Safari Club Int'l

Attribute	Details
Location	Mongolia, specifically the Uvs province
Species Hunted	Altai argali (endangered sheep)
Duration	Two days
Companion	Umar Kremlev, a Putin-connected oligarch
Date of Trip	Late August 2026

Read more]

In 2017, for instance, Susan LaPierre, a prominent NRA member and the wife of NRA leader Wayne LaPierre, was appointed by the head of the interior department to the board of the National Parks Foundation, a congressionally chartered organization that supports park programs.

The interior secretary, David Bernhardt, has also made multiple appearances on NRA media channels in recent years, and inJune he announced a proposal to open more than 1.4m acres of national wildlife refuge land to hunting and fishing activities. The NRA celebrated the move, calling it a “proposal supported and encouraged by the NRA”.

Just this week, Bernhardt tweeted that “Respecting our second amendment is fundamental to our constitutional republic. We’re expanding opportunities to enjoy hunting and recreational shooting on our wonderful public lands.”

But Benjamin Cassidy is the official that most embodies the NRA’s influence at the interior department.

Starting in October 2017, and for months afterward, Cassidy served as a key contact for the gun group inside the interior department, helping the NRA translate its priorities into action from his perch at the agency’s external affairs office. The NRA spent roughly $30m helping Donald Trump win the presidency in 2016.With assistance from its former lobbyist, Cassidy, it has since reaped rewards in the realm of federal public land and wildlife policy.

In one instance, emails show, he sought to arrange a sitdown between Bernhardt, then the deputy secretary, and Chris Cox, a top NRA official. (An interior department spokesperson said Bernhardt did not attend any such meeting.)

In another case, he appears to have helped an NRA official join the International Wildlife Conservation Council (IWCC), an advisory body set up by the department to help shape policy regarding “international recreational hunting”. In a December 2017 email, Erica Rhoad, the director of hunting policy at NRA, wrote to Cassidy: “Ben, Attached please find two nominations for the IWCC.”

“Thank you,” Cassidy replied. Rhoad, who was one of the nominees, eventually obtained the position she sought on the IWCC, which was stacked with pro-hunting advocates. The IWCC would go on to promote big-game trophy hunting overseas, a longtime NRA priority. In 2018, conservationists sued to disband the council, and their case is ongoing.

Most significantly, Cassidy was in regular communication with NRA about recreational shooting policy on federal lands. Almost immediately after joining DOI in October 2017, for instance, Cassidy reached out to Susan Recce, director of the NRA’s conservation, wildlife and natural resources program, asking her to weigh in on an interior department plan to limit recreational shooting at the Sonoran Desert national monument in Arizona, a plan the NRA was keenly interested in.

“Hi Susan! Hope you are great!” he wrote in an email.“Do you have a quick moment to hop on the phone and discuss recreational shooting in the sonoran desert? We have a [deadline] that is due today.”

[

Target shooting in the Sonoran Desert national monument in Arizona is controversial – it has damaged archeological artifacts, destroyed saguaro cacti, and harmed other natural and cultural resources.

Recce replied with an NRA plan to leave more of the monument open to target shooting.

In the weeks that followed, Cassidy kept Recce updated on the progress of that target-shooting plan and others, including a proposal to restrict target shooting on public lands in Utah, which the NRA opposed.

In the case of the Sonoran Desert national monument, the NRA got what it wanted. In March 2018, the department signed its final plan, which aligned almost perfectly with the NRA’s request, leaving roughly 90% of the monument open to recreational shooting.

Susan Recce thanked Cassidy for his help in a note that testifies to their close ties.“I appreciate you riding herd over the agency plans affecting recreational shooting,” she wrote to him in a January 2018 email, using a cowboy term to describe his role taking the lead on target shooting issues.

In August 2019, the Wilderness Society, the Sierra Club and other conservation groups sued the interior department over the issue, and their lawsuit is working its way through the courts.

Under federal ethics guidelines, government employees are prohibited from giving “preferential treatment to any private organization or individual”.

