Washington — U.S. officials will consider whether the current legal U.S. trade in ivory should be outlawed as a way to curtail illegal trafficking in wildlife products. The officials are considering that possibility just as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service destroys a 6-ton cache of illegal elephant ivory, confiscated by U.S. law enforcement agencies in different operations over several years.
President Obama impaneled the Task Force on Combating Wildlife Trafficking in mid-2013, directing officials from the Fish and Wildlife Service and the departments of Justice and State to co-chair the panel. Officials outlined their efforts to fulfill the presidential assignment in a press briefing November 5.
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