ENDANGERED SPECIES
New front opens in fight against hunting trophy imports
Michael Doyle, E&E News reporter

Published: Tuesday, May 8, 2018
Democratic lawmakers have now taken aim at trophy hunting, with the introduction of a bill to ban the importation of trophies from protected wildlife into the United States.

The measure introduced yesterday is likely a long shot in the Republican-controlled Congress, where the bipartisan and pro-hunting Congressional Sportsmen's Caucus claims nearly 300 members. President Trump, though he has at times denounced trophy hunting, has mostly remain married to the National Rifle Association.

But the measure introduced by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) and three House colleagues is also timely, coming amid heightened debate and ongoing litigation over the hunting of elephants, lions and other charismatic species in Africa.

"I was in Africa when the iconic Cecil the Lion was murdered for sport," Jackson Lee said in a statement. "It is a disgrace that this act was committed by an American — with his lack of respect for these wondrous animals and the preservation of our wildlife reverberating across the world."

Dubbed the "Prohibiting Threatened and Endangered Creature Trophies Act of 2018," H.R. 5690 reaches in several directions. It would amend the Endangered Species Act to prohibit the taking of any domestic endangered or threatened species as a trophy, in addition to banning the importation of any such foreign wildlife trophy into the United States.

"The African elephant is still listed as a threatened species under the ESA, and now more than ever, it is imperative that the U.S. lead the charge in disincentivizing the demand for elephant ivory," Jackson Lee stated.

She has introduced 53 bills this Congress, more than all but two other members. None of her latest bill's current backers serve on the House Natural Resources Committee, the panel to which it has been consigned.

The bill's introduction comes two months after the Trump administration effectively resumed granting permits for trophy imports, following some political heat and administrative misfires (Greenwire, March 7).

Endangered Species Act regulations state that sport-hunted trophies may be imported into the United States only if, among other things, the Fish and Wildlife Service makes "a determination ... that the killing of the trophy animal will enhance the survival of the species."

Last November, reversing an Obama administration policy, FWS said it would resume issuing trophy elephant import permits from Zambia and Zimbabwe. Abruptly, Trump then ordered the agency to think again (Greenwire, Nov. 15, 2017).

"I changed it," Trump subsequently told TV interviewer Piers Morgan in late January. "I didn't want elephants killed and stuffed and have the tusks bought back into this [country]."

The administration veered again in March, declaring that trophy permits will once again be issued, now based on individual rather than general enhancement findings.

"The Service is continuing to monitor the status and management of these species in their range countries," Greg Sheehan, principal deputy director of the Fish and Wildlife Service, stated in a memo. He added that "the Service intends to grant or deny permits to import a sport-hunted trophy on a case-by-case basis."

The revised policy is being challenged in federal court by the Center for Biological Diversity and other environmental groups, which claim among other things that "the government has failed to rationally explain its 180 degree turn" in trophy hunting policy.

The administration also established a new International Wildlife Conservation Council, whose pro-hunting members met for the first time two months ago with the stated goal of developing advice on the "benefits that result from United States citizens traveling to foreign nations to engage in hunting."

Twitter: @MichaelDoyle10 Email: mdoyle@eenews.net https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/stories/1060081117

https://blog.humanesociety.org...-trophy-hunting.html



Bills in Congress would crack down on wildlife trafficking, trophy hunting
May 8, 2018



Trafficking in wildlife is one of the most lucrative illicit trades in the world, involving tens of billions of dollars, and the United States is — unfortunately — a big part of the problem, as one of the world’s largest markets for wildlife and wildlife parts and products. Worse, a number of American trophy hunters are active in poaching and illegal trafficking schemes. Just last week, Ross Jackson, a Colorado hunter and at the time a vice president of Dallas Safari Club, pleaded guilty to violating the Endangered Species Act, after poaching an elephant in a national park in Zimbabwe with a plan to sell the ivory in South Africa.

