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Deadly ivory, fur trade

 Deadly ivory and fur trade

(Valentine, Jules & Enki)

Every year, many wild animals are killed by hunters, as well as poachers, to make legal or illegal profit with their horns, tusks or furs.
During the last century, the elephant populations all around the world decreased massively because of the legal ivory trade. Extracted from their tusks, ivory has been, and is still, used for jewellery, flatware handles, furniture inlays, piano keys or billiard balls. To continue to provide raw material to make those objects in spite of the international ban on sale of ivory in 1989, poachers brutally kill elephants. Shooting them with automatic weapons, they then cut their tusks off with axes and even chainsaws. Some people estimate that 8% of elephants (around 36,000 animals) are being shot every year. Moreover the growing demand for ivory and its considerable black market price have the effect of threatening the elephants’ lives. In order to avoid fighting against these murderers, many countries signed an international agreement, called CITES. After having closed the European and American ivory markets in the late eighties, this organization nonetheless approved different sales, especially between African countries (Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa) and Japan, which is the only country with China to be allowed to buy ivory. Indeed, in spite of the work of associations like Born Free, which struggles every day to make the ivory trade forbidden, CITES sometimes allows sales because of the pressure of sellers. Fighting the ivory illegal trade, as well as the legal one is thus a perpetual challenge.
The fur mostly used before used to be the beaver ones, to make cow-boys hats for example; but today one of the most used is the polar bear ones, in order to make jackets, clothes, boots and even blankets. Fox, rabbit, seal, dog, cat and a lot more pelts are used to make clothes and accessories. But wearing a fur is still a luxury. Each year, over 50 million animals are poached for their leather. In 2010, 2.6 animals raised in farms were killed for their fur, for 700 000 killed by poachers. The supporters of fur trade still believe that their hunting methods are not brutal at all, and that the animal species are plentiful. They also ask for the right to practice a traditional way of life. On the contrary, opponents care about animals rights; they think that hunters make them suffer unnecessarily, whereas supporters disagree and keep saying that there is no difference between killing an animal for its pelt and killing one for its meat. Nowadays, even if wildlife hunting is still allowed, the importance of fur trade is decreasing and remains divisive because of its brutality. The farm fur is the mostly used.
In order to reduce ivory and fur trade people are looking for alternatives such as mammoth, vegetable or plastic ivory or false fur, but all those alternatives are unappreciated by consumers. Therefore, to stop the massacre, many countries (including Austria, the United Kingdom and Croatia) have chosen to ban fur trade. International ivory trade has been also forbidden since 1989. However poachers still continue to kill endangered species. That's why 175 nations regularly meet in the CITES (the last conference took place on March 2013 in Bangkok). However, the best way to end the trade is actually to educate consumers to reduce demand. In China, a survey proved that 70% of the population didn’t know ivory came from shot elephants and thought it fell like teeth. If the problem has considerably decreased in developed countries, thanks to all the warning campaigns, poachers go make money in developing countries, essentially in Asia. Eco-warriors keep fighting all around the world to protect endangered species from men and to guarantee a better future for the earth's inhabitants.
Toolbox:
Beaver: large rodent that lives partly in water (castor)
CITES: Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora
Horn: corne
Pelts: the skin of an animal with the fur, wool, or hair still on it
Poacher: braconnier
Tusk: défense ( d'éléphant )


Bibliography : 

  • HUMANE SOCIETY INTERNATIONAL. The real victims of fashion, [online]. Page updated in 2013. Page consulted on 04/16/13.
    URL:     http://www.hsi.org.au/?catID=68



                                                                                                                                         



Refrain :
For they don't deserve to die to be turned into clothes,
For they don't wanna be killed to become furniture!

Couplet 1 :
Living apart from the others,
Struggling, fighting for family,

Abandonned by sisters, brothers,
And now feeling so lonely.

Looking for food in that jungle,
Life is not a bed of roses.

Shot by the man with the firegun,
The elephant thus collapses (for ivory).


Couplet 2 :
Always bothering each other,
They're often meeting in the street.

From time to time friends forever,
Their relationship is bitter sweet.

It's like of the deaf dialog:
Always figthing like cat and dog.

Thinking they'll have brillant futures,
They will still be killed for their furs.


Couplet 3 :
Coming back home, wearing a coat,
Keeping her warm from the cold world,

In a sea of trouble she can float,
Living in a western comfort.

Playing a tusk-key piano,
Enjoying life is her credo.

Does she care 'bout animals' lives,
Killed to fulfill her well-being?

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