On 16 March 2016 we held a protest outside Christie’s auction house to draw attention to the ongoing legal trade in ivory in the UK and to call for a total ban.
UK auction houses and antique sellers were selling ivory with no documented proof of the item’s date, which was breaking the law and making it much easier for illegal, newly poached ivory to enter the market. The laws in the UK to try and control the trade, or try to distinguish between legal and illegal ivory, were completely unworkable and largely ignored by sellers. The only option was to close ALL ivory markets if the rate of poaching was to decline.
We were joined at the demo by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, who came along with a film crew to find out about the UK ivory trade for a forthcoming documentary.