The Nation

opinion

Smaller
Larger

Thai law on ivory sales mocks world efforts to save elephants

The law says it's illegal to sell ivory from wild elephants but not domestic ones. Do they wait for the domestic elephants to die from natural causes or do they kill them to get the ivory sooner?



As I've noted before there are no laws to protect domestic elephants from abuse and they are treated horribly.

Furthermore, everyone knows that poachers kill the wild elephants and the Thai shops sell their ivory as though it came from domestic elephants. By making a stupid, technical

distinction between "wild" elephant ivory and "domestic" elephant ivory, Thailand is making a mockery of the international effort to ban the sale of ivory.

Eric Bahrt

Pattaya


Comments conditions

Users are solely responsible for their comments.We reserve the right to remove any comment and revoke posting rights for any reason withou prior notice.