London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Sep 18, 2025

Unscrupulous ivory traders can evade new UK ban, charity says

Unscrupulous ivory traders can evade new UK ban, charity says

Sellers could pass off elephant products as derivatives from unprotected mammals, Born Free Foundation says
Ivory peddlers may continue to sell elephant tusks after a new ban by disguising their products as walrus or narwhal derivatives, campaigners have warned.

From Monday, trade in elephant teeth and tusks is illegal in the UK, punishable by fines of up to £250,000 or up to five years in prison under the Ivory Act. Pre-1975 musical instruments and antique items of “outstanding importance” are exempted from the act, as well as ivory from non-elephant species.

But Born Free Foundation, a wildlife charity, is calling for the ban to be extended to the ivory of other species, saying unscrupulous sellers might otherwise pass off elephant products as derivatives from unprotected mammals.

Research by the campaign group found £1.1m worth of ivory-containing products listed for sale on three UK online marketplaces in a single month in late 2021. In two-thirds of the 1,832 ivory product listings, it was impossible to identify the species because of the limited number and quality of the images provided, the researchers said.

Of the ivory-containing items where the species could be identified, the majority were derived from elephants (491 out of 606), with walruses (48), sperm whales (26), hippopotamuses (15), warthogs (12), mammoths (eight) and narwhals (six) also featured.

Will Travers OBE, Born Free’s co-founder and executive president, said: “The take-home message from our report is that all ivory trade – from any species – has to end. Just a few weeks ago, wildlife law enforcement officials in the Democratic Republic of the Congo intercepted 2,000 kg of ivory, representing an estimated 150 dead elephants.

“Via the online trade, could this have been destined – at least in part – for the UK market?”

Dr Mark Jones, Born Free’s head of policy, said: “The government must now ensure that the system they have introduced to prevent the trade in most elephant ivory is sufficiently robust to ensure only items that genuinely meet the exemption criteria can be traded. Our research demonstrates the sheer scale of online trade in ivory in the UK.”

Jones said he was concerned that law enforcement might find itself too stretched to police the vast online market, allowing fly-by-night dealers a chance to pass off illicit elephant ivory as something else.

The Born Free report, entitled Are Ivory Sellers Lying Through Their Teeth?, uncovered 331 cases in a single month of vendors selling ivory on eBay UK – despite trade in ivory having been banned on the platform in 2009.

Most of the ivory products listed on the website were disguised with varying degrees of subtlety, with one advert saying the item was “cold to the touch”, a recognised code phrase, and another saying that the material had come from “an animal with a trunk”.

Commonly, vendors listed products as “ivorine” or “faux ivory” on eBay UK, while admitting they in fact contained ivory in adverts for the same item appearing on specialist auction websites.

There were 414 individual vendors of ivory products across the UK and Channel Islands identified over the month-long study period, selling products that included walking sticks, ornaments, jewellery and a hairbrush.

As well as eBay, Born Free found items for sale on Barnebys (a popular auctioneer and antique dealer search engine) and Antiques Atlas (a specialist online marketplace).

An eBay spokesperson said: “eBay is a founding member of the Coalition to End Wildlife Trafficking Online. We have been working to tackle the illegal trade in elephant ivory for many years, and work alongside WWF and IFAW to continually update our policies and processes. We have global teams dedicated to enforcing our policies, and over a recent two-year period we blocked or removed over 265,000 listings prohibited under our animal products policy.”

Antiques Atlas has since taken down the relevant ad. Iain Smith of Antiques Atlas said: “The ivory category and its associated stock has now been removed. We are not a big auction site with big volumes of stock being sold every week. We have had one item uploaded to that category in the last six months.

“Over the last two years we have found most dealers have been reducing their ivory stock and moving away from it … I don’t think I have met a single antique dealer who wasn’t against the illegal ivory trade and the threat it poses to this endangered species.” Smith said he would also support a complete ban on the sale of ivory abroad from the UK.

The government called for evidence on banning trade in non-elephant ivory in 2019. Among the species considered for protection were hippos, killer whales, narwhals, sperm whales, walruses, common warthogs, desert warthogs and mammoths.

A number of respondents to the consultation objected to extending the ivory ban to non-elephant species, with one saying it would have a massively detrimental effect on musicians who depend on these sources for instrument manufacture and repair.

Another respondent argued that outlawing the trade in ivory from these species would harm “small businesses, private collectors, museums, researchers and students of everything from antiquities to ladies’ antique dresses, without preserving threatened animals”.

Peter Goldsmith, the animal welfare minister, said: “The world-leading Ivory Act coming into force represents a landmark moment in securing the survival of elephants across the globe for future generations. Thousands of elephants are unnecessarily and cruelly targeted for their ivory every year for financial gain. As one of the toughest bans of its kind, we are sending a clear message the commercial trade of elephant ivory is totally unacceptable.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
French Debt Downgrade Piles Pressure on Macron’s New Prime Minister
US and UK Near Tech, Nuclear and Whisky Deals Ahead of Trump Trip
One in Three Europeans Now Uses TikTok, According to the Chinese Tech Giant
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
NATO Deploys ‘Eastern Sentry’ After Russian Drones Violate Polish Airspace
Anesthesiologist Left Operation Mid-Surgery to Have Sex with Nurse
Tens of Thousands of Young Chinese Get Up Every Morning and Go to Work Where They Do Nothing
×