Kai, I agree wholeheartedly that the execution of a single killer does nothing at all to halt murder.
However, if the consequences of a risk are sufficiently severe to be avoided at all costs, then the penalties that apply to those who fail to observe the laws intended to prevent occurrence of that risk, must be so severe as to cause not mere disapproval, but horror and extreme fear.
My suggested penalty may not be the most desirable to achieve the required result, but I am certain that sufficiently horrific penalties could be implemented that would not just deter people who were so inclined, from killing elephants, but would cause such people to go into a state of mental collapse at the mere thought of a dead elephant laying at their feet.
Things that come to mind immediately are crucifixion, hang, draw and quarter, that wonderful old Dutch speciality, The Wheel. And applied to whole families, or villages, not just perpetrators.
Penalties just marginally more severe than a fine which equates to the cost a meal in a decent restaurant in a major city of a developed country.
That is of course only one way of looking at the problem.
As I wrote in my earlier post:-
"This whole thing is not about ivory, it is about a group of people who want to take everything of true value away from us."
If the supposed problem is really serious, then we must act in such a way that the risk of the problem becoming reality is forever avoided. This will cost enormous amounts of money, as well as immense human suffering.
However, if what we are looking at is something less than the End of the World, then let us consider what can be done about those people who want to rob us of those things which most of us cherish.
These people are the same ones who have generated this over-reaction to ivory.
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