Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said Thursday morning that his department has not authorized the import of any elephant trophies since the Fish and Wildlife Service announced it will consider these imports from African countries on a case-by-case basis.
“We have not imported one elephant,” Zinke said in testimony about the Interior Department’s budget before the House Natural Resources Committee. His remarks came after conservation and animal rights groups have criticized the Trump administration’s move to allow some imports, saying the new policy will be difficult to monitor.
The Fish and Wildlife Service in November moved to overturn an Obama-era ban on elephant trophy imports from Zimbabwe, before Trump intervened. After a public outcry, Trump said he had put the policy on hold pending further study.
In a memo issued this month, Fish and Wildlife said it will withdraw its effort, and instead will “grant or deny permits to import a sport-hunted trophy on a case-by-case basis.”
The agency faced criticism from unlikely places when it first tried to lift the ban, including conservative media personalities Laura Ingraham, Mike Cernovich, and Michael Savage. Prominent Republican politicians such as House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., and South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, also reacted negatively to ending the ban.
Zinke said the policy hasn’t changed, but Interior had to begin considering elephant imports on a case-by-case basis because of a prior court ruling.
In December, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals found government officials implemented the Obama-era ban without following regulatory procedures, including a failure to open the decision to public comment.
“The court mandated we change the process, not the policy,” Zinke said Thursday. “We are 100 percent on board with the president’s policy.”
Under U.S. law, the remains of African elephant can be imported only if federal officials have determined that hunting them benefits the species. The fees paid to hunt the elephants are supposed to go into conservation programs.
