ATADA Legislative Alert 3, Ivory Ban, 3 July, 2014

As a response to Presidential Directive, the Fish and Wildlife Service is revising its regulations and is considering putting place a nearly complete ban on elephant ivory. We ask that the membership write their Congressional Delegations a letter asking that they not approve the ivory ban. The text below (written by Roger Fry and Arch Thiessen) is suggested for this letter. Follow one of the links below to the .html page of each member of your delegation, one at a time, and copy and paste this letter into the form provided on their web page. As a title for your letter (requested in one of the information boxes on the form), use “Ivory Ban Won’t Work”. You may personalize the letter before or after pasting the letter into the form as the space on their form is a text editor box.

All Members of Congress provide essentially the same form for receiving a letter, but you may have to do a bit of digging into their web site to find it.

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Honorable Senator (Representative ) ________________

…personalize the introduction here…

The recently proposed Ivory Ban will not work. Reports from Africa indicate that one elephant is being killed every 15 minutes. An Ivory Ban will do too little, too late to have any significant impact on elephants killed by poachers. Only direct and immediate action at the source can prevent the elephant from becoming extinct.

The proposed Ban is a piece of “looks good” legislation that does not address the issue. It does, however, adversely impact law-abiding antique dealers, collectors, museums, musicians and others who possess legal older objects containing ivory.

What is needed is enforcement of existing anti-poaching laws in the country of origin and preservation of habitat. The United States needs to direct funds and effort at the problem in Africa.

The present U.S. emphasis on an Ivory Ban is diverting media attention and resources from the real problem and is providing the false impression that it will help save the elephant. It won’t. Extinction of the elephant could occur within the next 10 years if we do nothing. The ivory ban will not extend the lifetime of the elephant by a single day, while it penalizes countless thousands of Americans who have done nothing wrong.

Please do not support the ivory ban

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