Ban on ivory sales gets Washington House hearing

OLYMPIA – Washington stores couldn’t sell or buy items made of ivory or rhinoceros horn under a bill that aims to curb poaching in Africa and Asia.

The bill, which got a hearing Tuesday in the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee, is part of a worldwide effort to save elephants, which are killed at an estimated rate of 35,000 a year, or an average of 96 per day.

It would ban state residents from buying, selling or trafficking items made of ivory or rhinoceros horn, with maximum penalties of up to 10 years in prison and up to $10,000 in fines for felony trafficking.

“It’s no longer mom and pop shops looking to make a living – it’s organized crime,” Deborah Jensen, president of the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, told the committee.

Poachers use machine guns and sophisticated tracking technology to hunt elephants, she said, “and most of that ivory ends up as trinkets.”

Researchers at the University of Washington estimate that around 400,000 elephants are left in the wild – down from 1 million in the early 1980s.

Exemptions to the proposed law would include antiques verified to be at least 100 years old and musical instruments made before 1976. They would have to be verified by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Last year, the federal government banned the sale of ivory across state lines. New Jersey and New York then passed bills banning the trade within their borders. Washington is among eight states currently considering a ban.

Pete Lange, of the North Coast Trading Co. in Seattle, told the committee a ban on ivory sales would harm his scrimshaw business but “won’t save one elephant.”

But supporters argued that the best way to combat black-market sales – and save the rhinos and elephants – is to cut demand for ivory on all fronts.

“We don’t believe in using it and carving it for these oddities or curiosities that people use as decor,” said Mike McConnell, the owner of District Auction in Seattle, which sells antiques.

Michaela McGibbon, a senior at Timberline High School in Olympia, echoed a sentiment popular among the bill’s older supporters: “I want to make sure there are still beautiful animals like elephants for my children to enjoy.”

The bill warns the ivory trade will cause elephants to be extinct in 20 years.