By Lindsey Stokes
Staff Writer

Animal protection groups are joining forces with Mass. lawmakers to urge the state to ban the sale of ivory and rhino horn.

According to supporters, anti-trafficking laws can help to discourage poaching of rhinos and elephants. Conservation experts estimate as many as 96 elephants are killed every day for their ivory. Only 25,000 white and black rhinos remain in Africa. If current poaching rates continue, rhinos could become extinct in as little as 12 years.

According to the International Federation for Animal Welfare, a 2008 study pegged the Boston/Cambridge area as the nation’s seventh largest ivory market.

The bill sponsored by Sen. Jason Lewis of Winchester and Rep. Lori Ehrlich of Marblehead that would outlaw the import, sale, and/or purchase of ivory and rhino horn received its initial hearing by a legislative committee in early October.

Mass. would be the fourth state to pass such a law after New Jersey, New York, and California.