A major environmental activist group is ready to go toe-to-toe with gun advocates in a new push to increase protections for African elephants.
Natural Resources Defense Council President Rhea Suh called supporters Friday asking them to begin pressuring the Obama administration to go further in protecting the elephants against the ivory trade that endangers them.
She wants stronger rules, and that’s where she says the National Rifle Association will be waiting.
“I’ll be honest: We’re up against some pretty powerful opposition,” Suh said.
“The NRA and other groups are going all out to block an ivory trade ban, all so they can protect their ability to hunt elephants for trophies and maintain the market for ivory collectibles, like expensive guns with ivory inlay,” she said. President Obama proposed new rules last year to crack down on ivory sales in the U.S., one of the largest ivory markets in the world, Suh said in an email to supporters. “But those regulations don’t go far enough to stem this ongoing slaughter.
“It’s unimaginable: Every 20 minutes, a wild African elephant is killed for its tusks,” she said.
If unabated, wild elephants could be wiped out entirely in just 10 years, Suh said.
