Wild elephants are rapidly disappearing and chances that the Legislature will ban the sale of ivory this year are all but extinct. Senator Thad Altman, a Melbourne Republican, can’t get a House sponsor. But he vows to keep fighting.
Humane Society state director Kate MacFall applauds Altman’s effort and urges lawmakers to act before it’s too late.
“It’s critical because wild elephants are going to be gone in a manner of decades if we don’t do something.”
MacFall says an existing ban grandfathers items carved before 1977. That makes it all but impossible to enforce, she says, because it’s easy for criminals to mask the distinction. She says New York and New Jersey recently passed bans and seven other states are considering it.
