Update (March, 2015): This bill failed to pass in 2015.
Bill Description:
Prohibits any person from selling, offering to sell, purchasing, trading, trafficking, bartering for, or distributing ivory or rhinoceros horn. Ivory is defined as any tooth or tusk from an elephant or mammoth.[teaserbreak]
Exemptions:
• If ivory or rhinoceros horn comprises less than 5% by volume of a bona fide antique, and the owner or seller provides to both the department and the grantee or buyer sufficient documented evidence that the antique is 100 years or older.
• Distribution to the legal beneficiary of a trust or to an heir.
• Distribution of a musical instrument, if the owner or seller provides sufficient documented evidence to establish the instrument was manufactured prior to January 1, 1976.
• Distribution for bona fide educational or scientific purposes, including by museums.
Background:
African elephants are nearing extinction due to the high price of ivory and consumer demand. An average of 96 elephants are slaughtered daily by poachers, and over 100,000 have been killed in the past 3 years. Read more about the horrific ivory trade here.
Meanwhile, rhinos are killed for their horns, which are believed to have medicinal powers in parts of Asia. This market is fueling the slaughter of more than 1,000 rhinos per year. Only 25,000 black and white rhinos remain across all of Africa, and they could become extinct in the wild in as little as 12 years.
The U.S. is the second largest ivory market in the world, after China, and also a significant destination for rhino horn. Legislation banning the trade in these products is aimed at reducing the demand.
Read the full text here for the House bill and here for the Senate bill.