UPDATE: Ban Ivory Trade in The UK

The general election in UK was held on June 8. One of the important questions that the political parties were deciding on is whether to support an ivory trading ban or not. This would follow bans by China, the US and other important ivory trading countries to end domestic trades in ivory by the end of 2017. The Conservative party has initially decided to support the ban, but it seemed somewhere along the line that changed. In Theresa May’s Conservative 2017 manifesto there is no mention of it.

"Sneakily, the Conservatives have decided to DROP their previous commitment to introducing a total ban on ivory trade in Britain. This comes after heavy pressure from wealthy antiques traders who have been lobbying Theresa May hard to drop the ban on ivory."

"The prevailing view is that an ivory trade ban would cost the antiques industry money and so it successfully lobbied influential Conservatives to have it dropped. Many antiques contain ivory or are made of ivory, a ban would prevent trading in such items."  - Network for Animals

There is a petition on care2.com asking Theresa May to honor the original agreement and support the ivory trade ban. Please sign and share: Theresa May - HONOUR The Conservative PLEDGE To End The UK Ivory Trade

"On average, an Elephant is killed every 15 minutes for its ivory and their population has fallen by almost a third in Africa since 2007."