Between 2010 and 2012, an elephant was slaughtered every 15 minutes. More than 100,000 elephants were killed to fuel the global illegal ivory trade.

With national and international laws banning the ivory trade worldwide, where can buyers be sure to find it? On Craigslist.

A recent investigation by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and the Wildlife Conservation Society found that Craigslist users advertise 6,600 ivory and related wildlife products each year — worth over $15 million. And that study only examined a fraction of the sites -- just 28 of the over 400 sites.

Craigslist already prohibits the sale of animal parts, but this investigation proves it is little more than lip service. Feeling the heat, CEO Jim Buckmaster recently added ivory to the explicitly prohibited items, even though the company has done nothing to actually stop ivory sales on its website. Meanwhile, African elephants have been driven nearly to extinction.

Tell Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster we want a Craigslist ivory policy with teeth, not tusks. Ban the sale of ivory on Craigslist.

Craigslist vendors use code words like "bone," "scrimshaw" and "faux" to skirt the complex web of international laws prohibiting the sale of ivory. The reality is that Craigslist is complicit in a global network of winks and nudges working together to illegally sell ivory -- decimating elephant populations while funding organized crime and terrorism.

The thing is, there is a fix to this -- eBay and Etsy work hard to eliminate illegal wildlife trade by screening for search terms and other filtering software. Craigslist is one of the most visible players left in international ivory trade -- and if it wanted to end the illegal trade of ivory from endangered elephants on its websites, it could do it tomorrow.

We just convinced major airlines across the globe to refuse shipping trophy hunted endangered animals like Cecil the lion. Let's make this another win, and help stop the illegal trade in endangered animals once and for all.

Join us in demanding Craigslist close its illegal ivory loopholes and
save the elephants.

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More information:

Elephants vs Mouse: An investigation of the ivory trade on Craigslist, IFAW, 2015

The illegal ivory trade is thriving on Craigslist, Treehugger, April 28, 2015