Animal rights group reveals illicit market for ivory and endangered animals in Pennsylvania

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3 days ago

A taxidermied giraffe was found for sale in a Luzerne County shop in an investigation by an animal rights organization. (Human World for Animals)
A taxidermied giraffe head, cut from its body at the shoulders, was found on sale for $6,000 in a Luzerne County store. It is just one of hundreds of endangered animal parts being sold across the state uncovered through an investigation by a global nonprofit animal rights organization.
State Rep. Leanne Krueger (D-Delaware) says Pennsylvania has a responsibility to fight illicit sales that fuel poaching of at-risk animals abroad. Her legislation, House Bill 994, would ban the sale of covered endangered animal parts within the state.
'Iconic species of animals continue to face the threat of extinction due to the demand for their parts,' Krueger wrote in a memo seeking support for the bill. 'While many of these species reside in countries or oceans thousands of miles away, we have a duty to ensure that the residents of our great Commonwealth are not supporting the poaching and trafficking that threaten these at-risk species of animals.'
Lawmakers gathered with Humane World for Animals representatives Wednesday to rally support for the legislation.
Gabe Witgil, wildlife trafficking program director at Humane World for Animals, said states must close legal loopholes that allow illicit animal parts markets to thrive.
'Iconic species across the planet continue to face the threat of extinction due to demand for their body parts,' he said. 'Each year, 10,000 to 15,000 elephants are killed in Africa to supply the global demand for their ivory.'
The group's investigation team visited 31 Pennsylvania antique and vintage stores over a three week period in March and searched 31 online auctions between January and April, uncovering 383 pieces of ivory with a total retail value of $38,000. Bracelets, necklaces, figurines and even silverware were among the found ivory products taken from elephants, hippos, warthogs, walruses, mammoths and whales.
'What we found was a gruesome amount of evidence that accelerates the call to action,' said Whitney Teamus, the organization's senior director of investigations. 'The number of ivory items identified exceeds what we've seen in our previous investigations over the last several years, including in Connecticut and Florida.'
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Of the stores and auctions investigated, 59% had endangered wildlife products for sale.
A key problem, the investigators said, was a lack of documentation for many ivory products being sold, which makes it difficult to determine if the parts were illegally imported. Many ivory items were found to be mislabeled as bone or mammoth ivory, which is currently legal to sell.
'The labeling of ivory was also disturbingly unreliable, with some vendors uncertain of the material they were selling, while others appeared to be intentionally mislabeling items,' Teamus said. 'This is a misleading sales tactic we and others have witnessed in other investigations to obscure the trade of these items.'
Teamus told the Capital-Star that the number of endangered animal parts they found is likely miniscule compared to the total amount being sold in the state.
'There's tons more out there. Ivory is in your backyard, for sure,' she said. 'You think elephants are thousands of miles away. You don't think of them as being in your backyard.'
What would H.B. 994 do if passed?
The legislation would make the sale of ivory and other endangered animal parts illegal while expanding the list of protected animals that aren't covered under the federal Endangered Species Act, such as giraffes.
While federal law prohibits the importation of endangered species parts and the sale of these parts between states, it does not ban the sale within states. Pennsylvania law currently allows endangered animal parts to be sold only with a permit.
Animals covered by the the bill are the baleen whale, bonobo, cheetah, chimpanzee, dolphin, elephant, giraffe, gorilla, hippopotamus, jaguar, leopard, lion, mammoth, mastodon, orangutan, panda, pangolin, polar bear, ray, rhinoceros, sea turtle, shark, tiger and walrus.
If passed, civil penalties would be imposed upon violators based on the value of the illegal animal product. Thirteen states and Washington D.C. have passed similar legislation.
The bill passed the House Judiciary Committee by a 25-1 vote on Monday and now awaits consideration on the House floor.
'We expect the bill to be on the floor soon, and we'll work hard to maintain the bipartisan vote that we earned in committee this week,' Krueger said. 'I'm hopeful that we're going to be able to send this bill to the Senate very soon, and am hopeful that our colleagues there will see the value of ending the demand for trafficked animal parts in Pennsylvania.'
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