Forest elephants are being brutally slaughtered on a massive scale in Africa to fuel a booming ivory trade in a certain East Asian country. If this does not end NOW, elephants will soon be extinct. Not only is this slaughter heartbreaking but the forests that the local people depend on - that we all need - are sustained by the elephants.
And the heavily armed poachers who commit these violent crimes don't limit their violence to elephants. As then Senator Kerry said a hearing on May 24, 2012: "[T]he scope and lethality of the poaching industry is only increasing as armed groups expand their criminal networks and profit from the lucrative trade in conflict minerals and illegal timber....criminal gangs and militias are wiping out entire herds and killing anyone who gets in their way."