Why Do Poachers Kill African Elephants?

1194 Words3 Pages

African Wild life elephants will become extinct in the next 10 to 15 years because of poachers. Poachers have consistently been killing African elephants for their tusks. This by far the must inhumane act of all. Poachers are people that voluntarily kill for money. That money can feed hundreds of children in third world countries, it can save lives. Instead, people are buying these high end sculptures made of ivory as an adorned decorative piece for their home. Ivory is made from the trucks of elephants, which they must die in order for people to retrieve it. Wild African elephants are in their prime of extinction. Sadly, this is not due to natural cause it is because of poachers who kills these creatures in order to make people sculptures. …show more content…

Poachers have intoxicated water where the elephants drink from, they have used automatic weapons, and have even used poisoned arrows to kill them. These enormous creatures are gentle, and are being killed for their tusks. This is greed at it’s finest. Poachers have not yet to be stopped and about 92 elephants are being killed everyday. Since this is illegal, ironically when someone smuggles ivory in the United States they only do about 25 months in most cases. Poachers only do only two years of prison time, but an elephant is completely dead because of this. Sadly, poachers are still very hard to find and have not yet been brought up to …show more content…

Poachers travel from country to country and they are undeniably fast working. This is why more people should be working as investigators to track these people down. It is sad to say that poachers are the reason why elephants will become extinct, but there are not enough resources, laws, to actually prohibit this endangerment. Ivory should be completely internationally banned to save this species. Wild African elephants will soon become like dinosaurs to our grand children because people of authority have decided that it is not an issue to properly take care of.
Poachers look for the biggest tusks which is usually the oldest matriarchs in the herds and are the first ones to be hunted down. This leaves abandoned and wandering elephants a slim chance of survival. This is another reason as to why so many elephants are dying day to day. These young elephants have human like feelings and without the knowledge or help from their wiser elephants they usually die.

Show More
Related

  • Should Trophy Hunting Be Banned Persuasive Essay

    547 Words  | 2 Pages

    Killing animals to collect their horns, tusks and teeth is a common activity. Hunters firstly kill the animals with shotguns or snipers, and then they cut the animals into pieces to take the parts that they want to keep as souvenirs. Africa is usually the chosen “playground” because it has a wide range of animal species and lots of endemic animals. For some people, trophy hunting is a sport, and for others, it’s a job to make a living. However, trophy hunting jeopardizes animals and puts the endangered animals in a risk of extinction, and therefore it shouldn’t be allowed.

    Read More

  • Pros And Cons Of Poaching

    633 Words  | 2 Pages

    First, poaching is a huge game being played. It hurts the animals or species that are being targeted, which causes them to increase their chances of extinction. Orietta C. Estrada, an animal and environmental writer, explains that poaching "is a crime fueled by a lucrative black market trade of animal parts"(onegreenplanet). To these people, it is all about the money. They do not bother to think about how much pain this creature may feel. The only thing they desire to obtain is the big dollars. The animals that are affected by this monstrous act are elephants, tigers, rhinoceros, Tibetan antelopes, gorillas, and great apes(animalpoachers.weebly). The most they have done with dealing with the poachers is give them a cruel punishment for being caught. It does not work because it still happens today and the animals are still dying and becoming

    Read More

  • Shooting an elephant

    1369 Words  | 3 Pages

    After the Industrial Revolution, the act of stronger countries taking control of weaker countries became a common practice of colonization or Imperialism. When one think of “Imperialism” they might think of the country and the people that have been taken over. Their resources are being taken, their people are being mistreated so of course people will feel bad for the conquered countries. What people don't know is that imperialism is a double edge sword. In the story “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell, we are shown Orwell's view on British's Imperialism, though the British empire found use in Imperialism, Orwell found faults and that it hurts the conqueror as much as it hurts the conquered.

    Read More

  • Shooting an Elephant

    422 Words  | 1 Pages

    A police officer in the British Raj, the supposedly 'unbreakable'; ruling force, was afraid. With his gun aimed at a elephant's head, he was faced with the decision to pull the trigger. That officer was George Orwell, and he writes about his experience in his short story, 'Shooting an Elephant';. To save face, he shrugged it off as his desire to 'avoid looking the fool'; (George Orwell, 283). In truth, the atmosphere of fear and pressure overwhelmed him. His inner struggle over the guilt of being involved in the subjugation of a people added to this strain, and he made a decision he would later regret enough to write this story.

