10 metric tons? The average tusk weight on 60yr. adult elephants is 77.5lbs., which is 135lbs for males & 20lbs for females. At 77.5lbs each, 155lbs per elephant, for 10 metric tons of tusk to be harvested in a year that means a general number of 142 elephants were killed. Given the world's elephant population of 700,000+, that's a decrease of population by .02%. That's 2 tenths of a single percent of the population being affected by poaching. 0.0000% of that .02% of illegal harvested tusks are being used in American made custom pool cues. And you feel urged to boycott ivory in custom cues over this?
I think this whole ivory thing is being blown way out of proportion. We assume that 142 elephants were killed for the 10 tons of ivory. But how many of those tusks, which only equal 284, were scavenged off of naturally deceased animals? That, too, is illegal but is not nearly as ethically wrong as killing an animal. We won't know because it doesn't matter to the law & doesn't make an exciting story. So assuming all 142 elephants were killed by poachers & didn't die of natural causes, that's still way less than the elephants that do die each year from natural causes. And exactly what happens to the tusks of the naturally deceased animals?
Either way, my point is that people don't understand this whole ivory situation nearly well enough to form the opinions that they so strongly hold on to. More humans die daily in a 700,000 population city than elephants are poached in a year. I'm by no means saying that killing elephants for decorative ivory is ok. It is wrong, ethically & morally wrong. But it's not so huge an issue that people shouldn't buy cues with ivory. It's nowhere near that big an issue. Especially considering that NO illegal ivory is even used in cues, it seems a bit fanatical to me to hear poeple claim they won't buy cues with ivory. Just my opinion, based on actual facts & not media BS.