Two bills introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives this week would directly address wildlife trafficking and poaching, and prohibit trophy hunting of endangered and threatened species in the United States as well as the import into this country of any animal species listed as endangered or threatened.

Today, Reps. Madeleine Bordallo, D-Guam, and Don Young, R-Alaska, introduced the Wildlife Conservation and Anti-Trafficking Act of 2018, H.R. 5697. The legislation seeks to strengthen law enforcement safeguards against wildlife trafficking and related activities. One of the bill’s measures makes certain wildlife trafficking and poaching violations predicate offenses (crimes that are components of more serious offenses) under federal racketeering and organized crime statutes. The bill builds on the success of the Eliminate, Neutralize, and Disrupt (END) Wildlife Trafficking Act of 2016, which made wildlife trafficking a predicate offense under the federal money laundering criminal statute. The Wildlife Conservation and Anti-Trafficking Act creates incentives for whistleblowers to report on wildlife trafficking, by raising awareness of monetary rewards, particularly in countries of special concern. The bill also provides funding and additional support for programs that protect sharks, marine mammals, turtles and other wild animals. In addition, it makes U.S. territories and outlying areas eligible for federal funding for marine turtle conservation.

The Prohibiting Threatened and Endangered Creature Trophies (ProTECT) Act of 2018, H.R. 5690, introduced last night by Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, and Ted Lieu, D-Calif., will also help ensure that U.S. trophy hunters do not further imperil species on the brink of extinction. The bill prohibits trophy hunting in the United States of any species listed under the Endangered Species Act and prohibits the import of any trophy of an ESA-listed species into the United States.

Trophy hunting is not popular with U.S. voters. In a poll released by the Humane Society of the United States last December, 69 percent of voters oppose it. This figure includes 61 percent of Republicans, 79 percent of Democrats, and 67 percent of non-partisan voters. In addition, 80 percent of respondents oppose the hunting of ESA-listed African lions and African elephants and allowing their bodies or parts to be imported to the United States. In November, President Trump called trophy hunting a “horror show” and expressed doubts that it “in any way helps conservation of Elephants or any other animal.”

Despite such opposition, the U.S. government is actively catering to trophy hunting interests seeking to make the import of trophy-hunted ESA-listed species easier. In January the Department of the Interior established the International Wildlife Conservation Council, a body stacked with trophy hunters and virtually bereft of wildlife scientists or conservation policy experts. Still more outrageous, in March the Trump administration lifted bans on the import of elephant and lion trophies from certain African countries, and indicated it would review import permits on a case-by-case basis, shielding trophy import decisions from public input.

We applaud Reps. Bordallo, Young, Jackson Lee and Lieu for their leadership in tackling wildlife trafficking and trophy hunting. Please contact your U.S. representative and urge him/her to cosponsor the Wildlife Conservation and Anti-Trafficking Act and the ProTECT Act.

This will go nowhere, just another grandstand by Sheila Jackson Lee.

Foreign policy

In 2000, she favored permanently normalizing trade status for China, arguing that it would aid both human rights and Houston's economy.[21]

Jackson Lee traveled to the 2001 World Conference against Racism in South Africa, and has backed sanctions against Sudan.[22] On April 28, 2006, Jackson Lee, along with four other members of Congress and six other activists, was arrested for disorderly conduct in front of Sudan's embassy in Washington. They were protesting the role of Sudan's government in ethnic cleansing in Darfur.[23]

Jackson Lee has urged better relations between the U.S. and Venezuela, which she describes as a friendly nation. She said the U.S. should reconsider its ban on selling F-16 fighter jets and spare parts to that country. The U.S. State Department bans such sales due to "lack of support" for counter-terrorist operations and Venezuela's relations with Iran and Cuba.[24][25]

