US President Donald Trump on Friday said he would uphold a ban on importing trophies of elephants killed in Zimbabwe, pending further review, reversing his own administration’s decision from just a day earlier after a public outcry.
US Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke said the pair came to the decision after they “talked and both believe that conservation and healthy herds are critical.”
Just hours before, Trump’s spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders had defended the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s move to end the 2014 ban.
Photo: AFP
The service on Thursday said it would begin issuing permits to import “sport-hunted trophies from elephants hunted in Zimbabwe” between Jan. 21 and Dec. 31 next year. 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 and came on the same day that the US Department of State presented to Congress its first annual report on wildlife trafficking, which “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.
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 6 percent.
African ivory is highly sought in China where it is a status symbol.
A provision in the US 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.
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