Trump’s elephant, lion trophy hunting policy hit with double lawsuits

Trophy hunters often target large male lions for their manes. Some conservationists worry that singling out these animals is removing much-needed older males from lion prides. Photo by Bernard DUPONT licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. Just weeks after the Trump administration announced a new policy allowing the importation of dead African elephant and lion parts by U.S. trophy hunters, a group of environmental and wildlife conservation NGOs has filed a lawsuit alleging the move goes against recent court rulings. Around the same time, Born Free USA filed a second lawsuit against the Interior Department, demanding further information regarding the members of the Trump administration’s newly-formed — and already controversial — International Wildlife Conservation Council (IWCC). Analysts say the group is stacked with pro-trophy hunting members and those with ties to the gun industry. Earlier this month, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) announced it would stop making trophy hunting decisions on a country-by-country basis as had been done at times in the past, but instead look at each application individually. A case-by-case “may sound proper on its face,” Prashant K. Khetan, the CEO and general counsel for Born Free USA, said. “But, in reality, this process will allow for permits to be issued for the importing of trophies while ignoring salient facts, and there will be little ability for groups like ours to challenge those permits.” Botswana has banned trophy hunting since 2014. Africa is currently in the grips of a serious wildlife poaching crisis.…

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