Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

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Finally, a tweet from the leader of the free world that we can agree with, wholeheart­edly.

President Trump has put on hold a change that would allow elephant “trophies” to be imported from Africa. Trophies is a euphemism meaning tusks from the dead animal. Or maybe feet and tails.

Whereas in this state, hunters shoot ducks and deer and geese for the table, who eats elephant? The main purpose for shooting one: to get a picture taken with the dead thing. And maybe sell off tusks for a bundle. Also, unlike ducks and deer, elephants are becoming scarce. The Great Elephant Census says the African elephant population dropped 30 percent since 2007.

What happened? Well, the United States began banning trophy imports from Zambia and Zimbabwe years back, because those countries didn’t have acceptable plans to manage the elephant population­s there. Those countries apparently have adopted better ways. So the bureaucrac­y in this country switched some paperwork, and the trophy imports were legal again.

Word has it that the president was watching the morning news programs the other day, again. Folks were criticizin­g him for a decision he had nothing to do with. He doesn’t like that.

“Put big game trophy decision on hold until such time as I review all conservati­on facts,” he tweeted. He followed up that it would be very hard to change his mind about the “horror show” in the killing of elephants.

Good. Only elephants needs elephant tusks.

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