Apparently there are legal ways to import ebony, or at least Gibson claims the ebony used in their guitars is legal.
Ebony is available online (and at their business) from Gilmer Wood,
Portland, Oregon, and other online sites.
Somehow, I can't quite manage to see how any scheme requiring a "cull" of elephants could be a success. These are highly intelligent social beings. Any need to reduce their numbers, presumably by killing some of them, is an unmitigated tragedy.
The fact that there are now so many of these creatures when before
there were so few is the success.
It would be great if they could all be moved, because you’re right,
they are very social animals.
But they are still animals and unless they can pay their way,
someone has to give a portion of his life to fund their move. There is
simply no profit in relocating these animals unless some can be
“taken”.
Or they could leave them where they are and we can watch as they
slowly starve to death.
I found an old piano dumped on the roadside on monday- the rain we
have had here in the UK had rendered it unplayable and the ivory
veneer had come off the white keys but it was a superb source of
decent wood for cufflink inlays!
Nick Royall (not licensed to work with the ivory)
It was a pity that they had to be culled, but it was their only option available to them, to stop over population, which is a bad thing for any species
How about simply leaving them alone. Elephants have been roaming the
Earth far longer than humans, and somehow they managed not to over
populate. There are natural mechanisms to do that. Why don’t we
simply admit that we want to kill them because we like to have their
teeth. But that of course would make us no better than a bandit
hunting humans for their gold teeth. Wouldn’t it?
Leonid Surpin
Hi Leonid,
Well that would have been nice if the Elephants were left alone in
the first place, but the damage was done with the early ivory trade.
This means that because of that unregulated poaching, intervention to
stop the species going the way of the Dodo was needed. The natural
mechanisms to limit population is non-existent, and this is due to
human population growth, as much as direct intervention.
However because the Elephants recovered faster than expected, a cull
was required to avoid suffering of the animals. I don’t know how the
Elephants were euthanised, but I’d like to think it was painless.
The ivory was burned in huge bonfires. If hunting endangered species
was regulated and managed, there wouldn’t be any endangered species.
I’ll admit I like the look of ivory, but I would never end an
Elephants (Walrus or Whale’s) life to get the material. I’m looking
for alternatives, I’ve been given some alternatives, for which I’m
grateful.
I will agree with you with your simile, hunting just for the teeth,
and wasting the rest of the animal is terrible. A properly farmed
Elephant could feed a lot of people. Elephants were originally hunted
for meat, it’s only the European demand that created the ivory trade.
Regards Charles A.
P.S. Trivia : Elephant ancestor 60 million years ago Man’s ancestor 85
million years ago.