Clinton calls on world leaders to end African elephant slaughter

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called on world leaders to stop the epic slaughter of African elephants, a wildlife crisis that could lead to the extinction of the Sub-Saharan species.

CBS News went to Kenya last week, where every year 25,000 elephants are being killed by poachers. Their tusks are sold for thousands of dollars, often to wealthy Chinese customers who prize ornate ivory carvings.

"Our goal is to inform more people about this global conservation crisis," Clinton said in a video address. "Attacks on elephants and rhinos are multiplying at an alarming rate."

In this photo taken on Monday, Sept. 5, 2011, Malaysian customs officers inspect elephant tusks which had been seized on Sept. 2, in Port Klang, outside Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Malaysian authorities have confiscated some 700 African elephant tusks worth about 3 million ringgit ($1 million) destined for China, the third seizure of illegal ivory since July. (AP Photo)

The State Department also declared Tuesday "Wildlife Conservation Day." Clinton instructed U.S. diplomats all over the world to raise awareness about the trafficking of wild animals.

African gangs, some with links to organized crime, hunt the animals in order to make a fortune from selling tusks to merchants.

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Protecting elephants against poachers in Kenya

"It's the worst that it's been in the last 30 years," Ian Craig, a conservationist, told CBS News correspondent M. Sanjayan last week (watch full interview to the left). "It's a steady deterioration, and it's getting worse."

Although illegal, the practice has a heavy financial incentive. Craig says a gunman who poaches an elephant with tusks weighing 10 kilograms would receive about $2,500 -- more than five times what an average Kenyan worker earns in a month.

And the trade extends across Africa, from Tanzania and Kenya north to Cairo, Egypt. CBS News correspondent Holly Williams found it wasn't difficult to buy ivory in the Egyptian capital, where she went undercover in a busy market.

Although selling ivory is against the law, a shop owner casually showed Williams and her crew into a back room where he showed six tusks -- two were offered for just under $2,000. Business is booming, he said, and his best customers are Chinese.

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Illegal ivory trade leads to Cairo

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The survival story of "Mountain Bull"

25 Photos

Blood & ivory: Elephant poaching in Kenya

The shop owner, Essam, even showed a special trick for smuggling ivory: Spray painting the tusks to look like wood or metal, which is easily removed later with nail polish remover. Several other traders were spotted operating openly in the same market.

The Egyptian government makes periodic attempts to confiscate the illegal tusks, but the ivory there is just a sliver of a widespread operation. Chinese authorities have also made efforts to seize trafficked ivory, but refused to respond to questions by CBS News -- including about allegation that government officials are involved in smuggling.

Tom Milliken, who tracks the illegal wildlife trade in Africa, told Williams he's fighting a losing battle with Chinese criminal gangs.

"There's just so many potential consumers, there's just so many potential smugglers, there's so much wealth that can be employed to do the wrong thing and not the right thing," Milliken said.

Some conservationists, rangers and government veterinarians have resorted to a controversial method to help protect elephants. Craig, who co-founded the wildlife conservationist group Northern Rangelands Trust, told Sanjayan they cut off parts of an elephants tusks to make them less of a target.

Craig said he also hopes the allure of tourism will help protect the Kenyan wildlife.

"They're seeing better security for themselves, money being generated from tourism going into education, water protects," Craig said. "Where these benefits are clean and clear to communities, it's working."

[ashleyforelephants]

I made this petition in the hopes of decreasing the demand for elephant ivory. You can help by signing. If this thing takes off, I think it would make a big statement. We are running out of time!!

http://www.change.org/petitions/pope-benedict-xvi-sign-the-cites-treaty-and-condemn-ivory-use-for-religious-icons

[okbluzman]

Forgot to add, not only for the poachers. The SAME punishment for ANYONE caught in possession of poached ivory! NO EXCEPTIONS, AGE, SEX OR OTHERWISE!!!! Screw these barbarians to hell!!!