“The fact that the Trump administration considered an anti-environment lobbyist like Ben Cassidy qualified to oversee our public lands speaks volumes about who it values and how it operates,” said congressman Raúl Grijalva, the chairman of the House natural resources committee, in a statement. “Mr Cassidy weakened endangered species rules, lobbied against the Antiquities Act from inside the government, almost certainly violated his ethics pledge, and generally treated public service as a chance to dispense political favors to his friends.”Cassidy himself became uncomfortable with his ongoing relationship with the NRA. In an October 2018 email to an NRA staffer, he informed the gun group that he could no longer work directly with it.

“Unfortunately, due to the ethics ban, I am unable to work with the NRA on issues for one more year,” he wrote. He suggested the NRA get in touch with other officials at the department instead.

But it was too late. In April 2019, the interior department’s inspector general opened an investigation into allegations that Cassidy’s conduct had violated federal ethics rules, including the White House’s own ethics pledge. That investigation is currently active.

Not long afterward, Cassidy quietly stepped down from his post. In July 2019, he took a new job: director of government affairs at Safari Club International, a powerful national organization that promotes trophy hunting in the United States and overseas.

In a statement, the interior department said it “will not comment on Mr Cassidy’s motives or reasoning on leaving the department”. Neither the NRA nor Cassidy’s new employer responded to a request for comment.

https://www.alternet.org/2021/04/wayne-lapierre-2652801230/

elephant hunt video

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ben-cassidy-nra-interior-wildlife-council-trophy-hunting_n_5b4d1136e4b0fd5c73be0bb5

no lnx many

Documents Raise More Ethics Issues For Ex-NRA Lobbyist Working For Ryan Zinke

Ben Cassidy was a point person for members of a new hunting advisory council, including a former colleague.

Chris D'Angelo

Jul 16, 2018,

Updated Jul 18, 2018

Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, with his wife, Lolita Zinke, addresses an NRA forum in Atlanta, April 28, 2017. Ethics officials say Benjamin Cassidy, a former NRA lobbyist appointed to the Interior Department last year, likely violated ethics rules.

Ben Cassidy, who left a high-paying lobbying gig at the National Rifle Association last year for a powerful post at the Interior Department, appears to have played a sizable role in getting the agency’s wildlife conservation board off the ground, even though one of his former colleagues is a member of the advisory council.

The Interior Department hosted a pair of private receptions for members of the International Wildlife Conservation Council before its first public meeting in March. Not only did Cassidy attend those events, but he also served as members’ primary contact during their two-day visit to Washington, according to newly released public records.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke created the council last year and stacked it with gun and trophy hunting advocates, including Erica Rhoad, the director of hunting policy at the NRA, and retired Oklahoma congressman and former NRA board member Bill Brewster. The 16-member board is tasked with advising the agency chief about “the benefits that international recreational hunting has on foreign wildlife and habitat conservation, anti-poaching and illegal wildlife trafficking programs.”

HuffPost reported this month on Cassidy’s apparent violations of President Donald Trump’s ethics pledge, which for two years bars former lobbyists in the executive branch from participating in matters on which they lobbied. The pledge also prohibits appointees from participating “in any particular matter involving specific parties that is directly and substantially related to my former employer or former clients.”

Cassidy was appointed as Interior’s senior deputy director for intergovernmental and external affairs in October, after nearly seven years as an NRA lobbyist. In 2017 alone, he lobbied Congress on a slew of legislative proposals that would have directly affected the agency he now works for, including bills dealing with trophy imports, revising the Endangered Species Act and international conservation grants for elephants, tigers, apes and other threatened animals, according to lobbying disclosure reports.

In early February, a little more than a month before the council’s first meeting, Cassidy and several other Interior officials joined agency chief Ryan Zinke in his office for a briefing on international conservation — a discussion that almost certainly focused on hunting and trophy imports. It’s one of two meetings that have drawn scrutiny from ethics officials.

That Cassidy appears to have acted as a liaison for the International Wildlife Conservation Council is another potential conflict of interest, said Virginia Canter, the chief ethics counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a government watchdog group based in the capital.

