US to destroy six tonnes of illegal 'blood ivory'

US officials are destroying more than six tonnes of confiscated ivory tusks, carvings and jewellery – the bulk of the country’s “blood ivory” stockpile - to support the fight against a US $10bn (€7.5 bn) global trade that slaughters tens of thousands of elephants each year.

Officials will use rock crushers to pulverise the stockpile, accumulated over the past 25 years, at the National Wildlife Property Repository just north of Denver, Colorado. The US Fish and Wildlife Service will donate the crushed ivory particles to a museum.