Original Article: https://blog.theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/remember-cecil/
In July 2015, a wealthy American hunter and his local guides lured Cecil, a well-known and beloved lion, off his nature preserve so that the lion could be killed for sport.
The brutality and heartlessness of this act has thrown into light the disgusting reality of trophy hunting and the devastating impact it has on animals and conservation efforts.
So long as the world’s wealthy can pay to kill wildlife, whom conservationists work so hard to protect, there will continue to be more cases like Cecil. Some hunters will always spend more money to circumvent that concern, and the U.S. government has ben complicit in permitting those hunts.
According to Friends of Animals, federal judge in 2016 upheld the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2014 decision to ban imports of sport-hunted African elephant trophies from Zimbabwe—a case that Friends of Animals and Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force intervened in—striking down a challenge brought by the Safari Club and the NRA. Yet, even while the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service banned the import of sport-hunted elephant trophies from Zimbabwe for three years, 16 individual permits were secretly authorized to hunters.
Zimbabwe’s overall elephant population has meanwhile declined 11% since 2005, and in some parts of the country by 74 percent.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed African lions under the Endangered Species Act after Cecil’s death in 2015, the Humane Society reports. However, the department is still issuing lion trophy import permits and ignoring its own regulations to only allow imports that “would enhance the survival of the species.”
in 2022, a letter from the Center for Biological Diversity, Humane Society of the United States, Humane Society International. and the Humane Society Legislative Fund was sent to Director Williams, Chief Cogliano, and Chief Gnam, pointing out just how counterproductive trophy hunting permits can be.
“First, importing elephant trophies does not “enhance” elephant survival,” the letter states. “[t]he Secretary may permit . . . any act otherwise prohibited by section 1538 of this title . . . to enhance the propagation or survival of the affected species. Congress intended that the activity being permitted would itself actually enhance the species’ survival. Unfortunately, with regard to elephant trophy imports, the Service has essentially flipped the system allowing income generation alone—i.e., payment of trophy and hunting fees—to justify enhancement permits. A “net benefit” standard allowing permittees to “pay to play” or pay to import is unlawful under the plain language and intent of Section 10 of the ESA. Moreover, the Section 10 exception for activities that enhance the species’ survival was intended “to limit substantially the number of exemptions that may be 1 16 U.S.C. § 1539(a).”
The longer these misguided measures continue. the greater the peril facing our planets most incredible wildlife. Only if Zimbabwe stops issuing hunting licenses will these animals be saved.
Click below and help us ask the President of Zimbabwe; the Ministers of Environment, Water and Climate; the Permanent Secretary of Environment, Water and Climate; and the Minister of Tourism and Hospitality Industry to work together to ensure trophy hunting is banned forever in Zimbabwe.
Source: The Animal Rescue Site Blog
