
World Elephant Day: Why It Matters - adamnemecek
http://time.com/4450027/world-elephant-day-why-it-matters/
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adamnemecek
As a mod of /r/babyelephatgifs I'm obligated to inform you about our 6th
fundraiser!

[https://www.reddit.com/r/babyelephantgifs/comments/4xdca4/to...](https://www.reddit.com/r/babyelephantgifs/comments/4xdca4/today_is_world_elephant_day_and_we_just_hit/)

Adopt an elephant orphan today!

And subscribe for daily pachyderm related content!

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akhilcacharya
Which mod are you?

Thanks for the elephant content nonetheless! The sub is a treasure.

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adamnemecek
Same username.

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RcouF1uZ4gsC
It is interesting that trying to ban an in demand item rarely has a good
outcome. Examples include

Alcohol - see prohibition

Teenage sex - see abstinence only education

Drugs - See war on drugs

Often, rather than ban something, taxing/regulation can be far better ways to
serve a public good.

So now we have more or less a ban on ivory, yet there is a demand for ivory
and people do illegal things to satisfy that demand in exchange for money.
What if we tried a farming/sustainable approach to ivory where elephants are
raised and a sustainable percentage is killed for their ivory. By doing this,
I think we would have a greater chance of preserving elephants rather than
going down the road we are going (62% decline in numbers over the last
decade).

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adamnemecek
All the other things don't directly cause suffering of an intelligent species
and aren't depleting a very limited resource.

You know what, instead of banning cannibalism, we should regulate human meat
consumption. Do you see the ridiculousness of this argument?

> there is a demand for ivory and people do illegal things to satisfy that
> demand in exchange for money

The demand was minimal before 2008 when CITES relaxed restrictions on sales of
ivory. The demand has been skyrocketing since then.

> What if we tried a farming/sustainable approach to ivory where elephants are
> raised and a sustainable percentage is killed for their ivory.

Let's not. It's cruel, and economically, ecologically and zoologically not
feasible. Also this would wouldn't stop poaching in the wild.

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aianus
> Let's not. It's cruel, economically and ecologically not feasible. Also this
> would wouldn't stop poaching in the wild.

How exactly is it different than, say, cattle ranching?

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gliese1337
Cattle...

...are domesticated

...have comparatively rapid reproductive cycles

...do not have as strong or as complex family relationships

...are not as intelligent

In other words, cattle are both easier to farm than elephants, and don't have
the capacity to _mind_ being farmed as much as elephants.

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gohrt
dairy cows still suffer the loss of their young, and veal calves suffer the
loss of their mother.

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gregleffler
Paul Allen wrote a post today about an elephant census his company (Vulcan)
conducted in Africa: [https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/every-elephant-counts-
paul-g-...](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/every-elephant-counts-paul-g-allen)

