This wasn’t the first time Kenya set fire to a stockpile of ivory tusks, but it was certainly the largest.
On Saturday, Kenya’s president lit the blaze that consumed 105 tons of elephant ivory and 1 ton of rhino horns, spitting out huge clouds of white smoke as the fire crackled into the night.
The animal parts came from more than 8,000 elephants and 343 rhinos, according to Kenya Wildlife Services. The tusks and horns are worth $150 million, but rather than selling them for public improvements as some had suggested, authorities decided to burn the poached tusks to make a point. The animal parts should not have commercial value, Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta said. Read more…
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