Yesterday the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lifted the ban on bringing home the severed body parts of elephants hunted, killed and slaughtered overseas.
Pandering to the international Safari Club, a Fish and Wildlife Service official announced the lifting of the Obama-era ban at a Safari Club co-sponsored event in Tanzania.
This coincides with a ‘soft coup’ in Zimbabwe, not known for transparency in revenue usage, and wildlife preservation in the best of times. And the Zimbabwean Army is not exactly of monumental rectitude when it comes to quotas of dead of any species.
Elephant slaughter for fun and profit is out of control. If you come to Africa with enough dollars or euro, you can easily kill or canned-kill pretty much anything, including children for juju.
Poverty and desperation; war and injustice; colonization, exploitation and corruption have left a lot of Africa vulnerable to trump-quality exploitation.
This repeal of protective laws in the name of greed--laws to help protect the most vulnerable among us, including sick children, refugees from wars we ourselves profited from, elephants, polar bears and anyone who breathes or uses water— the roaches and ants must be planning the after-parties already.
It’s on the front page of the Washington Post:
The Trump administration announced Wednesday that the remains of elephants legally hunted in Zimbabwe and Zambia can now be imported to the United States as trophies, reversing a ban under former president Barack Obama.
African elephants are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has determined that large sums paid for permits to hunt the animals could actually help them “by putting much-needed revenue back into conservation,” according to an agency statement.