Poachers sentenced to 15 years in jail for killing 81 elephants
elephants photo CC BY 2.0 oldandsolo  Earlier this month,
authorities in Zimbabwe arrested three men responsible for the
poisoning deaths of 81 elephants, and an untold number of
unintended wildlife victims -- one of many crimes against nature
being fueled by the illicit ivory trade.  On Wednesday, they
were sentenced to serve 15 years in jail and pay fines of
$800,000.  As elephant poaching has ramped up in recent years,
with some 36,000 elephants being killed just last year alone,
African nations are stiffening the penalties for illegal hunters
-- which, in some cases, had amounted to just two years in jail.
Conservationists hope that lengthier jail sentences will
discourage poachers from targeting elephants to profit from
their ivory.  And discouragement is desperately needed. A few
short decades ago, there were an estimated 1.3 million elephants
in Africa. After decades of rampant poaching that number has
been slashed by more than half -- an