Giraffe Parts Sales Are Booming in the U.S., and It’s Legal
More than 40,000 giraffe parts were imported to the United States from 2006 to 2015 to be made into expensive pillows, boots, knife handles, bible covers and other trinkets.
KAREN WEINTRAUB: ‘At a time when the giraffe population is plummeting in the wild, the sale of products made with giraffe skin and bone is booming. According to a report to be released Thursday by Humane Society of the United States and its international affiliate, more than 40,000 giraffe parts were imported to the United States from 2006 to 2015 to be made into expensive pillows, boots, knife handles, bible covers and other trinkets. …
The investigator found a taxidermied body of a juvenile giraffe, selling for $7,500, according to the Humane Society, and a pillow made with an animal head, intact down to its eyelashes… There is little solid data on the number of sales of giraffe parts in the United States, but the Humane Society obtained U.S. Fish and Wildlife data showing that there were nearly 40,000 giraffe products legally imported to the United States from 2006 to 2015…
The sale of these products is legal, but the organization argues that restrictions are needed… Along with other advocacy groups, it has petitioned the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to provide that protection by listing giraffes as an endangered species… In 2016, a study by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources determined that the worldwide giraffe population had plummeted from 150,000 to 100,000 since 1985′. SOURCE…
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