Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Wildlife Trafficking Enforcement Act of 2015, which I authored along with my colleague Senator Lindsey Graham. This bill will allow the Federal Government to crack down on poachers and transnational criminal organizations involved in the global trade in illegal wildlife products. Wildlife trafficking has become a global crime that the State Department estimates is valued at between $8 to $10 billion annually. This ranks it as one of the most lucrative types of organized crime in the world, along with drug and human trafficking. Besides being a major international crime, wildlife trafficking is a morally repugnant practice that threatens some of our world's most iconic species with extinction. The most disturbing example is that of elephants and rhinoceroses. A recent study estimates that over 100,000 elephants were illegally poached in Africa from 2010 to 2012. At this rate, the African elephant is being killed faster than the species can reproduce, putting it at risk of being wiped off the face of the earth. Most disturbingly, poachers are slaughtering very young and juvenile elephants for their tusks due to the record high demand for ivory in places like China and the United States. But the illicit ivory trade is not just a threat to African elephants; it is also a problem for global security.…”