“It does raise red flags,” she said.

The documents, released this month in response to a public records request from environmental nonprofit Sierra Club, show that Cassidy was a primary contact for a two-hour afternoon reception with Zinke on March 15, as well as a coffee event the following morning with Interior Deputy Secretary David Bernhardt. Both private events were held at the agency’s headquarters.

Cassidy and Greg Sheehan, the principal deputy director of the Fish and Wildlife Service, joined advisory council members for dinner at a restaurant on March 15, internal emails show. That gathering was not sponsored by the Interior Department, according to an event schedule.

Those gatherings preceded the council’s first official meeting on March 16.

It’s unclear if council members discussed policy issues during the private events or if Cassidy received an ethics waiver or other special authorization to participate.

Cassidy and the Interior Department did not respond to HuffPost’s requests for comment, including questions about whether Cassidy played a role in selecting council members. In a post to Instagram in May, however, celebrity archer and trophy hunter Cameron Hanes thanked Zinke and Cassidy for believing in him and giving him a seat on the council.

A post shared by Cameron Hanes (@cameronrhanes) on May 9, 2018 at 10:30pm PDT

Hanes has called Cassidy (who is seen in the video below) his “best @usinterior buddy” and “on [sic] of the best guys you’ll meet.”

A post shared by Cameron Hanes (@cameronrhanes) on Mar 17, 2018 at 5:51pm PDT

Last year the Interior Department lifted Obama-era bans on importing elephant and lion trophies from Zimbabwe and Zambia.The decision was first made public by Safari Club International, a trophy hunting advocacy group with close ties to Zinke. Along with the NRA, SCI sued to block the 2014 ban on elephant trophies from Zimbabwe.

Facing widespread public backlash, Trump swiftly suspended his administration’s decision. In a post to Twitter, he condemned big-game trophy hunting as a “horror show” and said he’s unlikely to allow such imports. Despite his pledge, the Fish and Wildlife Service issued a formal memo in March that it would consider issuing permits to import elephant and lion trophies from certain African nations on a case-by-case basis.

SCI President Paul Babaz and several other people currently or previously affiliated with SCI were also appointed to the wildlife council.

Cassidy is one of several top officials at the Interior Department with apparent conflicts of interest.

NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION

RYAN ZINKE

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

TROPHY HUNTING

BEN CASSIDY

220 ew

https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-trophy-hunting-council-2645107921.html

https://ecowatch.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=214ab5fbb3f6015d74ffab4ec&id=5dd71bd1de&e=c2e8fdabfa

the Department of the Interior (DOI) has disbanded a controversial council that promoted big game hunting after a judge ruled that environmental groups could challenge the legitimacy of the council in court, asThe Associated Pressreported.

The DOI told a federal judge on Friday that the International Wildlife Conservation Council (IWCC) had ended its charter in October and would not be renewed. The IWCC was created to boost trophy hunting and to relax federal regulations around importing heads and hides of exotic animals like African elephants, rhinos, lions, and other threatened wildlife, according to The Associated Press.

"The Council will not meet or conduct any business again, it can no longer be renewed, and there [is] no plan to establish another committee with a similar mission or scope in the future," the DOI explained in a court filing Friday, according to NPR.

The lawyers for the DOI argued that since the council had been disbanded, the judge should dismiss a lawsuit from environmental groups looking into the "formation, composition, ethics provision, or meetings" by the IWCC, as NPR reported.

"The IWCC's disbandment is a huge victory in the fight against the Trump administration's illegal advisory bodies," said Democracy Forward senior counsel Travis Annatoyn, in a statement. "But the fight isn't over."

Democracy Forward is representing the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society International in a lawsuit challenging the legality of the IWCC under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). The disbandment announcement came on the heels of a slew of FACA lawsuits against the administration.

Former Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, who had to resign under a corruption scandal, put the 16-member advisory board together. It was formed as a response to an Obama-era ban on elephant and lion trophy imports from Africa. In 2018, The Associated Press revealed that the board members were big-game hunters, many with direct ties to President Trump and his family, according to The Associated Press.

