IFAW's Barritt Rediscovers Elephant Graveyard
By Simon Ward
(The following article first appeared in International News for CAMPFIRE, April 1996, published by the Africa Resources Trust, and is reproduced with permission of the author.)
"SETBACK FOR IVORY trade as poachers kill 280 elephants" cried The Times of London on Dec. 12, reporting on the shocking 'findings' of IFAW's African director, David Barritt from Johannesburg.
The report said that Barritt had just "discovered the rotting corpses of 280 elephants killed in a recent poaching operation near Congo's border with Gabon. He believes it is the largest single mass killing of African elephants."
This is most odd because a similar massacre of 200 elephants in exactly the same place was reported in Time Magazine and extensively on the Internet back in September. Then the slaughter of another 30 was reported on the Internet on Nov. 16 - again in the same place. Now Barritt has "discovered" another 280. Come on, pull the other leg!
According to the Times, Barritt was horrified to hear from the poachers that they were told by their employees "it was all right to kill the elephants because next year the trade in ivory is going to be resumed legally." This is an argument we have heard before. Every time a CITES meeting looms, our old friends the EIA tell us that any proposal for downlisting "sends the wrong signal to poachers". Anyway, now it seems that Barritt has proof of this theory, which for the slow-witted is spelt out in the Times as follows: "this underlines our argument that if you have even limited trade in ivory it will be a catastrophe, because where you have a legal trade inevitably an illegal trade will follow."
Take Your Pick
Strangely, Barritt's explanation for these freshly dead elephants (real or imagined) is very different to the explanation given by Ronald Orenstein, spokesman for the animal rights group International Wildlife Coalition, when the first 200 were reported back in September. Then, because it could be used to suggest that ivory poaching was increasing despite the 1989 ban, Ron was sceptical, arguing that the killing must have taken place over a very long period because" [T]he sheer manpower, weaponry and equipment that would be required to carry out an operation of this size over a few days would have to be staggering, and with nothing even remotely like this recorded anywhere in Africa since 1989, I find it odd, to say the least, that such an operation could suddenly materialize in the Congo."
Same place and, we suspect, the same elephants. But a very different message from the animal rights advocates. Take your pick.
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