Ted Poe: “The call of the wild from mammoth African elephants and rhinos has grown meek and blissfully silent. The culprit: outlaw…”

“The call of the wild from mammoth African elephants and rhinos has grown meek and blissfully silent. The culprit: outlaw terrorists who are tracking and hunting down these massive creatures to fund their filthy, lucre terrorist enterprises. Our enemy is sophisticated and well-funded, but their weapons, surveillance equipment and training, food, lodging, and travel cost a lot of money. ISIS has a terrorist army that has raised billions of dollars through extortion, drugs, bank robbery, kidnapping, and oil smuggling, but there is one source of funding for terrorism that is being overlooked: poaching. Madam Speaker, the illegal wildlife trade in Africa is a $7 to $10 billion a year business. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, a rhino horn sells for $65,000 a kilogram in Asia. That is more expensive than silver, gold, diamonds, or illicit drugs. The number one buyer of ivory is none other than China. With big profits and high demand, poaching has risen dramatically. Madam Speaker, two-thirds of central Africa's forest elephants have been wiped out in the last 10 years. 100,000 elephants were killed in Africa between 2010 and 2012. In just those 10 years, central Africa has lost 64 percent of its elephants, according to National Geographic. One of those elephants killed was Satao, pictured right here before he was killed. Satao was called by some as the world's biggest and largest elephant.…”