Animal rights groups and environmental activists cheered that the committee would not continue its work.

"I have little doubt our litigation spurred the administration's decision to abandon the IWCC and walk away from its biased and un-transparent practices," said Zak Smith, international wildlife conservation director for the Natural Resources Defense Council in a statement. "We're glad the Trump administration is closing shop on this ridiculously misguided council and we await a full accounting of its tainted work product."

The taxpayer-funded committee met five times over its two-year span and formed four sub-committees. The government said, "Ultimately, the IWCC did not vote on or make any recommendations or otherwise provide any advice or work product," NPR reported.

"The end of Trump's thrill-kill council is a huge victory for elephants, lions and other imperiled animals targeted by trophy hunters," said Tanya Sanerib, international legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity, in a statement. "It's still critical to address this biased committee's past legal violations and prevent self-serving advice from trophy hunters from poisoning federal wildlife policies."

IWCC members claimed that recreational hunting is necessary because fees paid by big-game hunters help fund conservation programs. They also argued that it boosts local economies and creates hundreds of jobs.

An Interior spokesperson told The Hill in a statement that the department "takes illegal wildlife trafficking seriously and will continue working to grow our partnerships, while continuing to move toward shared conservation stewardship."

Trophy 'Dream Hunt' With Donald Trump Jr. Starts Bidding at $10000 ›

Trump Admin Grants First Lion Trophy Import Permit Since Listed as ... ›

Donald Trump Jr. Killed an Endangered Mongolian Sheep - EcoWatch ›

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Donald Trump's Sons in Game-Hunting Photos? ›

booktv

220

JANUARY 16, 2020

That Wild Country

“Wired to Hunt” podcast host Mark Kenyonexamined the history and future of public lands in the U.S.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/08/politics/interior-department-arizona-development-bernhardt/index.html

trms)

In the summer of 2017, Arizona developer Mike Ingram's proposed housing and golf course project in the desert was facing a road block because of a decision by the Department of the Interior.

A field supervisor for the US Fish and Wildlife Service had determined that it was "reasonably certain" that threatened and endangered species could be harmed.

But that decision suddenly changed following a secret breakfast meeting at a Montana hunting lodge between Ingram -- a donor to President Donald Trump and co-owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks -- and David Bernhardt, then the Trump administration's deputy Interior secretary.

Following the meeting, which did not appear in Bernhardt's official calendar and has not been previously reported, the field supervisor says he was pressured to reverse his decision, allowing the project to move ahead.

"I felt pressured to reverse my decision ... in simplest terms, I was rolled," Steve Spangle, then a 30-year veteran of the Fish and Wildlife Service, told CNN in an interview. "I made a decision, which was my authority to make in Arizona, and that was overruled by higher-ups in the administration."

The meeting is one of at least 11 interactions Ingram had with top officials at the Interior Department and Environmental Protection Agency during the Trump administration, according to a CNN review of emails and calendars.

Former FWS official Steve Spangle

The meetings and the reversal suggest yet another example of Trump administration officials siding with executives and business leaders in the industries for which they have oversight.

A lawsuit filed by environmental groups earlier this year has put the project on hold once again. The House Committee on Natural Resources is also investigating what happened. Committee Chairman Raul Grijalva has asked Interior for documents and raising "questions about whether a key permit decision at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was inappropriately reversed."

A phone call and a reversal

The Villages at Vigneto is designed as a development of 28,000 homes, golf courses and a resort community planned for the sprawling patch of mesquite scrub expanse just east of Benson, Arizona.

Local officials welcome the development; Benson Mayor Toney King said it's desperately needed to bring jobs back to the area. "We've been fighting really hard to get growth here," King told CNN. "We've had generations of kids that have left and they can't come back. There are no jobs."

Interior declined to answer any of CNN's specific questions for this story, and instead provided a one sentence statement: "U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has reexamined the issue at hand and using the best available science as required under the Endangered Species Act issued the same exact conclusion."

