An African elephant is slaughtered every 14 minutes.
This petition is to have the US government classify both the African Savannah Elephant and African Forest Elephant as endangered species, which would tighten restrictions on the import, export and sale of ivory products to, from and in the United States. After China, the United States is the world’s second-largest market for ivory, with the legal trade in old ivory being used as a cover for illegal trade in new ivory. Last month, a senior Chinese wildlife official pledged to end the ivory trade if the United States does, too.
This American reclassification of African elephants now can transform the way the planet’s two largest economies — and its two largest ivory consumers — are handling the elephant extinction crisis.