Illegal ivory tusks and trinkets that were seized and kept at the federal wildlife forensics laboratory will be "ground into dust."
The lab will hold onto three elephant tusks and a few small carvings for research and display, but the remaining tusks will be destroyed, the Associated Press reported via the Washington Post.
About 75 tusks were shipped to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service central and will be used to make a statement about elephant poaching.
"That's the whole idea of destroying the stuff - to show we're not corrupt," laboratory director Ken Goddard told the Ashland Post.
The tusks were originally confiscated from men trying to smuggle the ivory into Laos years ago.
The stockpiled ivory in the U.S. comes mostly from failed smuggling attempts. The elephant remains have been sitting in labs across the country, where they run the risk of theft.
"It's an interesting issue," Goddard told the Ashland Post. "I can't imagine who else would be stockpiling elephant ivory."
The tusks that will remain at the lab to undergo DNA testing and other scientific studies have traveled a long way. Originally from Lusaka, Zambia they travled through numerous countries in metal crates as a string of smugglers tried to get them across the border of Laos.
The trunks were finally seized by Interpol agents in Singapore in 2007. They were X-rayed to confirm that they contained the illegal tusks. The trunks were sent to Ashland, and stayed shut until forensic specialists examined them in 2008 in case the cases contained biological weapons.
"Beneath blood-soaked nylon bags were 18 tusks, with some even sporting cracks and gashes from bullets," the Ashland Post reported.
The ages of the elephants the tusks had belonged to varied greatly. After examining the ivory the scientists determined that after the animals were killed their jaws were "cut out and left to decay."
The researchers believe the tusks came from a family of elephants that were buried and then dug back up again to remove the tusks.
