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The Trump administration has one time again decided to allow Americans to import the body parts of African elephants killed for sport, quietly reversing a policy that was inverse last year to uphold a ban on importing parts of animals killed by big-game hunters.

In a formal memo dated March 1, the U.South. Fish and Wildlife Service announced it was at present allowing the import of elephant parts on a "case-by-case footing," in response to a lawsuit challenging the ban filed by Safari Club International and the National Rifle Association.

Although U.S. President Donald Trump has criticized elephant hunting in the past, calling information technology a "horror show," his ii sons Eric and Donald are gorging large game hunters. In one photograph widely circulated on social media, Donald Trump Jr. poses with a dead elephant's severed tail in one hand, and a knife in the other.

Canada and the survival of elephants

Merely while critics have piled on the White House, Canada'due south situation isn't much amend.

"In Canada, sadly, a Canadian hunter tin import elephant trophies dorsum to Canada every bit long as it complies with the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)," Humane Society International apostle Julie MacInnes told National Observer. "For CITES-listed species such every bit elephants, importing hunting trophies is either banned or controlled by a strict permitting organization. This means information technology is upward to the exporting country, such as Zimbabwe, to ensure the chase was legal and not detrimental to the survival of elephants. In other words, a hunter from Canada can import elephant parts back to dwelling house, provided it meets the guidelines."

She added that there are clear signs that the illegal ivory trade is happening in Canada, based on some prominent seizures over the years:

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  • In 2000, a man from Toronto was charged with illegally importing 4000 ivory items taken from endangered elephants.
  • In 2007, a BC based human being pleaded guilty to illegally importing over thirty,000 pieces of African elephant ivory.
  • In 2015, a Toronto based sale house and its director pleaded guilty to possessing and offer prohibited ivory for sale after radiocarbon dating showed that two ivory pieces offered by the auction house were from elephants killed later on 1975.
  • In 2016, federal authorities laid charges against an Ontario based individual and corporation in relation to a seizure of illegal elephant ivory, after scientific testing revealed that an ivory particular seized was from an elephant killed in 2001.
  • In 2017, Canada participated in Performance Thunderbird, a "three-week globally-coordinated, country-led enforcement performance which aims to counter poaching, illegal harvest, illegal trade and transnational crime related to wildlife and forestry." During these activities, (presumably illegal) elephant ivory was found coming into Canada.

Seizures of this nature suggest some illegal merchandise that is occurring, she said. However, it is conservatively assumed that customs intercepts 10% of all contraband ivory, making these seizures the tip of the iceberg in terms of the actual illegal merchandise of ivory in Canada. Therefore, allowing the legal ivory market in Canada to go along creates demand for ivory, pathways to market place illegal ivory, and a tremendous burden on enforcement agencies, according to McInnes.

Betwixt 2007 and 2016 (well-nigh recent decade for which data are available from the CITES Merchandise Database), Canada imported 72 African elephant trophies, plus 215 tusks, for hunting trophy purposes. This equals about 180 elephants over the decade, or virtually 18 per year.

March 6th 2018

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    • Jenny Uechi
    • Manager of Appointment and Civilization
    • @uechivo