As an animal rights activist, there are plenty of things that bug the hell out of me. I can’t stand circuses, people who wear fur, or the cruelty of factory farming. But one of the biggest issues I have with animal abuse is when it deals with larger-than-life animals.

Don’t get me wrong; I think it’s horrible when people abuse anything from a dog to a chicken and that it should never be condoned. But there’s just something about a gigantic, majestic animal—such as an elephant or a whale, something much bigger and powerful than man—being killed for human use that actually makes me cry.  Something that enormous and awesome shouldn’t be destroyed to make someone a damn ashtray.

Case in point: the ivory industry. I would’ve thought that this monstrous business would be something of the past by now, but not so. In fact, because of the ivory trade, elephant populations have decreased from 1.3 million or more to only 600,000 left in the wild. This is not a natural selection process; this is sheer human greed and destruction at work.

In Doha, Qatar, 175 world leaders will be meeting for the 15^th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (or CITIES, if you don’t want to hold your breath before saying that entire title!). Among many other species that will be under consideration of additional protection, elephants are on the agenda. But not everyone is hoping to help the animals; on the contrary, delegates from Zambia and Tanzania are asking for permission to sell over 100,000 pounds of ivory. This simply cannot be allowed.

Born Free USA is offering three options for people to do to stop the ivory trade. If you’d like to get involved, feel free to do one or more of these:

1. Tell U.S. Secretary of Interior, Ken Salazar, to vote no on the request to sell more ivory—and to enforce a strong opposition from the U.S. and our allies.
2. Send Born Free USA a donation to the Elephant Defense Fund if you can. This will help them continue to fight for elephant rights.
3. Check out Born Free’s new anti-ivory website, Bloody Ivory, to learn more about the issue.

Elephants are keen, smart animals. Much like humans, they are sociable and live in families. They mourn their dead, are known to grieve, and show intense distress at the loss of a family member. Please, it’s time to stop treating these incredible animals like products and more like fellow living creatures.