The Ivory Trade, is a series of massacres that murder several animals in order to obtain their ivory, more commonly known as tusks. Animals killed include narwhals, hippos, walrus, mammoths, and, most commonly,  African and Asian Elephants. The tusks are then used for trades and are often exchanged for money. This trade has been illegal for a while, but it still continues to become a major problem, and animals continue to be murdered. The animal’s ivory are taken and the animal is left to die and rot away. This is not acceptable, and our animals should not have to suffer for our entertainment unless we want them extinct. Here's how you can help:

1. Don’t buy ivory
Don’t buy it, sell it or wear it. New ivory is banned, but antique ivory can legally be available for purchase. Even shunning antique ivory is a message to dealers that the material is not welcomed.

2. Buy elephant-friendly coffee and wood
Coffee and timber crops are often grown in plantations that destroy elephant habitats. Make sure to buy Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified timber, certified fair trade coffee, certified sustainable palm oil.

3. Support conservation efforts
You can support the organizations that are actively committed to elephant preservation. A few include the International Elephant Foundation, The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, African Wildlife Foundation and the Amboseli Elephant Research Project.

4. Be aware some mistreatment of elephants
Boycott circuses that use animals as well as zoos that offer insufficient space to allow elephants to live in social groups, and where the management style doesn’t allow them to be in control of their own lives.

5. Adopt an elephant
There are any number of organizations that offer elephant adoptions so that you get cute pictures of “your” elephant, and they get currency to fund their elephant conservation efforts. World Wildlife Foundation, World Animal Foundation, Born Free and Defenders of Wildlife all have adoption programs and are good places to start looking. 

6. Get involved with Roots & Shoots
Roots & Shoots is a youth program created to incite positive change. There are hundreds of thousands of kids in more than 120 countries in the Roots & Shoots network, all working to create a better world.

7. Don't go on an Elephant-back Safari
The elephant used are usually captured from the wild. Training often means the use of a sharp bullhook and other instruments inflicting pain as well as long periods of chaining.

8. Sign this Petition
What is happening is not something to take lightly and is unacceptable. Please sign this petition as a way of saying that this is not okay, that we don't agree. By signing you are supporting the work that is being done to stop this. Save our elephants. Thank you (#JoinTheHerd)