SAVING AFRICA’S BIG 5

Wildlife protections have been weakened, and a trophy hunting ban is crucial

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently decided to grant permits to hunters to bring trophies of lions and rhinos back to the country.

The Trump administration has weakened the Endangered Species Act, which puts threatened animals in peril.

These — and a mixed bag of results from the most recent Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species in Geneva — signals an urgent need for the passage of a Connecticut bill that would ban the import of the body parts of Africa’s most majestic wildlife.

Africa’s “Big 5” species — elephants, lions, rhinos, leopards and giraffes — are under increasing threats to their survival.

The population of elephants has declined by 90% in the past century, with losses attributed to the commodification of elephants for their ivory, and skin. This is in addition to the challenges they face from habitat destruction and climate change. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has elevated the threat level of giraffes to “vulnerable to extinction,” estimating that giraffes have undergone a 36-40 percent decline in population over the past 30 years. Only about 97,500 giraffes remain in Africa, compared to more than 150,000 in 1985. Additionally, there are fewer than 23,000 lions left in Africa, according to a recent study by the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit at Oxford.

Yet Botswana has reversed a ban on elephant hunting, and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) at its most recent convention has doubled the amount of South Africa’s black rhinos that can be hunted.

Add to this the loosening of restrictions by Trump’s Department of Interior on trophy imports, and the survival of these species looks bleak. Just recently, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service authorized a permit for a U.S. trophy hunter to import the skin, skull, teeth and claws of a Tanzanian lion — the first permit issued since lions gained protections under the ESA. The agency also granted a Michigan man a permit to import the skin, skull and horns of a rare black rhino — which IUCN has listed as critically endangered — killed in Namibia on a $400,000 hunting safari.

Yet, Connecticut continues to allow trophy hunters to bring these body parts back to this state, for no other purpose but to show off as stuffed remnants of a struggling species.

Trophy hunters, the majority of whom come from the U.S., like to peddle the theory that they are saving species by killing them and that without the big bucks they spend on hunting safaris in Africa, there’d be no money to protect these species from poachers or for other conservation efforts. This argument is fundamentally flawed in that trophy hunting in itself creates a market for elephants, lions, leopards, rhinos and giraffes, thus spurring poachers to engage in the illegal trade of their body parts.

The funding argument also falls short because studies show less than 3% of revenue from hunting safaris ever gets through corruption to flow back to African communities. In fact, just this month, the Zambia Community Resource Boards withdrew their signatures to all hunting permits and pledged to stop all future trophy hunting because they said their communities have not been given their share of hunting revenues and fees, and their antipoaching staff members had not been paid their salaries.

What’s necessary is a ban on all imports of African trophies to U.S. ports. Federal legislation to ban trophies passed a key U.S. House of Representatives Committee. And a state bill co-sponsored by Connecticut Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff in Connecticut that would ban the import of body parts of the Big 5 passed the Senate in the spring, and then stalled in the House of Representatives when it wasn’t put on the calendar for a vote by leadership

With the federal government weakening its stance on protecting these species from extinction, it’s urgent that states lead the charge to end the slaying of endangered and threatened animals in the bogus name of conservation. Connecticut has a chance to be a role model. Let’s not allow another session to go by without the passage of this historic legislation.

Priscilla Feral, president of Friends of Animals, has presided over the international, non-profit animal advocacy organization since 1987.

Connecticut has a chance to be a role model. Let’s not allow another session to go by without the passage of this historic legislation.

WASHINGTON POST-BLOOMBERG A rhino and calf are raised on a ranch in South Africa. The $1.1 billion recreational hunting industry in South Africa is defended as a vital source of revenue in the fight against poaching. A Connecticut bill would have forbade importation of some animal trophies.