quote:

The source of the plaintiffs’ alleged injury was the death of black rhino and subsequent inability to view black rhino if they were hunted and killed, which only Namibia, not the USFWS, controls.

quote:

Originally posted by K Evans:
This from John Jackson, good news for a change!


We won the black rhino suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The suit was captioned Friends of Animals (FoA) and Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force v. Daniel Ashe, Director of USFWS and Sally Jewell, U.S. Secretary of Interior, before Judge Amy Berman Jackson. The order of dismissal and 27-page Memorandum Opinion were rendered on Thursday, March 24. The Order granted both the motion to dismiss filed by the U.S. Government and the motion to dismiss filed by the Intervenors. The Intervenors were the Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) of the Republic of Namibia, which licensed the two hunts and administers the renowned black rhino program that is saving rhino in Namibia; Dallas Safari Club, who auctioned one of the two hunts; and Conservation Force, who helped organize the whole conservation action from inception including an earlier black rhino import permit and provided the permitting assistance and pro bono representation of Namibia and DSC in the litigation.

The complaint of FoA and the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force (Johnny Rodrigues) was fully dismissed on threshold issues. The plaintiffs claimed that the USFWS’ issuance of trophy import permits for black rhino listed as "endangered" under the Endangered Species Act violated the Endangered Species Act through the Administrative Procedures Act and the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA). The court dismissed all four counts of the complaint after finding the plaintiffs did not have standing to sue under Article III of the U.S. Constitution and had no cause for judicial review of the alleged USFWS “policy” of issuing enhancement permits.

The court found the plaintiffs’ complaint was deficient in alleging all three legs required for standing. The court questioned if the plaintiffs had adequately asserted an injury-in-fact from the black rhino hunts. The court found the “thinnest reed” of injury-in-fact because one of the plaintiffs' members in Namibia alleged he wanted to view black rhino in areas besides where the two hunts took place, and MET could potentially authorize hunts in other areas. Nevertheless, the plaintiffs could not show this injury was caused by the USFWS’ issuance of import permits or was “redressable” by the court, because the rhino would be hunted regardless of the outcome of the litigation and the court had no control over the Namibian authorities that would issue licenses to other hunters. The source of the plaintiffs’ alleged injury was the death of black rhino and subsequent inability to view black rhino if they were hunted and killed, which only Namibia, not the USFWS, controls. This argument is similar to one made in a suit brought by another animal rights organization to stop threatened-listed argali imports, which was also dismissed in response to a standing challenge first filed by Conservation Force.

The two hunters, Corey Knowlton and Michael Luzich, collectively contributed over $550,000 to Namibia’s black rhino conservation fund. They were not direct parties to the litigation, but are members of Conservation Force and DSC, which represented their conservation and personal property interests in the litigation as organizations.

This was the first of two suits filed by animal rights activists against the USFWS over the black rhino import permits. The second suit was filed by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in federal district court in Virginia, but was dismissed by that court shortly after filing. It was dismissed on narrower but similar grounds that it was a challenge of "programmatic policy" that was not justiciable in court.

These two permit applicants followed the first black rhino import permit applicant, who was also represented by Conservation Force and its lead attorney, John J. Jackson III. That first application was granted April 4, 2013. (See World Conservation Force Bulletin of May 2013.) That trophy was imported before this litigation.

Black rhino is the third "endangered" listed species for which Conservation Force has spearheaded imports. The prior two were Suleiman markhor from Pakistan and Canadian Wood Bison from the Yukon. (Both have since been downlisted to threatened status under the Endangered Species Act.) The black rhino litigation is the first suit against import of a trophy of an endangered listed species. Dismissal of this suit is critical for the conservation of black rhino in Namibia, because MET had announced it would not spend the $350,000 contributed by Mr. Knowlton and earmarked for black rhino anti-poaching and surveying efforts until after the suit was resolved. Now those funds can be allocated as they were meant, with the black rhino being the ultimate beneficiary of this legal victory.