[okbluzman]

The title should read "Begin the Slaughter of Poachers. I'll bet after just a couple of months of people seeing poachers teeth strung like beads on pieces of twine draped around their towns they'd start to get the message.

NO TOLERANCE!!! SUMMARY EXECUTION AND PUBLIC DISPLAY OF THE MUTILATED CORPSES!!!!!! That's the only way these people are going to stop!

[onthedelaware]

It is excellent That Hillary Clinton speaks out. What is her resolve? What is her plan? Does she speak out about trade with a ruthless government. Debt with ruthless government? No more importation of Chinese goods? How do we stop animal torture if we are partners in a society deficient in common values? Why do we invest in China? Why have we moved jobs to China? Are we actually helping the Chinese Government to exploit workers? To trade in ivory? to assist poachers? When is it that their crimes against humanity and animal life on this planet become our crimes? Solution for at least elephants: Employee poachers in assisting long-term international wild life project, funded by governments and corporations currently involved with Chinese imports and exports (percentage of their profits) to remove tusks from elephants on all continents subject to poachers. Tag and track electronically younger male elephants to determine when they must have tusks removed by program. International organization funded by UN countries fund a program to identify poachers and buyers with large monetary rewards for those that participate in the identification and end poaching. The bounty must be far larger than any profit that can be gained from killing elephants and money is the key to ending this. As to the Chinese indifference to animal life, extend that to other parts of Asia including Japan. The torture of Bears in several countries should be addressed immediately and serious economic consequences for continuing with this practice. Bears should be conviscated, given medical intervention and protection and habitat. This practice is idiotic since the same substance for which they are tortured can be supplied for little cost.

[kevcl6750]

Human beings are a scourge on this planet !

[kevcl6750]

Human beings are a scourge on this planet !

[judymar14]

These savages will never stop killing these beautiful beasts until the demand is stopped. Killing as many as possible of these so call human beings in the cruel ways African countries are noted for, and hanging their bodies in a tree to rot could slow the slaughter down, some might not want to risk being the next to join their co-horts in a tree, that is if they aren't too ignorant to get the message.

[IPonUall2]

Understanding that the elephant's ivory is the goal to harvest.
Why not develop plastic replacement tusks for the elephant to use.
The tusks can be removed surgically and implants can take their place.
Tag the beasts, and from time to time maintain them.
Would that work?

[dman6015]

*Bleeping* Chinese men and all their stupid customs/rituals. Japanese men aren't much better. Elephant tusks, Rhino horns, Shark fins, Dolphin meat, etc., all to make them more "potent and virile" (not necessarily the tusks, but the others).

[liberalmike]

I agree this is an outrage and the chinese govt. lets this illegal trade continue without any cares about these beautifull animals or whether they drive them into distinction.

BOYCOTT ALL CHINESE GOODS!!!!

[jefforsythe]

The brutal Chinese Communist Party is so corrupt and far away from basic truths in its behaviour, it can no longer recognize good from bad, right from wrong and satire from facts.This is a fact. When dealing with Western Governments and businesses, they have to have on hand advisors to let them know how to react because they are so lost because of their own brutality and lack of a good moral base. Since they took power in 1949, they have murdered over eighty million of their own people and are now attempting the genocide of tens of millions of innocent Falun Dafa practitioners by the use of torture, slavery, organ harvesting and murder.The CCP has literally lost its soul. This is just my understanding, thank you.

[IPonUall2]

All I know is Microsoft recently sent in investigators to look for software piracy.
The representatives bought brand new laptop computers and upon post test, the pc's began suspicious behaviour by accessing closed and open websites, downloading viruses, and ping other pc's.....
I never heard another report about it since.

This I do know, my pc manufactured in China, is a gaming pc, yet I can't even play the operating system's "Online Backgammon" without being beaten in almost every game.
I have played backgammon almost my entire life, and consider myself master.
Every online game it seems, my weapons are useless and I get killed easily...

I have my suspicions about this being tied into that Microsoft story.