    Read More

  • Economic Lens

    672 Words  | 2 Pages

    There’s another catch to trophy hunting: it is extremely expensive. Permits for trophy hunting usually cost thousands of dollars, which leads to the idea that killing animals can actually help conservation. This concept might seem ridiculous at first, but trophy-hunting permits bring in a plethora of money. For instance, the so-called “ten-day ‘elephant package’ could cost… 36,000 [dollars]” (learnenglish). Even if you merely wish to watch the hunt, you are obliged to pay 3,800 dollars (abcnews). The prices are strikingly high, meaning that so is the revenue. South Africa alone brings in more than 744 million dollars every single year, making it its “most profitable form of commercial land use” (learnenglish). This enormous amount of money can not only be used to aid the many third world countries in Africa, but also with conservation. Many argue that by killing wild game during hunting, it causes some species to go extinct. However, strong economic incentive has motivated landowners to expand their territories, reintroduce species, and take care of the animals in general, which would indicate the opposite: more animals are safe. One might even conclude that the world is saving animals, by killing

    Read More

  • The Law Never Forgets By Emily Hutchens: An Analysis

    457 Words  | 1 Pages

    In Hutchens essay, “The Law Never Forgets: An Analysis of the Elephant Poaching Crisis, Failed Policies, and Potential Solutions,” published in 2013 issue of the Wisconsin International Law Journal, Emily Hutchens addresses the increase in number of illegal poaching in Africa. Particularly, the reduction of population of elephants all over Africa, the failure to establish laws to prohibit animals smuggling. Furthermore, the author provides reasoning on the increment of wildlife trafficking and the history the legal trading back in the 1970s and 1980s. Additionally, Hutchens presents statistics on the effectiveness of the restriction from organizations in the beginning, as well as the consequences from the disagreement of Hong Kong and Japan to Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia. The article is suitable for educating and raising awareness among individuals.

    Read More

  • The History of Ivory Trade

    736 Words  | 2 Pages

    For a long time Asian ivory was used, because it was much easier to obtain, though the ivory was harder to shape, more likely to break, and less attractive. The Asian ivory came from tusks of elephants that were largely different from African elephants. For starters, they had a smaller build and differently shaped tusks. The African elephants had an average tusk size of about sixty pounds to the Asian elephant’s forty. The African elephants lived in the tropical jungles of Africa’s east coast, while the Asian elephant lived in a far different environment. As it happened, it was the African elephant that man desired but had a difficult time getting to Africa. Believing that the danger of a trip to Africa outweighed the potential profits of the voyage merchants and consumers settled for the lower quality ivory.

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of Hunting

    1222 Words  | 3 Pages

    Natural predators assist in maintaining this delicate balance by killing on the weakest and sickest animals. However, hunters kill healthy animals who they can find to satisfy their different needs including killing animals as a form of game, trophy or the famous poaching of animals for tusks. The poaching of elephants and rhinos for tusks worldwide is believed to have increased the number of animals without tusks in Africa (Whitfield, 2003). In the last 40 years in Canada, hunting has resulted in bighorn horns of sheep to fall by 25% (Whitfield, 2003). In case hunting of animals, especially poaching continues globally, the number of animal species will decrease rapidly, resulting in extinction of specific species, such as the African rhinos and elephants. A report in Nature Magazine suggests that the decrease of animals may have an effect on the population’s genetics because the weakest animals will pass weak genes to their offspring causing an entire species to have defects. Therefore, it is better for hunters to let nature kill off the weak and sick animals for the preservation of the

    Read More

  • African Elephant

    1738 Words  | 4 Pages

    The common name is the African Elephant, the scientific name is Loxodonta Africana, the phylum is Vertebrata, the class is Mammalia, the order is Proboscidea, and the family is Elephantidae. The Closest Relatives to the African Elephant are: the Asian Elephant, mammoths, primitive proboscidean (mastodons), sea cows, and hyraxes. Scientists believe that the African Elephant evolved from one of its closest relatives, the Sea Cow. The geographical location and range of the African elephant covers all of central and southern Africa. In Ethiopia there are isolated populations that exist around Lake Chad in Mali and Mauritania. Also in Kenya, Rhodesia, Tanzania, Zambia, Uganda, Zaire, and in National parks located in South Africa, as well as several other countries. African Elephants, originally, were found in all of the Sub-Saharan African habitats except desert steppes. Elephants still occupy diverse habitats such as: temperate grassland, tropical savanna and grass lands, temperate forest and rainforest, tropical rainforest, tropical scrub forest, and tropical deciduous forest despite their drastic decline in numbers. However, their migratory patterns and habitat use have changed, due to the fact that they are restricted to protected areas. The elephant can exist in many types of environments but it prefers places that have many trees and bushes, which the elephant needs both for food and shade. They also like warm areas that have plenty of rainfall.

