A Peninsula Hotel shop has removed ivory items from its shelves to fall in line with the wishes of its landlord – and because staff members were not happy selling it.
Oriental Arts Jewelry in Kowloon has a licence from the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department allowing it to trade in ivory, but a staff member at the shop says it was decided to stop selling it in order to align with the stance of the hotel and Kong Kong society.
“The hotel knows it is legal for us to sell, but it doesn’t want us to, and even we don’t want to,” Annie Chor has told the Hong Kong Free Press.
“The African poaching crisis continues unabated, with around 96 elephants being illegally slaughtered each day for their tusks,” says Alex Hofford of the conservation group WildAid HK, which urged the Peninsula to stop its shopping arcade stores from selling ivory.

He says the NGO is also asking other five-star hotels in Hong Kong to also ban ivory sales on their properties.
Chor says the shop will keep its ivory stocks in its inventory as the products cannot be exported, and some of the old stock will be retained as works of art.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong Customs has seized 10kg of suspected ivory at Hong Kong International Airport, worth about HK$100,000 (US$12,885). A 32- year-old male arriving from Cote d’Ivoire via Dubai was arrested.
Chief Executive Leung Chun-Ying called for a ban on ivory sales in Hong Kong in his policy address in January.
* Photo: WildAid Hong Kong.