A Singapore online store selling ivory jewellery has sparked uproar, with an animal rights group Tuesday slamming the shop for offering products made from "tortured" elephants.

Ivory Lane offers earrings for Sg$160 ($120) and necklaces for Sg$800 ($585), and insists its products are made from ivory that was obtained before 1990, when an international ban on the trade began.

It is still legal in Singapore to export and import products made from ivory sourced before the ban took effect.

The shop's Facebook page shows a picture of women wearing the items, with the message: "Ivory is a secret desire for most girls."

But consumers in the affluent city-state reacted with outrage, flooding the store's page with hundreds of angry comments and demanding its closure. The demand for ivory, particularly in Asia, has contributed significantly to the decline in elephant populations worldwide.

"This is an outrageous business! You are creating demand for a product made from a terrible human practice!" Facebook user Laura Goddard wrote on Ivory Lane's page on the social networking site.

Jason Baker, a spokesman for campaign group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), questioned who would want to collect "fragments of a tortured, dead elephant".

"Vintage ivory sends the same, unacceptable message as new ivory -- that it is ok to maim and kill animals for the sake of vanity," he told AFP.

In a statement issued Monday, Ivory Lane's owner Ivy Chng noted the "unhappiness" online but insisted that the ivory she was selling was "completely legal" in Singapore.

"We only offer the purest form of ivory, sourced from the natural environments of central Africa," she said.

mba/sr/rma

Facebook

Related Links
Darwin Today At TerraDaily.com

Tweet

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The Space Media Network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceMediaNetwork Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceMediaNetwork Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

Slovenians strive to live in peace with bears
Markovec, Slovenia (AFP) Aug 6, 2018
When he used to go hunting, Miha Mlakar would dream of killing a bear. But today the 33-year-old from Slovenia makes his living watching the animals, peacefully, in their natural forest environment. The turnaround to shooting bears with a camera, not a rifle, puts Mlakar, who runs bear observation tours, in step with wider efforts in the small Alpine nation to promote the coexistence of humans and bears. Once on the verge of extinction, Slovenia's brown bear population is booming, with the numbe ... read more