SAN DIEGO (AP) — San Diego zoo officials have burned items containing rhinoceros horn with an estimated black market value of $1 million in a symbolic gesture to show the United States is committed to ending illegal wildlife trafficking.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service partnered with the zoo and California Department of Fish and Wildlife on Thursday to hold the massive bonfire of confiscated items at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. Officials say it was the first of its kind in the nation.

A new California law prohibits the sale or purchase of rhino horn and ivory products.

Officials say a rhino is poached every eight hours in Africa and they could become extinct in the wild in 15 years.