• In Africa, approximately 100 elephants are killed every day for their ivory, making them critically endangered.
• Most ivory in the world comes from African elephants, as both female and male African elephants are tusked.
• The population of African elephants has dropped from more than 20 million in 1890 to fewer than 400,000 today.
• Asian elephants are critically endangered with less than 40,000 remaining across 13 countries.
• Male Asian elephants are tusked, placing them at a higher risk for poaching.
• Carbon dating finds that nearly all trafficked ivory comes from elephants killed less than 3 years before their ivory entered the market.

The United States remains one of the world’s largest markets for illegal ivory, where it is traded through auction houses, antique shops, and online. Massachusetts plays a significant role in fueling the ivory trade, as it is very difficult to determine the age of ivory artifacts and new ivory can be easily disguised as antique ivory. The US has federally banned the sale of ivory between states since 2016, but ivory trafficking remains unregulated and under policed in Massachusetts as there is no intrastate ban on ivory sales.

African elephants could be extinct in the wild within a decade.

African elephants are among the most iconic symbols of the majesty of nature. There are two living species in Africa - the African bush elephant and the African forest elephant - and four extinct species identified through fossil remains. African elephants are distinguished from their Asian counterparts by their larger overall size, as well as their larger ears and tusks.

It is estimated that there may have been more than 26 million African elephants in the late 19th century. Now, only approximately 400,000 roam the world. Since 1978, African elephants have been listed as ‘Endangered’ by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. At current rates, African elephants could be extinct in the wild within a decade or two.

Threats Facing African Elephants

Ivory Trade

Millions of elephants once roamed across both Africa and Asia. In the 1980s, 700,000 elephants were killed due to hunting and an unregulated ivory trade. Today, approximately 100 elephants are killed every day for their ivory. If we do not take action today, elephant populations will continue to deteriorate and this species will be at risk of extinction.

Despite an international ivory ban in place through CITES, as well a domestic interstate ban by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, ivory traffickers continue to exploit federal loopholes and mix illegal ivory in with legal sales, obfuscating new ivory as antiques. The US is one of the largest ivory markets in the world and Massachusetts plays a significant role in perpetuating the ivory trade in the US. A 2017 report by the Humane Society of the United States found nearly 700 ivory items for sale by 64 vendors within the Bay State. In 2019, an undercover investigation conducted by the Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society International found an active market for undocumented elephant ivory in Massachusetts.

Ivory smuggling is a pervasive activity, run by highly organized wildlife trafficking syndicates around the globe. In 2015, Interpol conducted an operation targeted specifically at the illicit elephant ivory trade circuit, resulting in nearly 400 arrests across 25 crime neworks and the seizure of 4.5 tons of elephant ivory. Unfortuantely, the illicit ivory trade is becoming harder to police, as ivory traffickers use social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

Human-Elephant Conflict

Elephant conservation can provide widespread economic opportunities for elephant range states and livelihood opportunities for local people, however Human-Elephant Conflict (HEC) is a very real threat facing elephant populations today. HEC is used to define the complex interaction between humans and elephants, in which both groups have a detrimental impact on the other. The consequences of habitat loss and fragmentation due to HEC can be deadly for both people and elephants.

Conservation and wildlife protection organizations play a huge role bridging the gap and forging local connections that can foster harmonious living. Mutually beneficial strategies, such as providing employment for locals and loans to farmers targeted by elephants, help communities recognize the worth of living in peace with these creatures that are so vital to the local ecosystem and biodiversity of this planet

Trophy Hunting

Trophy hunting is deliberately cruel to animals and corruptly indifferent to local communities and conservation. Advertised as a “sport”, trophy hunters often kill simply because they can. The “Africa Big Five”— African elephants, rhinoceroses, lions, leopards, and the African buffalo—are amongst the most prized and sought after trophies. Trophy hunters often target the biggest and strongest in the herd, dramatically lessening the gene pool and survival rates of these amazing animals. Elephants do not anticipate being shot, so they don’t run away from hunting groups. The first shot is often not fatal – once wounded, these now defenseless elephants endure immense suffering and a slow agonizing death.

