STAND. COM. REP. NO. 312-14
Honolulu, Hawaii
, 2014
RE: H.B. No. 2183
Honorable Joseph M. Souki
Speaker, House of Representatives
Twenty-Seventh State Legislature
Regular Session of 2014
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committee on Economic Development & Business, to which was referred H.B. No. 2183 entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE PENAL CODE,"
begs leave to report as follows:
The purpose of this measure is to protect wildlife and promote animal welfare, especially among endangered species, by prohibiting any person from importing, selling, offering to sell, or possessing with intent to sell, any ivory product.
The high price of ivory, driven by increased consumer demand, has led to the indiscriminate killing of animals, particularly the African elephant. It has been estimated that thirty-five thousand African elephants were slaughtered in 2012 by poachers and other groups intent on selling their ivory for large profits. With the increase in black market trade of ivory through internet sales, world-wide ivory trafficking is at the highest recorded rate ever. Sadly, Hawai‘i is the third-highest retailer of elephant ivory in the United States. Prohibiting the sale of ivory is a major impediment to the ivory trade and will go a long way to saving the critically endangered African elephant.
As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Economic Development & Business that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2183 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Economic Development & Business,
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____________________________ CLIFT TSUJI, Chair |
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