Elephant Protection Association

People around the world are becoming more concerned about saving elephants from going extinct.  Aside from the humanitarian angle, wildlife tourism brings countless jillions of dollars into African economies.

Poaching, which is driven mostly by the ivory trade, killed over two hundred thousand elephants between 2010 and 2012.  Because of the international groundswell, the governments of China and Kenya, among others, have destroyed tons of confiscated ivory in order to discourage poaching.  New York and New Jersey have both passed laws cracking down on the ivory trade, and similar legislation is pending in twelve other states.  And the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is expected to pass new rules that will restrict the commercial ivory trade.  A FWS spokesperson said:

“By significantly restricting ivory trade in the United States, it will be more difficult to launder illegal ivory into the market and thus reduce the threat of poaching to imperiled elephant populations.”

And this brings us to the Elephant Protection Association. This must be an organization dedicated to saving elephants, right?  Unfortunately, the Elephant Protection Association is in the same category as right to work laws and Crisis Pregnancy Centers; i.e. don't get fooled by the name.

The Elephant Protection Association is a front group made up of NRA members and commercial ivory traders.  As despicable and on-the-wrong-side-of-history as this gang of perverts is, they actually have some political clout.  Congressman Don Young and several state legislators have already gone down on the Elephant Protection Association, promising to derail anti-ivory-trade legislation in return for, well, you know...

If an organization is ever formed with the specific purpose of killing members of the NRA (now mind you, I'm not condoning any such thing), maybe this group could call themselves Patriotic Americans Dedicated to Protecting NRA Members.