President Donald Trump has expressed more doubts about a new policy allowing trophies of African elephants shot for sport to be imported.
‘Big-game trophy decision will be announced next week but will be very hard pressed to change my mind that this horror show in any way helps conservation of Elephants or any other animal,’ Trump tweeted Sunday night.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service has argued that encouraging wealthy big-game hunters to kill the threatened species would help raise money for conservation programs.
It announced Thursday that it would allow such importation, drawing criticism from animal rights advocates, environmental groups and some GOP lawmakers.
Trump decided Friday to delay the policy until he could review it with Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.
President Donald Trump has expressed more doubts about a new policy allowing trophies of African elephants shot for sport to be imported
Trump tweeted Sunday night that a decision on the ban would be coming next week
He tweeted late Friday that he will uphold a ban on importing trophies of elephants hunted and killed in Zimbabwe, pending further review
However, on Sunday night, Trump tweeted that he would announce a decision in the coming days ‘but will be very hard pressed to change my mind that this horror show in any way helps conservation of Elephants or any other animal.’
The Fish and Wildlife Service said in a written notice issued Thursday that permitting parts of elephants from Zimbabwe and Zambia to be brought back as trophies will raise money for conservation programs.
The change would override a 2014 ban imposed by the Obama administration. The new policy applies to the remains of African elephants killed between January 2016 and December 2018.
Just hours before Trump’s dramatic reversal on Friday, Trump’s spokeswoman Sarah Sanders had defended the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s move to end the 2014 ban initiated under Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama.
The service said Thursday that it would begin issuing permits to import ‘sport-hunted trophies from elephants hunted in Zimbabwe’ between January 21, 2016 and December 31, 2018.
Zambia would also have been covered under the revised rule.
The move was met with a barrage of criticism from animal rights groups and activists.
Donald Trump Jr poses with an elephant carcass while holding its tail in his hand in 2012 in Zimbabwe. The president’s sons are known to have a passion for hunting
It also came on the same day that the US State Department presented to Congress its first annual report on wildlife trafficking which, it said, ‘remains a serious transnational crime.’
French screen legend and animal rights activist Brigitte Bardot added her voice to the growing chorus of criticism, slamming Trump as ‘unfit for office’ after his administration’s ‘shameful actions.’
‘No despot in the world can take responsibility for killing off an age-old species that is part of the world heritage of humanity,’ Bardot said in a letter to Trump, released through Fondation Brigitte Bardot.
The move is ‘a cruel decision backed by Zimbabwe’s crazy dictator and it confirms the sick and deadly power you assert over the entire plant and animal kingdom,’ the 83-year-old actress added.
‘Your shameful actions confirm the rumors that you are unfit for office.’
According to the Great Elephant Census project, African Savanna elephant populations fell by 30 percent between 2007 and 2014, while Zimbabwe saw a drop of six percent.
President Donald Trump says he will keep a ban on importing trophies of elephants hunted and killed in Zimbabwe, pending further review
Despite an overall fall in poaching, Africa’s elephant population has declined in part because of continued illegal killing, said a report this year by CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
African ivory, in particular, is highly sought in China where it is a status symbol.
A provision in the Endangered Species Act says the import of such trophies can be legal if accompanied by proof that the hunting benefits broader conservation of the species.
Trump’s sons are known to have a passion for hunting.
In one widely shared photograph, Donald Trump Jr poses with a knife in one hand and an elephant tail in the other, the animal’s corpse beside him.
The US decision follows tumultuous days in Zimbabwe, where President Robert Mugabe refuses to resign after the military seized control of the country.