https://blog.humanesociety.org...t-lion-trophies.html



Breaking news: HSUS, HSI sue federal wildlife officials to stop imports of elephant, lion trophies


March 20, 2018

The HSUS, Humane Society International, and our partners today filed a lawsuit to stop the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from lifting existing bans on elephant and lion trophy imports from certain African nations.

FWS announced earlier this month that it would lift the ban on elephant trophy imports from Tanzania and Zimbabwe and captive lion trophy imports from South Africa, and signaled it will approve trophy imports on a case by case basis. In a document filed in federal court, the U.S. Department of Justice said the FWS had withdrawn, effective March 1, Obama-era protections. The FWS signaled it will continue to rely on outdated and unsupported findings authorizing the import of elephant trophies from Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Namibia, and lion trophies from South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Zambia. Other African countries that allow hunting of these species may also be open to U.S. trophy hunters seeking to import tusks and hides.

The FWS also withdrew its findings for lion trophy imports from Zimbabwe, Zambia, and South Africa, but signaled that it will review individual trophy import permits from those countries.

Our lawsuit, filed in federal court along with the Center for Biological Diversity, photojournalist and safari guide Ian Michler, and Born Free USA, asserts that ending these trophy import bans and issuing trophy import permits without comprehensive review thwarts a U.S. Court of Appeals ruling from December that requires the FWS to seek public comment and input from all stakeholders, before making decisions about whether trophy hunting in a particular country promotes the conservation of a species threatened with extinction.

Elephants and lions in Africa are in the crosshairs of American trophy hunters, led by Safari Club International. This special interest group also has a stranglehold on the FWS, with the agency committing to spending hundreds of thousands of dollars annually to seek the “advice” of a council made up of mostly trophy hunters who have little to no wildlife management expertise. In an act of submission and deference to a minority of trophy hunting citizens, and to try to avoid judicial review of its actions, that FWS decided to lift the ban on imports of elephant and lion trophies.

Trophy hunting is opposed by most Americans, and President Trump expressed his disdain for it by calling it a “horror show.” Notwithstanding, FWS admits that it has allowed dozens of lion trophies to be imported in recent months. Through our lawsuit, we are demanding that no elephant or lion trophy import permits be issued while FWS conducts a thorough scientific and public review of elephant and lion hunting in Africa.

It is high time that this administration heeds the advice of wildlife biologists and complies, with full transparency, with federal law to protect species threatened with extinction. Catering to the whims of a handful of wealthy Americans who want to display elephant and lion trophies to display their hunting prowess, FWS is going against the wishes of the majority of Americans who believe that the animals, and the nations where they thrive, are better off without trophy hunters.

http://www.humanesociety.org/n...-federal-032018.html



March 20, 2018

Lawsuit challenges federal government’s secretive elephant trophy-import
Administration cuts public out of permit process, meets with trophy hunters

The Center for Biological Diversity, Ian Michler and Born Free USA

Media Contact: Kirsten Peek: 301-548-7793, kpeek@humanesociety.org

Four conservation and animal protection groups today sued the Trump administration over its secretive new policy of approving elephant and lion trophy imports behind closed doors. The lawsuit targets a U.S. Fish and Wildlife decision, outlined in a March 1 memo, to shut the public and scientists out of the process for evaluating the impacts of trophy hunting of elephants, lions and other African animals.

The Center for Biological Diversity, the Humane Society of the United States, Humane Society International, Ian Michler and Born Free USA filed the suit in U.S. District Court.

A federal court ruled in December that the administration needed to involve the public when making trophy import decisions. Instead of complying, Interior Department officials adopted a case-by-case permitting approach that fails to comprehensively consider the impacts of trophy hunting and severely decreases transparency. The day after quietly finalizing its new approach, the administration announced the first meeting of a pro-trophy hunting council convened to advise the Fish and Wildlife Service on increasing trophy hunting of foreign species.

“Despite ample scientific and economic concerns and tremendous public outcry over trophy hunting, this administration seems determined to allow Safari Club International and other special interests to unduly influence federal wildlife policy decisions,” said Anna Frostic, managing wildlife attorney with The Humane Society of the United States.

The memo rescinds numerous prior rules on trophy imports, wiping the slate clean of long-standing decisions pertaining to imports of trophies from elephants, lions and bontebok, a type of antelope. However, the Service has signaled that it still intends to rely on the bad science contained in its prior authorizations to import trophies.

“Elephants shouldn’t be killed for cheap thrills, and the Trump administration shouldn’t make crucial trophy hunting decisions behind closed doors,” said Tanya Sanerib, international program legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Federal wildlife officials seem to be thumbing their nose at President Trump after he called for an end to the horror show of trophy hunting.”

Today’s challenge to the March 1 memo is being added to a pending court case contesting the administration’s decision last November to lift an import ban on Zimbabwe elephant trophy imports, as well as a decision allowing imports of lion trophies from Zimbabwe to the U.S.

“These are sentient and imperiled animals being gunned down for fun,” said Prashant Khetan, CEO and general counsel of Born Free USA. “Threatened species deserve better than to be shot and stuffed. These animals belong in the wild, not on living room walls.”

Media Contacts:

Center for Biological Diversity

Tanya Sanerib: 206.379.7363, tsanerib@biologicaldiversity.org

Born Free USA

Prashant Khetan: 202.450.3168, prashant@bornfreeusa.org

Interesting how they call HSUS, and the rest "conservationists". They aren't for conserving anything, that's what the various Sportsmans groups have done. Instead they are pretty much anti everything including conservation.

Well. Isn't that special.

Rick Parsons, CEO, SCI

I don’t know the numbers but there are probally as many elephant culled in some areas than are hunted.

What might be a good idea is for someone to sue these nut cases to show what they have actually done for conservation!

Get the facts out.

https://www.biologicaldiversit...mended-Complaint.pdf


Link to amended complaint.