Saving Elephants: Ivory Crush in Central Park (Photos)

Tiny yet expensive

Even small ivory trinkets have huge price tags like this one for $9,500.

Beauty and destruction

A large ivory carving teeters on the conveyor belt as it makes it way to the crusher.

Speaking for the animals

A New York State Department of Environmental Conservation officer watches as an elaborate ivory piece moves along the conveyor belt of the crusher.

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To be crushed

Ivory carvings made from many different elephant tusks await the crusher to send a message to wildlife traffickers.

A sign to the poachers

Lieutenant Jesse Paluch, Environmental Conservation Investigator for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, and Major Scott Florence of NY DEC place an elaborate carving on the crusher, part of a recent confiscation of nearly two tons of ivory.