Strausses, who are retired Leakey residents, said much of the proceeds from hunts they sponsored went to local communities. Sport-hunted trophies of ivory are still allowed into the U.S., but no commercial imports are allowed, which Stone says removes the incentives for African nations and communities to value elephants.
The animals are known to sometimes devastate crops and kill human beings in Africa, so if the tusks of legally-hunted animals can’t be sold, the animals may be more prone to simply being regarded as a nuisance and eradicated, Stone said.
She and the Strausses are hoping the U.S. Congress passes a bill under consideration, H.R.5052 — the Lawful Ivory Protection Act of 2014 — which eases the current federal ban.
However, the stance of the Fish and Wildlife Service is that a nearly complete ban on commercial elephant ivory trade is the best way to ensure that U.S. domestic markets do not contribute to the decline of the species
Violating the new federal rule, if prosecuted as a violation of the Endangered Species Act, is punishable by as much as a year in prison and a $100,000 fine for an individual or $200,000 for an organization. Those who engage in illegal wildlife trade under the act may also face prosecution under the Lacey Act’s anti-trafficking provisions, which carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison and fines of $250,000 for an individual or $500,000 for an organization.