2 tons of ivory crushed to protest illegal trade

NEW YORK -- Trinkets, statues and jewelry crafted from the tusks of at least 100 slaughtered elephants were fed Thursday into a rock crusher in Central Park to demonstrate the state's commitment to smashing the illegal ivory trade.

The artifacts placed ceremoniously onto a conveyor belt to be ground into dust included piles of golf-ball-sized Japanese sculptures, called netsuke, intricately carved into monkeys, rabbits and other fanciful designs. Many of the items were beautiful. Some were extremely valuable.

But state environmental officials and Wildlife Conservation Society members, who partnered with Tiffany & Co. for the "Ivory Crush" of nearly 2 tons of ivory, said no price justifies slaughtering elephants for their tusks.

"By crushing a ton of ivory in the middle of the world's most famous public park, New Yorkers are sending a message to poachers, traffickers and dealers who try to set up shop right here on our streets," said John Calvelli, the Society's executive vice president and director of the 96 Elephants Campaign. "We won't stand for the slaughter of elephants. Nobody needs an ivory brooch that badly."

The sale of ivory across international boundaries has been banned since 1990, but the U.S. and many other countries have allowed people to buy and sell ivory domestically, subject to certain regulations that gave smugglers loopholes.

Last year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service instituted a near-total ban on the domestic commercial ivory trade and barred sales across state lines.

Since August 2014, New York law has prohibited the sale, purchase, trade or distribution of anything made from elephant or mammoth ivory or rhinoceros horn, except in limited situations with state approval. Enforcement efforts have focused on New York City, the nation's largest port of entry for illegal wildlife goods, state officials said.

The ivory pieces sent to the crusher included more than $4.5 million worth seized by undercover investigators from Metropolitan Fine Arts & Antiques in New York City in 2015. In pleading guilty last week to selling ivory illegally, the store's owners agreed to donate $100,000 each to the World Wildlife Fund and Wild Tomorrow Fund for their endangered-species protection projects.

Also headed for the crusher was a netsuke depicting three men with a fish, worth an estimated $14,000, and a pair of elaborately carved ivory towers worth $850,000.

More than 270 tons of ivory have been destroyed by governments and conservation groups in high-profile public events in 22 countries, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Some critics have argued destroying ivory could drive up black-market prices by increasing scarcity, thus encouraging more poaching.