HOUSE VOTES TO PROTECT ELEPHANTS and RHINOS
Education
Featured
An Open Letter to the Cleveland Orchestra
Photo Credit; WWF
Dear Cleveland Orchestra,
My name is Christina LaMonica, and I am the Founder of Ivory Free Ohio, a grassroots organization dedicated to outlawing all intra-state sales of Ivory, Rhino Horn, and Trophy Hunting products in our state without exemption. We’ve never met in person, but we’ve communicated via telephone and emails regarding our movement and your continued support.
As you are aware, we’ve worked diligently with Senator Frank LaRose and his staff, educating them on the adverse effects of the Ivory trade while creating legislation that protects our national security and helps Africa’s keystone species from extinction.
Using an ax, machete, and chainsaw, poachers hack the faces of Elephants and Rhinos while they are still alive. Photo Credit; The Tsavo Trust
The United States is the largest consumer of Ivory and Rhino Horn products- 2nd to China. One Elephant is slaughtered every 15 minutes. That’s four an hour, 96 a day, 672 a week, 2,880 a month, and 34,560 a year. And in the time it took you and your constituents (Cleveland Museum of Natural History and the Cleveland Museum of Art) to hijack our Ivory Bill, over 25,000 Elephants have been killed for their Ivory tusks.
East Africa Grassroots Elephant Campaign Walk March thru May, 2016
Walking for Elephants with Jim Justus Nyamu of the Elephant Neighbors Center (ENC)
The elephant population in 1970 was at 167, 000. The numbers stand at 26,400 elephants in Kenya today. Kenya loses one (1) elephant daily to poaching and over 365 elephants for its tusks (ivory) annually. If this trend continues the national elephant population may decline given that mortality rate was 4% compared to a growth rate of 2% in 2011. Over 80% of Kenya’s elephants are found outside protected areas and the rest in National Parks and Reserves. Poaching is an emerging challenge and if its not managed now, it will lead to decline of elephant numbers and negatively impact the economy (GDP).
Featured
Be Ivory Free
By; Christina LaMonica
Ivory Free Ohio Founder; Christina LaMonica, delivers White House Speech. Photo Courtesy; Phil McAuliffe
I had the wonderful opportunity of unveiling “Ivory Free Ohio” to a National and International audience at the Third Annual International March for Elephants and Rhinos in Washington, D.C. The March was sponsored by Elephants D.C. and iWorry, an organization launched by Actress Kristin Davis; Patron and Ambassador to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Nairobi, Kenya.
I was invited as a guest speaker, together with; New Jersey Assemblyman; Raj Mukherji, who succeeded in an outright ban of Ivory and Rhino Horn products in his state with Senator Raymond J. Lesniak. Pennsylvania Representative; Madeleine Dean who introduced HB 1537, and Premier Conseiller; Rod Rembendambya on behalf of His Excellency Michael Moussa-Adamo with the Embassy of Gabon in Washington, D.C., just to name a few.
As Founder of Ivory Free Ohio: a grassroots initiative committed to ending the trade of Ivory, Rhino Horn, and Trophy Hunting Products, my speech was framed around cultivating the courage to create change within our communities, educating ourselves and others on environmental policy, and bridging the gap of communication with State and Federal Legislators on how the trade of these products funds terrorism, threatens our national security, and our keystone species.
Ivory Free Ohio-IFOH 