A Cautionary Tale if Your Pipes Have Ivory

[Jack Daw]

Apparently it's worse for us pipers than we had thought

http://www.thebagpipeplace.com/Ivory_Law.html

It's not just travelling with ivory; here in the USA it is now illegal to possess ivory that doesn't have proper documentation.

To qualify for the certificate you have to be able to establish that your pipes were brought into the USA prior to 1976 AND that you yourself acquired them before February 2014.

Pipers with ivory-mounted pipes can't sell these instruments, and carrying them in a public place subjects them to possible seizure, unless they have certificates. Many of us will be sending our lovely vintage pipes off to local makers to have the ivory stripped off and replaced with anything else.

Don't put it past government agents to show up at a Highland Games and start snapping up pipes. It happened here, a few years ago, when an agent at a local Highland Games seized one vendor's entire van-full of sealskin sporrans.

I'll pass the word on to some of my piper-buddies that have ivory pipes.

[tulloch]

We watch in horror as extremists destroy religious shrines because of their beliefs and need to control. Will our government wake up to the foolishness of destruction and mutilation of musical and artistic treasures? Where will it end?