Quote Originally Posted by pixelfixed View Post
Yep, it can be tested,and is tested in major smuggling cases,carbon 14,They can tell if the animal died one week before we nuked Japan or two weeks after.
Other thing with elephant Ivory you need to know,is it Indian or african,Indian is 100% banned,takes DNA testing to know the diff.
Which, unless there is a more accessible test, means there is effectively no way for folks like us to know whether it is pre or post ban.

I fully realize that I personally won't bring the international ivory trade to its knees by not participating, but since I much prefer seeing ivory in its original form still attached to an elephant, I *personally* choose to have nothing to do with the stuff. As long as ivory, be it pre-ban or post-ban, is coveted in the marketplace, it will be poached. So I choose not to partake. I personally want nothing to do with anything that will - however tangentially - support a practice that I abhor.

All of which I realize ultimately means little in the grand scheme of things other than me not competing with you guys on ebay for ivory-scaled razors. But it makes me feel better.