Safari Spawns ‘Tusk Force’ Crusade to Save Elephants

Two women returned from a trip to Africa with a new avenue for their social and political connections--saving elephants from slaughter.

Trisha Moseley and Susanna Colloredo founded International Tusk Force, a fledgling group devoted to banning international ivory trade.

Their goal is to make the buying and wearing of ivory as politically unfashionable as eating California grapes during the United Farm Workers boycott of the 1960s and 1970s.

“One of the members of the Tusk Force saw an ivory product in the catalogue of a major department store,” Moseley said. “She was so mad she cut up her credit card and sent it back to them.”

The group, formed in May, puts out a monthly newsletter, with a mailing list of about 300 names.

African elephants are threatened by poachers who kill the older ones for their tusks, which often are shipped to the Far East for processing into ivory products. Since June, the United States, Japan, the 12-nation European Economic Community, Switzerland and Canada have banned ivory imports.

But Moseley contends that plenty of ivory products are still found in stores, creating a continuous demand and fueling poaching.

“The general message is: Don’t buy ivory and don’t deal with stores that do,” Moseley said.

As the wife of former state Rep. James Moseley, she knew how to get the attention of politicians. Colloredo also had clout as the wife of Ferdinand Colloredo, who is the former head of a large Boston real estate firm and president of the influential Boston business organization known as “The Vault.”

The two women used their connections to organize a Boston panel discussion recently on banning the ivory trade, featuring paleontologist Richard Leakey. They also organized fund-raisers, complete with appearances by tame elephants, that raised about $30,000.

The money was sent to Operation Meru, a Kenyan conservation project, Moseley said.

The women and their families went on safari in Africa and learned from their guides of diminished elephant herds due to poaching.

Moseley has been involved with various conservation causes over the years, but the plight of the elephant seemed to her particularly symbolic of concerns over endangered wildlife.