Lanny Davis, a prominent Democratic attorney representing Ingram's El Dorado Holdings, told CNN there is no evidence of any political influence by his client, and any suggestion of influence is "innuendo."

Mayor Toney King, Benson, Arizona

But the environmental concerns surrounding the area go back more than a decade because of its proximity to the San Pedro River and the habitats of endangered and threatened species. The remote desert landscape was initially slated for development in the early 2000s. The Environmental Protection Agency has long been opposed to building on the site, writing in 2005 that it "represented a substantial and unacceptable impact on aquatic resources of national importance," and the EPA stance has not changed since. Opponents of the project also say the aquifer that feeds the river could be impacted.

Despite those environmental concerns, the US Army Corps of Engineers approved a Clean Water Act permit in 2006, but the 2008 recession forced the owners to sell.

Ingram bought the property with his company El Dorado Benson LLC in 2014, renaming the development the "Villages at Vigneto," with the intention of building using the 2006 Army Corps permit.

That permit was suspended, however, in 2016 after six environmental groups sued and demanded an environmental consultation by the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Spangle was the top official in Arizona evaluating development projects and their impact on the environment and endangered species. In October 2016, he wrote a decision about the Villages at Vigneto that "direct and indirect effects to threatened and endangered species... are reasonably certain to occur," referring to the western yellow-billed cuckoo, the southwestern willow flycatcher and northern Mexican gartersnake.

[pix This August, 2013 photo provided by Point Blue Conservation Science shows a yellow-billed cuckoo, which has made the western United States its breeding ground for many years. But the migratory bird, which otherwise lives in Latin America, has seen its population dwindle in the past few decades because its habitats have been marred. NThe U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Thursday, Oct. 2, 2014, announced that the western population of the yellow-billed cuckoo has been listed as a threatened species and will be protected under the Endangered Species Act. The bird resides in 12 western states and in Mexico and Canada, but Arizona has the largest population. (AP Photo/Point Blue Conservation Science, Mark Dettling)

He ordered that a full scale "biological assessment," which can take months and bring additional litigation, was needed before the project could move ahead. He also wrote that the Clean Water Act permit issued earlier by the Army Corps "should not have been issued."

Spangle assumed the project would move ahead with the assessment he ordered, like other projects he had worked on. Then in August 2017, he says, he received an unusual phone call from Peg Romanik, an associate solicitor at the Interior Department.

"[S]he told me that she had gotten a call from a high-level political appointee within the Department of the Interior who informed her that our position out here, in Arizona, was not the position of the administration," Spangle told CNN.

During that call, Spangle said he was strongly pressured to reverse his decision on Vigneto; his reversal would remove a major hurdle for the project and allow it to move forward without the in-depth biological assessment he asked for.

Romanik met with Bernhardt at 8:30 a.m. the same day that she called Spangle, according to Bernhardt's calendar, which does not list what was discussed.

The phone call and reversal were first reported by the Arizona Daily Star, but the name of the solicitor and her meeting with Bernhardt have not been previously reported.

Spangle said it was the first time in his career that he was asked to change an official decision he had made, saying it "wasn't a good feeling, but I felt I had a duty. I work for the administration, I have to do what I'm told, and so I did."

On October 26, 2017, Spangle issued a new decision, reversing his earlier letter, and allowing the project to move ahead without the full biological assessment. He retired four months later.

Romanik did not return a call requesting comment.

Developer's contacts with Trump administration

Ingram is a wealthy and powerful figure in Arizona. El Dorado Holdings is one of the largest private landholders in the southwestern US, with assets exceeding $1 billion. Ingram is also one of the owners of the Arizona Diamondbacks, the state's Major League Baseball team.

CNN has found a trail of contacts between the developer and top government officials, along with political contributions, that raise questions of access and influence.

Ingram co-chaired a "Camouflage and Cufflinks" fundraiser around the time of Trump's inauguration, which offered a private reception with the President, and a hunting trip with Donald Trump Jr, and Eric Trump in exchange for a $500,000 donation. The event was canceled after ethical questions surfaced over buying access to the President and his sons.

