Ivory remains a bone of contention between collectors and
the bureaucrats who make our lives more difficult. The ban on ivory by the Feds had suffered a
set back, so the new tactic is to institute bans in each state. This is a common divide and conquer tactic.
I don’t the feds should be sticking their nose into you
selling your grandfather’s ivory chest set or preventing you from buying across
state lines a set a ivory dominoes someone brought home from Korea in the 1960’s.
A pro-ivory stance makes me a rotten SOB for supporting
elephant poaching doesn’t it? But before
you go much further you should know, no, I don’t support poaching. I support the 1989 ban on ivory importation
to the US and urge other countries to stop the illegal trade in ivory. We stopped the importation of ivory in 1989.
(Propaganda mode on)
“The United States is the world’s second-largest
market, behind China United States and around the world helps to
disguise black-market sales, U.S.
Washington post Feb 11 2014
(Propaganda mode off)
The above is a lie. The
vast majority of the poached ivory isn’t coming into the US. Despite what the Feds said in the above Feb 11
2014 issue of the Washington Post, most of it isn’t headed to the US.
Most of it is going to China . http://news.yahoo.com/swiss-seize-400-000-ivory-haul-transit-china-100653261.html
In fact, it’s estimated that 70% of all poached ivory is
headed to China . That’s a lot of dead elephants. And China seems to be all right with it.
That doesn’t surprise me at all. When a government assumes that each human has
no intrinsic value and only a person’s service to the government matters, why
would they value animal lives?
No, reports of wide spread pollution, heavy metal poisoning,
and adulteration of baby formula with melamine from China don’t surprise me at
all. What does surprise me is the sudden
insistence by our politicians that somehow owning an ivory handled knife, or a hairpin
somehow makes us low level criminals.
And we aren’t going to discuss what it means to own sperm whale
scrimshaw or mammoth ivory! You bastard,
you! I don’t know how you did it, but
you inspired people who were dead long before you were born to kill whales and
all those mammoths!
Even Road Show Antiques has to say something about ivory. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/stories/articles/2015/06/22/ivory-law
The problem with the current and proposed bans is the need
to know when the ivory was brought into the country. You kept the provenance on that pair of
carved ivory earrings you bought your mother or wife in 1985, right?
Of course, if you own ivory-handled daggers
from the Third Reich or other historic artifacts you may not have any problems. But that scrimshaw pendant bought from a
local artisan made from the white key of a junked player piano isn’t likely to
have the documentation you need.
So, if you live in a free state, one that still allows you
to sell your possessions, no matter if it’s ivory or not make sure you remind
your elected officials to keep it that way.
If you don’t, laws can be changed.
Make sure your government knows your feelings.
