Animals Humans Kill For Facetious Reasons

Elephants: Tusks For Ivory Chopsticks & Home Decor
Tens of thousands of elephants are being wiped out every year, and currently there is a elephant-poaching frenzy as demand for ivory from China has reached unprecedented levels. Due to the economic rise of the middle class in China, where more and more people in China can afford the decadent status they derive from owning elephant ivory pieces, the demand for ivory has created strife in areas of Africa where poachers are resorting to more violent measures to attain elephant tusks. African rebel groups hunt and slaughter herds of elephants, even those that live in protected sanctuaries, because of the high financial value of each tusk - the money is then used to buy arms.

Seventy percent of the world's ivory demand is from China. Apparently, if China did not perpetuate such a large market/demand, the current poaching crisis would not exist.

It's possible that if this continues, elephants in Africa will eventually die out.

And all for... expensive chopsticks, fancy carvings and jewellery.

Sharks: Shark Fins For Soup
Every year tens of millions of sharks are killed just for their fins - according to studies, the numbers range from 26 to 73 million sharks per year. Shark finning involves baiting/catching/netting sharks, cutting off their fins and then throwing the shark back into the water - that's right, they only take the fins. Often these sharks are still alive when thrown back into the ocean, and so they drown, starve, are eaten or die a slow death. There are shark species that are on the brink of extinction because of this practice.

Whilst many countries have prohibited shark finning in their waters, demand for shark fins has and is increasing. Shark fin soup is a decadent delicacy in China and again, like the elephant tusks, the rise in demand is because of the increase in affluence of the middle class - shark fin soup is considered a meal of the decadent, something of status, something used to impress others.

Something to note about sharks: unlike many fish that yield large quantities of offspring per reproduction cycle, sharks only produce a few pups. So the human consumer demand for sharks far outweighs the supply. Also, sharks are what called 'apex predators'. Apex predators are animals that are at the top of their food chain and within their natural setting they have no predators. Apex animals predators play an important role in nature, where by due to their eating habits, populations of other species are regulated. So their survival affects the other creatures and the ecology of their ecosystem.