The Global March for Elephants & Rhinos takes place in cities worldwide this weekend, including a Dallas rally at the Ronald Kirk Pedestrian Bridge (109 Continental Avenue) this Sunday, October 8, from 2 to 4pm. Join the rally and show legislators you support protections for elephants and rhinos!

Why the march? 

Elephants have roamed in the wild for 15 million years, but now face extinction due to ivory poaching (exacerbated by trophy hunting, human-wildlife conflict and habitat loss). An estimated 25,000 elephants are poached annually—one elephant is slaughtered every 15 minutes—to satisfy human greed for ivory. At this rate, with only 400,000 wild elephants remaining, they will be completely extinct in the wild by 2025. Sadly, the United States is the world’s second largest consumer of ivory, after only China.

The crisis with rhinos is even more dire, with very few surviving outside of national parks and reserves. However, their safety remains in jeopardy even in protected areas—earlier this year, poachers killed a baby rhino and its mother in a raid inside a famous South African game reserve.

In 2016, a near-total ban on the interstate trade in ivory was announced in the United States. The approval of the so-called "4(d) Rule" of the Endangered Species Act for African Elephants closed most ivory trade within the U.S. to protect elephants. Currently, however, Congress is considering HR 2603, which aims to exclude non-U.S. species from the most basic protections of the Endangered Species Act. This includes Africa’s most vulnerable species, like elephants and rhinos. HR 2603 will make it more difficult to catch and punish wildlife criminals. It also loosens the rules for interstate commerce of ivory and undermines the United States’ leadership in protecting wildlife.

Be a voice for the voiceless and show those in power that elephants and rhinos are worth fighting for. They need our help with legislation that will ensure their future on this planet. Join the rally at the Ronald Kirk Bridge in Dallas on October 8 from 2 to 4pm. For more information contact Paulette Pearson at [email protected].

Photo courtesy David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust