Animal welfare groups filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday to stop the Trump administration from allowing big game hunters to import the heads, hides and tusks of African elephants they killed.
“Elephants shouldn’t be killed for cheap thrills, and the Trump administration shouldn’t make crucial trophy hunting decisions behind closed doors,” said Tanya Saneriba, spokeswoman for the Center for Biological Diversity, one of four groups that filed the suit.
“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.”
The lawsuit filed in US District Court in Washington targets Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke over the announcement earlier this month that the Fish and Wildlife Service will resume accepting permit applications for importing body parts from hunted elephants on a case-by-case basis.
The agency said its March 1 decision was in response to a legal ruling that found flaws with how the Obama administration had imposed an earlier ban, which was challenged by pro-hunting groups.
The policy change came despite a comment from Trump last December calling big-game hunting a “horror show” — even though his two older sons are avid big game hunters who post photos of their kills on social media.
The agency said last week it has not yet issued any permits to import elephants, though 37 permits for lion trophies from Zimbabwe and Zambia have been issued since a ban on them was quietly lifted in October.
The lawsuit contends the Fish and Wildlife Service went far beyond the earlier legal ruling on the issue, wiping the slate clean of long-standing decisions regulating trophy imports.
The groups say the Trump administration is failing to consider the ecological impacts of trophy hunting and has been operating with a lack of transparency.
The Associated Press reported last week that Zinke had appointed a board stuffed with trophy hunters to advise him on conserving threatened and endangered wildlife.
The 16 board members include celebrity hunting guides, representatives from rifle and bow manufacturers and well-heeled trophy collectors. One appointee co-owns a private New York hunting preserve with Trump’s adult sons.
Donald Trump Jr. was slammed by animal rights activists after a 2011 photo surfaced of him holding a bloody knife and the severed tail of an elephant he killed in Zimbabwe.
He also took heat last year for shooting prairie dogs for sport — during the height of mating season, which critics said meant that the females were likely pregnant — on Earth Day during a trip to Montana.
With AP
