The Politics Of Elephant Ivory

I’ve always been fond of elephants and their coveted ivory. My friends at Eagle Grips have offered ivory over the years based on availability and price for top of the line gun grips. Ivory has a special warmth and incredible strength that makes it the very best gun grip material on our planet.

Then came the embargos created in an alleged effort to protect the endangered elephant. The embargos were nothing more than a grand scheme for corrupt Third World, government officials to create a monopoly on clandestine trading and artificially high prices. The end result of the embargos was to make the slaughter of these fine animals even more profitable.

Elephants die and their ivory is harvested without upsetting the balance of nature. Most of us want to protect these awesome and majestic creatures but ivory trade bans only make poaching more profitable and prevalent.

Where does Eagle Grips get their ivory you ask? This is yet another sad story. The now grown children of America’s legendary big game hunters of the 1950s have been selling off their dad’s ivory trophies for big cash. Too often that cash has been used to support narcotic addictions of these sellers.

Here’s a recent ABC news offering on this subject.