Trump Reverses Ban on Elephant Trophies
The Trump administration plans to allow US hunters to bring back the body parts of elephants hunted in Zimbabwe and Zambia.
The Obama administration originally banned the import of elephant tusks and hides in 2014 due to conservation concerns.
Obama’s US Fish and Wildlife Services felt that Zimbabwe had failed to prove that elephants were being managed effectively.
Elephants are classified as “endangered” by the Endangered Species Act of 1973, which aims to protect animals in danger of extinction.
However, a provision in the act gives the US government the power to allow the import of trophies from endangered animals, if hunting them will benefit their conservation.
“Legal, well-regulated sport hunting…can benefit the conservation of certain species by providing incentives to local communities to conserve the species and by putting much-needed revenue back into conservation,” a Fish and Wildlife spokesperson said in a statement.
The decision has brought Trump’s family under the spotlight. His two sons are avid hunters and have often posted pictures on social media of themselves smiling next to their kills.
The new policy will apply to the remains of African elephants killed between January 2016 and December 2018.
White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that the decision has not yet been finalised: “There hasn’t been an announcement that’s been finalised…until that’s done I wouldn’t consider anything final.”
Image: Eric and Donald Trump Jr., holding a leopard they shot and killed [online image] (2011) sourced on 17 November 2017 from https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CE4-FwwWYAAl2XO.jpg