An avid hunter,Ingram is a director of the non-profit Safari Club International Foundation, which Bernhardt formerly represented as an attorney,according to Bernhardt's financial disclosure statement.

Ingram was also appointed by then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to the International Wildlife Conservation Council, an official federal group set up to advise on issues related to "citizens traveling to foreign nations to engage in hunting," according to its website.

Several weeks after Spangle received the phone call asking for his reversal, Ingram made a one- time $10,000 donation to the Trump Victory Fund. Since November 2015, Ingram donated $50,900 to political committees supporting Trump. In the same time frame, Ingram donated $6,050 to Democrats.

Since the beginning of the Trump administration, Ingram or his representatives had at least 11 meetings, emails or phone calls with top officials at Interior and EPA, including one meeting with Zinke, two meetings and three emails withthen-EPA Secretary Scott Pruitt, and at least five meetings with Bernhardt, who succeeded Zinke as Interior secretary earlier this year.

Ingram declined CNN's request for an interview, but Davis, El Dorado Holding's attorney, says his client has done nothing wrong.

"The innuendo is, well, he's close to Trump, there must've been political influence," Davis said in an interview, adding, "That's just innuendo. I can't negate that because it's a quote 'feeling.'"

While Davis confirmed to CNN the meetings between Ingram and administration officials, he said there was nothing untoward about them.

Davis points to a recent letter sent by the US and Fish and Wildlife Service to the Army Corps of Engineers, which reiterated that the reversal by Spangle was the correct course of action. The letter also said, "we take the allegations made by Mr. Spangle seriously," and that a re-evaluation was done at the local level without influence from regional or Washington, DC headquarters.

"[T]he local Fish and Wildlife Service... [said] that the likely impact on endangered species is not sufficient to stop this project," Davis said, adding that the facts contradict any suggestion that the federal agency was influenced by Ingram. "If you focus on facts, the facts are that the Army Corps of Engineers made a decision on the facts under the law," Davis added.

The letter, dated June 12, 2019, was given to CNN by Davis just days after CNN requested an interview with Ingram, and was a response to a May 23 request by the Army Corps of Engineers.

CNN sent Interior a detailed list of questions about the Vigneto project asking about the phone call to Spangle, why he was pressured to reverse his decision, why Bernhardt had a secret meeting with Ingram, and whether that led to the pressure on Spangle to reverse his order. CNN also asked to do an interview with Bernhardt. Interior declined to answer those questions.

Environmentalists who oppose the project in Arizona are livid.

"I think it's the most blatant example most people have seen of how people with power and money, connections and influence, have changed how the system is supposed to work, " said Tricia Gerrodette, a local resident and activist. "We're supposed to work under the laws and science. And science was overridden here."

Gerrodette is on the board of the Tucson Audubon Society, one of six environmental groups which filed a joint lawsuit earlier this year demanding the Army Corps complete a full Environmental Impact Statement, and the Corps once again suspended the permit for the Villages at Vigneto development. The case is still pending.

El Dorado Holdings has argued it does not need a permit to begin construction, and it would be willing to change the footprint of the development to avoid federal waters if needed.

But with Spangle's reversal and the Fish and Wildlife Service backing that decision it is expected the corps will lift the suspension on the original 2006 permit. Environmentalists vow they will fight on in the courts, because they believe the project will destroy the underground aquifer.

"The development will ruin this area. It will drain the aquifer and kill it," Gerrodette said.

Clarification: This story has been clarified to reflect that the suspension is expected to be lifted from the original 2006 permit, and updated to include the May 23 request by the Army Corps of Engineers.

CNN's Collette Richards contributed to this report.

https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-endangered-species-decisions-2613623876.html

Leaked Trump Administration Memo: Keep Public in Dark About How Endangered Species Decisions Are Made

In a Trump administration memorandum leaked to the Center for Biological Diversity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is directing its staff to withhold, or delay releasing, certain public records about how the Endangered Species Act is carried out. That includes records where the advice of career wildlife scientists may be overridden by political appointees in the Trump administration.

