Last year, people around the world watched as a
gun lobbyist with his own NRA-sponsored cable TV show stalked a large bull elephant in the African bush, raised his rifle and shot it two times in the face, killing it. The hunter, NRA strategist Tony Makris, and his guide later sipped champagne and relished the "special" act of bringing back the animal's ivory to camp.
The segment was filmed for part of an "Under Wild Skies" show that was later
canceled by the NBC Sports Network after international outrage. It served as a graphic reminder that a number of African nations still allow hunters to purchase permits -- some
1,000 of which are issued to Americans every year -- to kill elephants from their
ever-dwindling populations, even amid reports that illegal poaching already claims the lives of up to 35,000 African elephants a year. This is allowed for the stated purpose of conservation: The hefty fees paid by these tourists are supposed to go toward efforts to rehabilitate and protect wildlife on these reserves, though
critics say the process is marred by corruption and ineffectiveness.
More stringent bans were recently enacted in some nations following catastrophic declines of elephant populations.
But this hunting isn't just for sport (and supposed "conservation"). It's also for the elephants' valuable ivory tusks, trophies that American hunters had, until recently, largely been permitted to ship back to the United States for non-commercial purposes. According to
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service data in a recent National Geographic report, several hundred sport-hunted elephant trophies -- including tusks, skins and bones -- have been imported into the U.S. each year over the past decade. While the sale of this ivory is banned, the practice has given rise to a system that allows hunters and poachers to see elephants in much the same way: The bigger the tusks, the better the prize. Language on the
websites for Safari Club International, a hunting advocacy group, and
other African safari tours both contain language touting elephants that are likely to carry more or "really good ivory."
