Trump blindsided staff with promise to halt elephant trophy imports
Source: The Hill
BY TIMOTHY CAMA AND MIRANDA GREEN - 08/03/18 04:04 PM EDT
A series of tweets President Trump sent in November promising to halt imports of elephant trophies blindsided staffers in his own administration and cut off months of planning to ease the import process, newly released emails show.
Trump's tweet to put "on hold" the highly controversial imports from Zimbabwe and Zambia, a day after it was announced that African elephant trophies would be allowed into the U.S for the first time since 2014, led to widespread public backlash from lawmakers in both parties, animal rights groups and conservative figures such as Fox News host Laura Ingraham.
But it also caused a frantic panic among key staff members closely involved in drafting the rule changes.
Emails from officials in the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and its parent agency, the Interior Department, show that they had been planning to lift the ban on bringing tusks and other parts of elephants killed in hunts into the country for months, and did not expect the backlash from the public, let alone the president.
Read more: http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/400317-trump-blindsided-staff-with-promise-to-halt-elephant-trophy-imports
Greg Sheehan, FWS's principal deputy director and its top official:
(Fish and Wildlife Service)
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"It seems to be the commonplace case that a Trump tweet will catch whatever part of our government completely off-guard,” said Todd, whose group opposes elephant trophy hunting.
“And in this case, it was contradictory to where the FWS was wanting to head, in large part because they were doing the bidding of the trophy hunting industry.”
The emails also shed light on the at times close relationship and easy access leaders of hunting groups had with top FWS staff and how they worked to influence policy.
Nearly two weeks before the elephant trophy controversy, John Jackson, president of pro-trophy hunting group Conservation Force, sent an email to Sheehan and Zinke with a copy of a petition his group had formally sent to FWS asking for them to amend Endangered Species Act (ESA) regulations for elephants and lions.
The 4(d) rules are the legal basis by which hunters can obtain permits to import animal parts to the U.S. The permits are meant to prove that killing an animal abroad provides conservation benefits............................