"This is a clear attempt to stifle science and boost Trump's anti-wildlife agenda," said Meg Townsend, the Center for Biological Diversity's open government attorney. "The public has every right to know how our government makes decisions about the fate of our most endangered species. This memo keeps the public in the dark and creates the perfect environment for political meddling."

The memo recommends that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service limit the information released to the public for decisions regarding species protected under the Endangered Species Act. It provides a list of types of records for agency staff to withhold, including drafts of policies and rules, briefing documents and decision meeting notes and summaries.

The agency has already implemented aspects of this guidance in actions like the Keystone XL pipeline construction lawsuit, and in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's decision last year to prematurely remove endangered species protection from Yellowstone grizzly bears, as the memo confirms.

"Directing the agency to hide science violates every notion of the scientific process, which is supposed to be open and reviewable," said Townsend. "If the Service covers up dissenting views, it can get away with all kinds of bad decisions that could do enormous damage to some of America's most imperiled plants and animals."

As this memo recommends that agency staff take a less transparent approach, Trump's anti-wildlife agenda is being pushed at all levels of government. Removing the public's ability to know what its government is doing—which is contrary to the spirit of the Freedom of Information Act—means that it will be more difficult to legally challenge agency actions that harm imperiled wildlife.

"This Trump memo would send all future Fish and Wildlife Service decisions into a black hole and result in more animals going extinct," Townsend said. "If the Trump administration would simply let the Fish and Wildlife Service follow the law and support decisions with science, it wouldn't need the memo or have anything to hide."

omfg2

https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-quietly-awards-dozens-of-lion-trophy-permits-2590084960.html

Trump Admin. Quietly Awards Dozens of Lion Trophy Permits to Hunters, GOP Donors

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has issued more than three dozen permits for hunters to bring back liontrophy parts from Zimbabwe and Zambia between 2016-2018, according to copies of the permits obtained by a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

The documents were obtained by Friends of Animals and reported by Huffington Post on Thursday. Thirty-three hunters received a total of 38 lion trophy permits, according to the animal advocacy nonprofit.

More than half of those hunters donated to Republican lawmakers or have ties to hunting advocacy groupSafari Club International, Friends of Animals said.

"The permits show that the current administration, not only has loosened restrictions on lion hunting, but is rewarding supporters," the nonprofit said in apress release. The report follows theTrump administration's move in March to allow elephant and lion trophy imports from Zimbabwe and Zambia on a case by case basis, a reversal from President Trump's previous statements that his administration would keep the Obama-era ban on imports of the animals.

Last year, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke created an advisory committee called the International Wildlife Conservation Council that is mainly comprised of trophy hunters and members of Safari Club International.

Fish and Wildlife Service did not respond to HuffPost's request for comment.

Among the hunters who received a permit was Steven Chancellor, a wealthy Indiana businessman and major GOP donor who raised more than $1 million for Republican candidates at a fundraiser at his home headlined by Donald Trump in 2016,Friends of Animals said. Chancellor—an avid hunter who hasregistered 482 confirmed kills, including18 lions, between 1980 and 2008, theCourier & Pressreported—is an appointee on Sec. Zinke's International Wildlife Conservation Council. He was allowed to import lion parts from a July 2016 hunt in Zimbabwe, according to the FOIA request.

Another hunter who received permits was Virginia resident Kent Greenawalt, who has donated more than $100,000 to Republican candidates and committees and $5,400 to Trump.He was allowed to bring back lion trophies after a hunt in Zambia in 2017 and another hunt in Zimbabwe in 2016, Friends of Animals revealed.

Big game hunters say their sport provides a service through game management and the trophy hunting fees provide revenue that directly funds conservation and contributes to African economies.

However, opponents say that killing the animals is wrong and endangers vulnerable populations.