In July 2010 Jackson Lee said: "Today, we have two Vietnams, side by side, North and South, exchanging and working. We may not agree with all that North Vietnam is doing, but they are living in peace. I would look for a better human rights record for North Vietnam, but they are living side by side."[26] It was noted that Vietnam had not been split for four decades, and that the current government of Vietnam does not consider South Vietnam to have ever been a sovereign state.[27][28]

Immigration

Jackson Lee is active on immigration issues.[29] She has proposed increasing border security and increasing opportunities for legalization among those living in the United States. She has opposed a guest worker program, saying that the idea of guest: "connotate[s] 'invite, come,' and, at the same time, it misleads because you ask people to come for a temporary job of three to six years and they have to leave if they don't have another job and I would think that they would not."[30]

Criticism of Tea Party

Speaking in July 2010 at the NAACP national convention, Jackson Lee compared the Tea Party to the KKK.[31]

WikiLeaks

In an October 2016 interview on MSNBC, Jackson mistakenly denounced Wikipedia in place of WikiLeaks. The story was concerned with the Hillary Clinton email controversy, with Jackson's exact quotation being "You know that I'm going to first of all denounce the utilization of this intrusion by Wikipedia through the Russian intrusion," "This is what it's about. Espionage just like what was said over these last couple of days. We need to be concerned about the intrusion of Russia and Putin in these elections."[32]

Health care

Jackson Lee said in January 2011 that repealing the health care law would be in violation of the Constitution. She argued that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is constitutional under the Commerce Clause, and that repealing it would violate both the Fifth and the Fourteenth Amendments.[33][34][35]

Al-Qaeda

At a Homeland Security Committee hearing on radical Muslims in the US, held in March 2011, Jackson Lee said that Peter King's hearings were helping al-Qaeda and “going the same route as Arizona.” She complained that the hearings were scaring Muslim Americans and called them “an outrage.”[36]

Legislation

On September 27, 2013, Jackson Lee introduced the Essential Transportation Worker Identification Credential Assessment Act (H.R. 3202; 113th Congress), a bill that would direct the United States Department of Homeland Security to assess the effectiveness of the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) program.[37] The bill would require an independent assessment of how well the TWIC program improves security and reduces risks at the facilities and vessels it is responsible for.[38]

Space program

In 1997, while on a trip to the Mars Pathfinder operations center in California, Jackson Lee confused the planet Mars with Earth's own moon, asking whether the Pathfinder had succeeded in taking a picture of the flag planted on Mars by Neil Armstrong in 1969.[39][40]

Hurricane naming

Jackson Lee complained in 2003 that storm names were too white. "All racial groups should be represented," she said, and asked officials to "try to be inclusive of African-American names."[41]

Foreign travel

In May 2015, The Washington Post reported Jackson Lee took a trip to Azerbaijan paid for by the government of that country.[42][43]

Confederate flag issue

On Thursday, July 9, 2015, Jackson Lee and others who were engaged in a debate over the Confederate battle flag produced an erroneous reproduction of what they thought was the original flag. The original battle flag contained 13 stars representing each state of the Confederacy as of 1861. The flag that Jackson Lee presented to members of Congress contained 17 stars.[44]

She-Jac as we refer to her he in Texas is a complete loon and should be an embarrassment to our African American community........but she's not.

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We have to totally change what we call trophy hunting to feed the hungry .We must make the commercials like they do with African kids with flies on the eating dirt and hungry .We need money to pay for our trips to be taking elephants to feed thousands of people .You think I am kidding but I am totally serious .Meat hunting has to come back .The extra elephants feed the Africans which we do anyway but the general public thinks you just want them for the tusk and skin and head .We are meat hunters for the hungry saving starving kids .That goes a long way further than saying you just want to shoot them for the tusk.The elephant elephants get protection from game wardens hired to protect the meat animals.This is the only way to save hunting in Africa .We are the feed the hungry hunters trophy hunters no more .You get to keep the fish head and skin and they get the meat .We all know this already happens but the general public does not .So let's all become meat hunters again !