Can you imagine a world without elephants? If we don't do something now that image may soon be a reality!
One African elephant is slaughtered every 15 minutes by poachers with machetes and guns -- some 36,000 last year alone! Now poachers are indiscriminately poisoning their watering holes with cyanide so even more elephants are dying. At this rate conservationists predict the iconic species will be completely extinct in less than 10 years. Not only that, hundreds of other animals will perish as well! Because of the potency of the cyanide the animals that feed off the elephants' carcasses will also die, as will the animals that feed off them.
The poachers are poisoning these animals to fuel the illegal ivory trade. The ones who are caught are given only 2 years in prison -- a slap on the wrist for such an horrific crime! This is unacceptable!
The United States is contributing to this atrocity as the second largest buyer of illegal ivory from Africa, the first being China. As leaders to these countries it's up to you to do something about it.
Help us put these poachers out of business and save these beautiful creatures! Please stop the ivory trade with continued banning of all ivory sales, push for tougher anti-poaching legislation and administer harsher penalties against these poachers.
Thank you!
