Banning antique ivory won’t save any elephants

SIR – The multi-signatory letter (May 11) calling for a total ban on ivory contains a statement of remarkable naivety, from which false conclusions are unsurprisingly drawn.

It may be the case that much genuine antique ivory belongs in museums, as your correspondents assert. However, one wonders how, if the statement is true, the museums acquired most of the material in the first place, if not through a knowledgeable, regulated trade and expert auction houses, all carrying on their business openly and honestly.

These ivories are, for the most part, anything between 100 and 800 years old and are often works of art of the greatest importance. They are not “desirable consumer products”.

Banning the collectors’ trade, as has been proposed by several professional bodies, will not save the life of a single elephant now alive or yet unborn. Paul Whitfield Mickleton, Gloucestershire SIR – Only last weekend the David Shepherd Foundation had a display at the respected Petworth Park Antiques & Fine Art Fair where many fine pieces of antique ivory were for sale.

It seems odd that David Shepherd, as one of the signatories to your letter of May 11, should so quickly turn around and attack those who support his endeavours to end elephant slaughter by demanding an end to the sale of antique ivory, a trade already well-regulated and not abused by those who buy and sell. Daniel Fearon New Malden, Surrey SIR – The brutal ivory trade is not the only cause of the terrible suffering and decimation of elephants.

This week the BBC World Service ran an item called “Assignment: Elephants, Politics and Sri Lanka”. Elephants there are victims of the conflict between politics and culture, and also, increasingly, of habitat shrinkage.

These noble animals have been exploited in war and peace, used for work and entertainment and incarcerated in zoos or temples. People and governments everywhere must address this shameful cruelty. Diana R Lord

Cockfosters, Hertfordshire