maybe they should air the images worldwide so people can see what is actually done .

bear to see him dead, but this will stay with me as each one I've ever read about has haunted me.

Humans...

about theses magnificent creatures.....

such a magnificent giant, destroyed by scum of the earth

murdered to make.

I love elephants. Satao was magnificent.

could spray painting them make they unsellable by poachers ?

or can they just polish the spray off of the ivory?

don't know how people could even want Ivory knowing where it comes from

in some really hideous shade of hot pink the way they dye baby seal fur. Make the tusks so unaesthetic to humans that no one would want them. The only other option I can see is to remove the poor creatures tusk---but that seems so cruel. Would it be possible to sedate them, take off the tusks and give them some sort of prosthetic tusk that is just as strong but made from a material that has no value? Because obviously every time there is a story about how we have to stop the ivory trade, the people who want to buy it just demand more and more to stock pile against the day when the supply dries up. So, we need to stop with the half measures.

The problem is that there's such a thing as legal ivory. It's either pre-ban or from some legal cull or sometimes states are allowed to sell confiscated contraband to pay for conservation efforts. And since there's no practical way to tell one tusk from another, the poached ivory gets shipped openly with fake papers saying it's the legal stuff.

So all that needs to be done to eliminate much of the poaching is to get rid of the legal ivory trade. Then there's no fake paperwork to be made, and all that shit is illegal. Get caught with it you're in deep shit. At least then you won't find hand carved ivory dustcatchers in every nick-knack shop in China.

Get the church on board too, that would do wonders for the huge market for ivory iconography in the Philippines, which is the second biggest market behind China.

and it would seem like a good idea. However, no matter what coloration you tried, someone would convince the assholes buying the ivory that hot pink has more aphrodisiac powers or the lime green ivory can cure the warts and skin diseases afflicting them. People who buy ivory and who are aware of how it is obtained are on the same level as the poachers - disgusting pieces of shit.

...leaving the animal to roam free with stumps and denying poachers their prize.

if they don't have to kill the animals and they can still get the ivory . why not just do that ?

While a quality dart gun with the proper mixture of tranquilizer spec'ed to the animal's weight is not cheap, not fast, and not easy to operate or procure.

You're making the assumption the poachers actually care about whether or not the animal lives or dies, when all they care about is their profit.

to not kill the animals so there will be less opposition to what they do and more people may even be willing to buy ivory because they wont see it as actually killing the animal.

Thus the report that this elephant was taken down by a POISON ARROW. Such an arrow just has to hit a blood vessel and the elephant is dead within hours (and some time Minutes). No one wants the meat so the meat can be made dangerous to eat by the same poison (and end up killing lions, African Wild Dogs, Hyenas, Leopards, Cheetahs, Buzzards and other meat eaters.

Cheetahs may be the least affected by such poison, they tend NOT to be scavengers. This is do to their build and small size compared to Lions, Hyenas and Leopards. They will not refuse a free meal, but the other scavengers will tend to drive them away from the kill. Yes, this method of killing elephants has the prospect of killing a lot of other animals depending on the poison used.

Thus an AK may cause less death of Animals then this poison arrow.

Horrible.

I don't have the links, but it has been reported here on DU.

What I have read, it was more to do with Rhino hones, is that poachers after tracking a Rhino without a horn, would kill it so they would not waste time tracking it again while they search for Rhinos to hunt. I can see the same Logic being applied by poachers of Elephants. Track down an elephant, find out it has no horns, then kill it so next time when they track an elephant it is one with tusks not one without tusks.

Now it's confirmed.

Humans suck.

Going outside to hug my dogs.

Like those assholes a few yeas ago that we're hunting them with RPGs.
Humans disgust me more often than not.

The humanity.

As I get older I find myself at an emotional loss when people I know die and animals who die at the hands of the insensitive and brutish die. All is diminished when this type of thing happens.

gentle giant.

There is a world of outrage but no one doing anything to stop it.

Obama/US Fish & Wildlife Ban (THANK you, President Obama)
http://www.salon.com/2014/02/17/elephant_in_the_room_no_more_obama_bans_ivory_sales_partner/
Now also even New York State Assembly has instituted ban
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/737439-new-york-state-assembly-approves-bill-banning-ivory-trade/

but , of course, there is whining, in our own country
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/21/arts/design/new-limits-on-ivory-sales-set-off-wide-concerns.html?_r=0

Just HORRIBLE that this not only continues to happen, but seems to be escalating, both in numbers and in degree of nastiness and violence. What is WRONG with us?

All of them are, every single one of these damned poachers!.

May they all ROT IN HELL!!!!!!!!

& recommend.

that way where ever the ivory went, it could be tracked.

The problem is making sure the tracking is done AND DNA tracking requires destruction of a piece of the ivory each time it is tested. Not that big a piece, but you test something often enough the amount of destruction will be noticeable.

to track things. I would think something like this could be done. If they can get DNA from tiny things, why would't this work? Maybe that way it could be stopped, or at least slowed down in some way.

and keeping a database of all LEGAL Ivory. My problem is I just see to many people involved in the Ivory trade for anything but a complete ban to work. Put the burden on the owner of the ivory that it is legal, not on the Government to show that it is not.

I really hate poachers.

it would take clearing a poacher's head from his shoulders several times in public display to begin to stop this.

I'd be fine with that as a last resort. I'd rather see the poacher's tools destroyed. His vehicles ruined, his home destroyed. Were I in power, Agenda 21 would be a fully staffed, fully funded arm of the military.

And this wouldn't happen anymore. And the Nisshin Maru would be an artificial reef. And so on, and so on.