Kids Tusk Force UK - Our Mission

Our mission is CONSERVATION...PROTECTION...EDUCATION.

Poaching and The Illegal Trade In Ivory

  • Our mission has clear objectives ..Conservation....Protection...... Education
  • To help stop the mindless killing of elephants
  • To help stop the illegal trade in ivory
  • To bring as many schools together as possible to join forces with KIDS' TUSK FORCE UK
  • To make a combined voice so loud that Governments everywhere will listen to us
  • We don't want an Africa without elephants
  • Our mission is to support the remarkable work of the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

Poaching..........The Facts

  • It is estimated that an elephant is killed for its tusks every 25 minutes.
  • It is estimated that more than 20,000 elephants are killed every year to feed the illegal ivory trade.
  • Experts in conservation predict that the majestic herds of sub-Saharan African elephants could be extinct in 20 years (a generation’s time) if this is allowed to continue.
  • Tusks are imported primarily into Asia, but also other countries around the world, where they are made into trinkets, jewellery, chop sticks and sculpture.
  • Gangs of poachers are killing herds of African elephants often leaving young, milk dependent, frightened, highly stressed and heartbroken calves to mourn over their dead mothers ….facing certain death in the wild.
  • Poachers use sophisticated guns, bows and arrows or spears laced with poison to kill elephants, inflicting fatal wounds…sometimes an elephant will take several days to die of its wounds. Some of the biggest bull elephants (Tuskers) are found dead with infected bullet riddled skin months after they have been shot.
  • POACHERS HAVE NO SCRUPLES

In 2016 the Kenyan Government made a commitment to save the numbers of wild herds. They believed that ivory is worth nothing to their tourist economy if it is not on a live animal. Kenyan President Ulhuru Kenyatta said ‘’No-one, and I repeat no-one, has any business trading in ivory, for this trade means death of our elephants and death of our natural heritage.’’ He did not want the tusks to fall into the hands of a black market of corruption and greed.

They made the decision to burn every tusk and rhino horn (confiscated from poachers) in huge pyres 3m’s high….they were set alight on Saturday, 30th April. Other African countries thought that the tusks should have been sold to benefit conservation.

11 ‘stacks’ of tusks were built ….. the tusks of approximately 8,000 elephants.

Every tusk could tell a story…the grooves in the tusks of huge old bull Tuskers…the tiny tusks of very young elephants …..never given the chance to mature ….never given the chance to live.

The estimated value of these tusks on the illegal ivory market …..£141,000,000 or $172,000,000.

Many, many wild herds, Africa’s iconic animal, burnt in a graveyard of stacks of tusks.

Working With The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

These images give an idea of the Sheldrick Trust's wider conservation initiatives. The Anti-poaching teams are the un-sung heroes facing injury, dangerous challenges and even possible death every time they are out on patrol.

All images copyright The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

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