Environmentally conscious buyers may be more savvy when it comes to not shelling out bucks for endangered-animal products like rhino, elephant, and turtle, but apparently that’s just made poachers even more creative in terms of the animals they’re hunting.
A recent undercover investigation by the Human Society of the United States and Human Society International found that giraffes are the latest animal facing a severe population decline (40 per cent in the past 30 years) thanks to a growing demand for giraffe-related products. The organization found that trophy hunters are importing more than one giraffe per day to the States, where it’s legal to trade the animal’s parts. As a result they found parts and products being sold online and in-store in at least 52 national locations across 21 sites. According to the organization that translates into nearly 40,000 giraffe parts–representing roughly 4,000 animals–in the past decade alone.
Furthermore, investigators found that some sellers were advertising giraffes are dangerous to African villages, and that the products they were hocking were from defensive kills. But in reality there are fewer than 100,000 giraffes alive worldwide (and there are now fewer giraffes than elephants in Africa).
So what are some of these products that are adding to the decline of these long-necked creatures? According to the Human Society they range in everything from holy adornments to bracelets, and they can cost a pretty penny (all prices USD):
Wholesale giraffe leather
Retails: $25/ft
Giraffe leather boots
Retails: $400
Leather bible cover
Retails:$400
Full giraffe hide
Retails: $4,500
Hide rug
Retails: $3,000
Hide pillows
Retails: $200
Custom-made giraffe jacket
Retails: $5,500
Giraffe feet
Retails: $75
Hide duffel bag
Retails: $400
Hide bar stool
Retails: $1,500
Leg bones
Retails: $150
Skull
Retails: $500
Bone carving
Retails: $400
Bone knife handle “scales”
Retails: $40
Bone pistol grips
Retails: $60
Knife with bone handle
Retails: $450
Tail-hair bracelet
Retails: $10
Taxidermied trophy
Retails: $8,000