From 2004 and 2014, an estimated 200,000 hunting trophies of threatened species were traded between nations. The United States alone accounts for 75% of global trophy hunting imports. Hunters defend their morally unethical “sport” with claims that hunting fees help local economies and fund conservation efforts, but research shows these fees cannot compete with other tourist revenue opportunities. A recent Humane Society International report found that in eight African countries, revenue from trophy hunting amounted to less than 1% of what is generated through tourism.

Asian elephant populations are down by 50%.

Asian elephants inhabit the forested regions of India and Southeast Asia, spanning across 13 countries. They are slightly smaller than their African cousins, most notably in the size of their ears. Since 1986, Asian Elephants have been classified as “Endangered’ by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Currently, there are only an estimated 40,000 Asian elephants left in the wild.

Threats to wild Asian elephant populations include deforestation, habitat loss, and direct conflict with humans. Large industrial and agricultural developments and expanding human communities have severely damaged Asian elephant habitats. In India, elephants are being hit by speeding trains at an alarming rate - over the past 10 years, more than 200 elephants have died as a result of train accidents. The rapid disappearance of these habitats has fostered an increase in human-elephant conflict, as elephants raid crops and villages in search of food. This has caused property damage and loss of human life, as well as led to elephants being killed by villagers in retaliation.

The majority of captive elephants not found in zoos are Asian elephants, as they are more docile and trainable than their African cousins. Historically, they were used in logging and agriculture, but are now increasingly being exploited for tourism. Elephants are broken into submission for captivity through a brutal process called the Phajaan, where they are forcibly and violently tamed by humans. Asian elephants are forced to entertain humans in circuses, carnivals, traveling shows, tourist attractions, and trekking camps.

Every elephant deserves to roam free.

Today, there are an estimated 15,000–20,000 elephants in captivity around the world and approximately 400 elephants in captivity across the United States, primarily in zoos, circuses, and traveling shows. Elephants are enormously intelligent and social animals who form life-long bonds that do not diminish over time or with separation. As such, elephants in the entertainment industry experience deep and long-lasting physical, emotional, and psychological harm from the loneliness, stress, neglect, and cruelty they undergo in captivity.

Few legal protections exist in the US for animals forced to perform in traveling shows. The federal Animal Welfare Act provides standards for the treatment of warm-blooded animals traveling with circuses, but these standards are minimal and frequently violated. Circus elephants can spend up to 11 months of the year traveling thousands of miles chained inside vehicles that often lack climate control, typically standing in their own waste. In the coercive training used to control elephants, handlers resort to hitting, prodding, and striking with bull hooks. The tricks elephants are forced to perform are unnatural and dangerous and, when not entertaining, elephants are usually chained alone, depriving them of the companionship that they desperately crave.

The Brutal Phajaan “Training”

Baby elephants as young as three are stolen from their mothers in the wild and dragged to a clearing to endure the Phajaan or “breaking of the spirit.” This process is widely known as “The Crush" because the spirit of the baby elephant is quite literally crushed out of them. They are kept in small crates (called “crush cages”) where their legs are bound and stretched with ropes. They are stabbed, beaten, burned, starved of food and water, and subjected to constant yelling and screaming. Bull hooks are used to stab their heads, slash their skin, and tug their ears. Asian elephants used for rides or other entertainment often have torn or shredded ears from being ripped during the Phajaan. They also often have scars on their foreheads from deep lacerations caused by beatings.

The Phajaan may last from several days to weeks and elephants who endure this cruelty have no rest from mental and physical torture. Gradually, their spirits are broken. At the end of this process, the handler will bring the animal food and water and release the elephant from the crate. After weeks of torture, emotional abuse, loneliness, confusion, and separation, the elephant sees this human as its savior. Such manipulative tactics allow the handler to gain control over the elephant.