With elephants and rhinos being slaughtered daily in Africa, Assembly Speaker Toni G. Atkins has introduced a bill to close loopholes that prevent the effective enforcement of existing California law prohibiting the sale of ivory.
“The slaughter of elephants for their tusks and rhinos for their horns is as senseless as it is cruel,” the Democrat from San Diego said Wednesday. “California recognized that and enacted a law almost 40 years ago to end the ivory trade here, but that law needs strengthening in order to be effective.
“AB 96 closes the loophole that allows the illegal ivory trade to continue to flourish and adds real enforcement teeth to the law so California can do our part to end the slaughter.”
The bill is co-authored by state Sen. Ricardo Lara from the Bell Gardens area of Los Angeles.
The states of New York and New Jersey recently enacted strong prohibitions on intra-state ivory and rhino-horn commerce and the federal government has proposed strengthened ivory trade and import regulations.
