claim #1
Illegal trafficking of animal parts such as ivory, rhino horn, and skins are a major threat to elephants, rhinos, and big cats. Ivory is a beautiful material, although useless, given that its only purpose is to be made into nothing more than trinkets. Ivory poaching has been on a rise in recent years and threatens the survival of the African elephant; in 2012, 22,000 elephants were slaughtered for their ivory (Elephant Poaching Could Wipe Out 20 Percent of African Population in Next Decade, Report Shows). Entire herds of mothers, sisters, cousins, and aunts were murdered for their ivory. Rhino horn is used as medicine by many Asian countries for all types of ailments. However, rhino horn has no medicinal properties whatsoever, and yet a total of 1,004 rhinos were killed in South Africa in 2013 (Record number of rhinos poached in 2013). As for tigers, the beautifully striped big cat has lost 97% of its population in the last century (WorldWildlife.org). The continued poaching of these animals will cause their extinction if we do not put a stop to illegal wildlife trafficking.