What If There Were No Elephants Left?

On World Elephant Day 2015, we ask this question, and offer our solutions to save an incredible species.

By Dune Ives, Senior Director of Vulcan Philanthropy, Vulcan Inc.

Today is World Elephant Day. As I consider what the future holds for my children, I often ask myself what our world, their world, would be like without elephants. This is not an outlandish question. It is a real possibility.

I am fortunate to have walked with elephants — to have stood nearby listening to their rumbling while they communicate with each other. I’ve witnessed the beauty of these magnificent and intelligent creatures that care deeply for their family and mourn their dead.

Every day, including today, 100 elephants are needlessly killed for their tusks and meat. More than 30,000 of these awe-inspiring animals are poached each year by AK-47s, coordinated helicopter attacks and mass cyanide poisoning. The current rate of decimation will mean the extinction of this iconic species in my children’s lifetime.

Elephants may seem to be very far away from our own natural surroundings. Yet, from my Seattle vantage point and my view of the Olympic Mountains, the very ports I look past have become channels for illegal trade in wildlife products, including trinkets made from the ivory of dead elephants’ tusks. The United States is the second largest market for such trade, so the cause of the elephants’ deaths is actually very close to home.

348,627 signatures gathered in Washington statedelivered to the capitol of Olympia to put I-1401 on the ballot in November 2015.

Since 2010, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has taken more than 50 enforcement actions related to the illegal trafficking in elephant parts, but none resulted in any jail time or criminal fines. Washington is a market for illegal wildlife products because traffickers know that our state has toothless laws. They know that even if they are caught, they will walk away scot-free.

Fortunately, in Seattle and Washington State, elephants have advocates. Here, many individuals and organizations are determined to prevent their extinction, including Paul Allen’s Vulcan Inc. Vulcan is attacking the illegal trade by every means possible — from informing conservation efforts and funding important research, to eliminating supply and preventing transit of illegal ivory, meat and other body parts.

At Vulcan we firmly believe that policy change, both at the state and federal level, is critical to close the loopholes that allow traffic in wildlife to continue. In Washington, we helped develop Initiative 1401 and the Save Animals Facing Extinction campaign to support it. When passed, the initiative will prohibit the sale, purchase and distribution of products made from 10 endangered animals: elephants, rhinos, lions, tigers, leopards, cheetahs, marine turtles, pangolins, sharks and rays. While it is illegal to bring products from endangered species into the United States, once these products are within our state borders, state fish and wildlife law enforcement has no authority to apprehend sellers or buyers.