Trump administration to lift ban on importing elephant trophies
The Trump administration announced it will allow the trophies of legally hunted elephants from Zimbabwe and Zambia to be imported to the U.S., reversing an Obama-era ban.
The new regulation allows officials in Zimbabwe and Zambia to issue permits to import elephant heads if there is evidence that hunting benefits the animal’s conservation, ABC reported.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a statement acknowledging the money that goes towards the trophy permits could in fact help the animals by "putting much-needed revenue back into conservation."
RELATED: The horrors of elephant poaching
African elephants are considered threatened animals under the Endangered Species Act. In Zimbabwe, the overall elephant population has declined 6 percent, with populations plummeting a shocking 74 percent in the Sebungwe region, according to the Great Elephant Census.
The report also noted substantial declines along the Zambezi River in Zambia, with strong indications of poaching at a high level, leading to declining populations at the Sioma Ngwezi National Park.
Since 2005, Zimbabwe’s elephant population has dropped 10 percent, while Zambia saw an 11 percent decline over the last decade, according to National Geographic, citing the 2016 report.
Under the Obama administration, the FWS decided in 2015 that importing elephant trophies from Zimbabwe would “not enhance the survival of the species.”
But Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who installed the Big Buck Hunter arcade game in the department’s employee cafeteria, is intent on promoting hunting.
“Some of my best memories are hunting and fishing with my dad and granddad, and then later teaching my own kids to hunt and fish,” Zinke said in September. “That’s something I want more families to experience.”
Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States, criticized the move in a blog post that noted the corruption in Zimbabwe, which includes poaching and exporting ivory tusks.
“Remember it was Zimbabwe where Walter Palmer shot Cecil [the lion]...who was lured out of a national park for the killing,” he wrote.
“Let’s be clear: elephants are on the list of threatened species; the global community has rallied to stem the ivory trade; and now, the U.S. government is giving American trophy hunters the green light to kill them,” Pacelle wrote.
He added, “What kind of message does it send to say to the world that poor Africans who are struggling to survive cannot kill elephants in order to use or sell their parts to make a living, but that it’s just fine for rich Americans to slay the beasts for their tusks to keep as trophies?