    Read More

  • Elephants

    621 Words  | 2 Pages

    Elephants are an endangered species and they should not be killed for their ivory or they will become extinct. In the article The Poaching Problem the author writes” elephant populations have declined to dangerously low levels.” At the rate that poachers are killing these innocent animal the entire species of elephants will be extinct in the year 2030! That is only twenty five years, I know that does not seem like a long time but it is going to go by fast and every one will regret killing all those poor innocent gentle creatures. In case study 483 they author writes “ During the 1970s and 1980s elephant poaching had included about 1.3 million elephants killed for their tusks.” It is hard to distinguish between legal and illegal ivory so it is sold easily.

    Read More

  • A Case Against Zoos

    980 Words  | 2 Pages

    The times did a first of its kind analysis of 390 elephant fatalities at accredited U.S. zoos for the past 50 years (Berens 3). It found that most of the elephants died from injury or disease linked to conditions of their captivity from chronic foot problems caused by standing on hard surfaces to musculoskeletal disorders from inactivity caused by being penned or chained for days and weeks at a time. Of the 321 elephant deaths for which The Times had complete records, half were by age 23, more than a quarter before their expected life spans of 50 to 60 years. For every elephant born in a zoo, on average another two die. At that rate, the 288 elephants inside the 78 U.S. zoos could be “demographically extinct” within the next 50 years because there’ll be too few fertile females left to breed, according to zoo industry research (Berens 4).

    Read More

  • Endangered Asian Elephants

    2035 Words  | 5 Pages

    A new disease has recently been discovered that is now hindering elephants’ ability to survive even further. This is a major problem because according to Science Magazine, as of 1997, there are only an estimated 291 Asian elephants and 193 African elephants left in North American zoos. Since this survey was conducted, this number has declined significantly. It is now estimated that for every elephant that is born in a zoo, another three die. In the wild, female elephants are constantly pregnant or nursing.

    Read More

  • The African Elephant

    551 Words  | 2 Pages

    What do you think about when you hear the word Africa? How about the word safari? Most people tend to think about elephants or giraffes. In this paper I will tell you many important facts about elephants: how they live, their appearance, and many other interesting facts about them. There are two different kinds of elephants; the African elephant and the Asian elephant (also known as the Indian elephant). The African elephant is the larger of the two.

    Read More

  • Animal Extinction Essay

    966 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...lled by poachers. Even the White Rhino population was hit hard because of poachers seeking their priceless horns. The Los Angeles Times reported that,” The world’s largest surviving population of white rhinos suffered its heaviest toll on record last year when poachers killed more than one- thousand of the threatened animals to feed an international market for trinkets and potions made from their horns” (Williams 1). According to the WWF, The population of the White Rhino has diminished to a mere twenty- thousand. The worst part is the rare tusks are being used for the most unbelievably useless products. The number of White Rhinos are so scarce that even the killing of one- thousand is a huge blow to the delicate and slowly increasing population. It is truly disappointing that such a majestic species is being sacrificed due to the high demand of their rare tusks.

    Read More

  • Why Do People Kill Rhinos?

    723 Words  | 2 Pages

    According to Christine Dell'Amore article 1,000+ Rhinos Poached in 2013 Highest in Modern History on Nat Geos Daily News, the slaughter of one thousand rhinos was simply because of the high demand of rhino horns. Also, it has increase of 1.5 times higher, than of 2012, when 668 white rhinos were slaughtered for their horns. One reason for increase, the article continues, “there's new evidence that poachers are using neighboring Mozambique as an operational base, both to entering into South Africa to kill the animals, as well as for smuggling out their horns,” said Richard Thomas, global communications coordinator for TRAFFIC, a wildlife-trade monitoring network. The poachers aren't just the local people Richards continues on, they're often part of powerful, organized crime networks that have been linked to other illegal activities, such as drugs, weapons, and human trafficking, worldwide. The offender tend to sell the horn in marketplace in China and Vietnam, disappointingly used by the growing wealthy class people for “health refresher” and as well as status symbols.

    Read More

More about Why Do Poachers Kill African Elephants?

Open Document