[Vanders9]

Ivory fell out of favor as a material for jewellery and trinkets long ago in the west. It might be illegal to import the stuff, but nobody really wants it anyway. I mean its not as if there are hordes of illegal ivory traders risking life and limb to bring it in.

If you really wanted to stop the ivory trade, the best bet might be to completely legitimise it. The market would then be absolutely flooded with cheap, high quality stuff from the western world that people were trying to get rid of, and thereby do the poachers completely out of business. Problem solved. Do you think that will happen? Not a chance.

[Gay State Conservative]

Ivory fell out of favor as a material for jewelery and trinkets long ago in the west.

That's probably true but it's my understanding that it's still very *much* in demand in the Middle East and Far East.If I'm correct in that belief that argues strongly in favor of laws prohibiting the sale of "new" ivory.But "old" ivory is a different story,IMO.I believe that that is what our Community Organizer-In-Chief is addressing here.

[fini]

Your observation must be from where you live. I live in the south and I see ivory jewelry all of the time. Usually it is in the form of family heirlooms, but once you know what to look for, it is easy to identify (striations on the cross grain). In fact, just recently I met a young lady who was wearing a beautiful elephant ivory necklace. When I commented on it, she did not know it was elephant ivory (she bought it at a yard sale). I showed her the striations and immediately that piece of "costume jewelry" became a prized possession.

I even see whale ivory from time to time (blotches of irregular color).

You just need to know what to look for.

[PapaBear3625]

If you really wanted to stop the ivory trade, the best bet might be to completely legitimise it. The market would then be absolutely flooded with cheap, high quality stuff from the western world that people were trying to get rid of, and thereby do the poachers completely out of business. Problem solved. Do you think that will happen? Not a chance.

If you REALLY want to stop the poachers, make ivory legal, people will set up elephant ranches where they will raise elephants for their ivory (tranquilize the elephant, take the ivory, and let him grow more).

As a bonus, the country can issue poacher hunting licenses. There are people in the world who would pay money for that.