Star date: 5th October 2014

HUNDREDS PROTEST AGAINST CRUEL IVORY AND RHINO HORN TRADE

"An elephant is killed for its ivory every 15 minutes..."

Hundreds of people opposed to the cruel trade in ivory and rhino horns marched through Liverpool city centre yesterday as part of the Global March For Elephants and Rhinos.

The march included a Salford contingent, and was part of a worldwide day of action that also saw thousands of people in 135 other cities around the world take part.

Full details and photos here...

Hundreds of people, many wearing elephant outfits or carrying cuddly toys, came from all over the North West yesterday to march through the centre of Liverpool to oppose the cruel trade in ivory and rhino horns that is seeing the animals on the verge of extinction.

The march began from the stunning `bombed out church' at the top of Bold Street, where there were crafts for kids and info exhibitions, and made its way through the town centre with campaigners chanting `Justice for elephants' and `Rhino horn isn't healing, stop your murdering and your stealing'. 

The procession ended at the Victoria monument with top conservation poetry from Tim Ellis*, an informative talk on endangerment by Ray Knowles and more, as Liverpool was left in no doubt that extinction for profit will be opposed at every level

"It was great to see so many people turn out for the march today in Liverpool – and inspiring to know that we were just one of 136 cities worldwide that were marching to raise awareness" says Jo from Action for Elephants in the North West, who led the Salford contingent.

"However, marching is not enough" she adds "Elephants and rhinos are facing a very real threat to their survival.  An elephant is killed for its ivory every 15 minutes – that's around 100 elephants each day.  And the ivory industry in China is growing all the time. Meanwhile the population of black rhinos has decreased by around 97% since the 1970s, and it could very soon become extinct, just because of the entirely pointless market for rhino horn which is actually made out of keratin, just like human hair and fingernails.

"It is essential that governments across the work take read action to make the illicit ivory trade a priority issue" she explains "While ivory continues to be a status symbol attracting high prices, elephants will continue to be cruelly killed for their tusks.  To save the species, ivory sales need to be completely banned worldwide.

"Unless there is a global effort to combat the poaching epidemic, elephants and rhinos will be extinct in as little as ten years time. This can't be allowed to happen."

To find out more about the crisis, and to join the fight against extinction visit http://iworry.org/action/

• For details on Tim Ellis's book of poetry, On The Verge, being sold to raise funds for rhino conservation – click here