Up in flames: Kenya burns 105 tons of ivory tusks to protest poaching
This wasn't the first time Kenya set fire to a stockpile of ivory tusks, but it was certainly the largest.
On Saturday, Kenya's president lit the blaze that consumed 105 tons of elephant ivory and 1 ton of rhino horns, spitting out huge clouds of white smoke as the fire crackled into the night.
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The animal parts came from more than 8,000 elephants and 343 rhinos, according to Kenya Wildlife Services. The tusks and horns are worth $150 million, but rather than selling them for public improvements as some had suggested, authorities decided to burn the poached tusks to make a point. The animal parts should not have commercial value, Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta said.
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"For us ivory is worthless unless it is on our elephants," Kenyatta said during a press conference.
The country, along with allies including the African nation of Gabon, plans to push for an ivory trade ban later this year at the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species in South Africa.
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Africa had 1.3 million elephants in the 1970s but has only 500,000 today, the Associated Press reports.
"To all the poachers, to all the buyers, to all the traders, your days are numbered," said Gabon President Ali Bongo at the ivory burn. "We are going to put you out of business, so the best thing you can do is to go into retirement now."
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Brittany Levine Beckman was Mashable's managing editor. She enjoys crafting feature ideas, learning new things, and party parrots. Before working at Mashable, she covered community news at the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register. That's how she met a zonkey and the tallest man in the world.
