Conservationists criticized the decision to allow an exemption to the CITIES treaty for the one time sale of stockpiled ivory to China and Japan by four south African countries in 2008 {Death to Elephants, 7.16.08} The experts believed that allowing the sale to go forward would put pressure to supply more ivory to the illegal trade. That is what has happened. Poaching elephants for their ivory has risen across the continent. In Kenya 125 have been killed for ivory this year compared to 47 in 2007 and 98 in 2008. Other species also suffer as investigations show that elephant killers take everything in their wake such as buffalo, rhinos and antelopes. Two recent airport seizures in Kenya and Ethiopia of illegal ivory amounted to one ton. Kenya's Wildlife Service seized 61 whole tusks at a Kenya Airways warehouse. The tusks were packed in crates and mislabeled for shipment to Bangkok, Thailand via Addis Ababa. Authorities seized a similar size shipment in Addis Ababa bound for Bangkok by the same consignee two days earlier. [photo: bull elephant in Mahango NP, Namibia]