“She started learning about the ivory trade. Then she started fighting it. Read about the woman who wants Ohio to become #IvoryFree: Christina LaMonica”

Ivory Free Ohio Founder; Miss Christina LaMonica. Photo Credit: Dennis J. Photography, New York, NY.

By Kerry Skiff

“I need answers.”

The fire in her voice showed an inflamed passion. In my mind’s eye I could almost see sparks shooting from her eyes. Christina LaMonica has spent the last two years fighting the ivory trade in Ohio, with relative success, so when she discovered a new roadblock, she started lighting her matches.

LaMonica, the founder and voice of Ivory Free Ohio (IFOH), started her fight against the ivory trade in 2013. While on social media, she discovered pictures posted by the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust of faceless elephant and rhino corpses, whose tusks and horns had been cut out of their skulls. “When I started seeing these images coming out of Nairobi, Kenya, I couldn’t just look at these images and shut down my computer and completely ignore that these things were happening,” she said. “And I knew I had to do something to make a change.” Continue reading →