The ivory crisis has been making headlines recently as more and more U.S. municipalities are being held accountable for their participation in the illegal ivory trade. While many people may assume that the ivory trade is a distant phenomenon, only occurring in far off countries where elephants reside, this could not be farther from the truth.

After China, the United States has the second largest market for ivory and, as a result, 35,000 elephants are slaughtered every year to meet the demands of the ivory market.

Just like any other illegal product trade, the demand for product is the driving force behind the actual crimes. As WWF showed us in these haunting graphics, the person who purchases an ivory trinket is just as complicit in the slaughter of elephants as the poacher who killed the animal.

Recently, New York and New Jersey, major ports for the ivory trade, have been put in the spotlight as legislation that would effectively ban the trade and sale of ivory within their state borders has come into the picture. The only way to end the ivory trade is to ban the sale and trade of ivory across the board. To learn more about the action being taken to ban the ivory trade and what still needs to be accomplished, click here.

To learn more about how the U.S. plays a role in the ivory trade, check out the infographic below from IFAW and share to help spread the word about the need for the U.S. to ban the ivory trade, before it is too late!

Image source: Wikimedia Commons