In August 2014, New York state enacted its law prohibiting the purchase, sale, trade or distribution of ivory or horn products from elephants and rhinoceros.
In 2012, a joint task force of USFWS and Manhattan District Attorneys office investigated and seized illegal elephant ivory worth more than $2 million from jewelers across New York City, exposing the need to crack down on sellers using loopholes to continue to exploit a vulnerable species.
723 violations
$2 Million
The 2014 bill was signed to prevent the trade in illegal ivory and strengthen criminal and civil penalties for buyers and sellers who are helping drive two critical and iconic species, elephants and rhinos, to extinction for profit.
The New York state law bans the sale of elephant and mammoth ivory and rhinoceros horns.
Exemptions
The ban does not apply to antiques demonstrated to be at least 100 years old and containing less than 20% by volume of the antique, distribution for educational or scientific purposes, transfer via inheritance, or ivory as part of a musical instrument with evidence the instrument was manufactured prior to 1975.
Photo by Paul Hilton for Greenpeace