"If African wildlife is to survive the next few decades in their homelands, these elephants, lions and other animals—coveted by hunters for their strength and beauty—must be worth more alive than dead," said Friends of Animals President Priscilla Feral in the press release. "That means safeguarding habitat along with photographic safaris and ecotourism must outpace blood-drenched trophy hunting expeditions. Trophy hunting must expire and collapse from its own dead weight. Let's press for an administration that stops catering to an industry that has actually been in decline with a dwindling number of hunters."

The New York Times reported that Fish and Wildlife Service previously made determinations about trophies publicly available, but under new rules, interested parties must file a FOIA request to see details of the permits.

OMFG

....

Thekilling of Cecil the Liongave the world a vivid example of the pain and misery left behind by globe-trotting elites whose primary hobby is killing prized specimens of the most beloved and threatened wild animals on the planet. Today we are turning up the wattage in our campaign against trophy killing by releasing a new report,*Trophy Madness*, that takes a look at the doings ofSafari Club International, the Arizona-based group whose awards program drives deplorable, destructive global wildlife-killing activities. In conducting this research, we used SCI’s own record books, in which members record their kills, often accompanied by photographs of them smiling over the animals whose hearts they’ve stopped.

SCI offers its members the opportunity to compete with one another to win nearly 50 awards such as the “Grand Slam Cats of the World” (requiring a hunter to kill four among the African lion, African leopard, African cheetah, wildcat, jaguar, cougar, lynx, and other cat species). There are award categories like this for bears, ringed-horn antelopes of Africa, wild sheep of the world, ibex of the world, moose of the world, and the sorry list just goes on. The contests include everything from killing a certain number of animals on a given continent to using “alternative methods,” such as a handgun or bow and arrow.

To secure a place on the list of individuals who’ve attained the African Big Five Grand Slam, hunters must kill an elephant, rhino, lion, leopard, and Cape buffalo.Over 3,100 of these animals were killed and imported into the United States by trophy hunters in 2014 alone, including 741 lions, 311 leopards, 1,412 Cape buffalo, 671 elephants, and 32 rhinos. Think about these numbers over a 10-year period, or over a 50-year period, and it’s a staggering body count. The top SCI recognition is the World Hunting Award, which requires the hunter to have achieved awards in 30 lower award categories – requiring a dedicated focus to kill animals of particular types across vast portions of the globe.

Trophy Madness takes a look at some of SCI’s most obsessed and driven hunters, the “one percent” of its members who have earned the most heralded prize—the World Hunting Award, commemorated with a ring that looks like a Super Bowl ring, featuring gold, diamond, and onyx.These prolific killers have spent decades and often millions of dollars acquiring their “collections” of body parts. One filed a federal lawsuit against his African hunting safari guide when that individual failed to get “adequate” video footage of his kills. Another ring-wearer has personally killed at least 18 lions. Examining just some of the World Hunting Award winners—and their hunting exploits—offers a telling glimpse into the depths of the “trophy madness” fostered by SCI.

So many trophy hunters go to extraordinary lengths in their mania to secure the awards, or to get the biggest lion or elephant. They will lure animals out of the protected confines of a national park, as Walter Palmer did with Cecil. And they will even kill captive, tame lions. That is the subject of a new documentary, Blood Lions, airing on October 7th on MSNBC. This film exposes the greedy and seedy businesses in South Africa that breed lions in captivity only to offer them as trophies for thousands of dollars. This horrendous industry is booming with the help of American hunters: of the 5,647 lions whose parts were imported to the United States as trophies over the past ten years, 1,558 were captive lions. The documentary is not to be missed.

The killing of Cecil gave the world an inkling of the depravity and selfishness of this subculture that threatens to drive wildlife into extinction. Our report throws back the curtain and exposes the whole damn enterprise. They can try to dress up their kills in the language of tradition or sport, and claim that their license fees pay for conservation, but it’s all a smokescreen and a series of self-serving rationalizations. These people leave a trail of innocent victims, rob African nations of wildlife that good-hearted people are happy to capture with a camera or merely get a glimpse of in the wild, and embarrass themselves by this gross misuse of their wealth. Their slaughter of polar bears, lions, elephants, and other rare animals must end.

Read the full report, Trophy Madness »

ref

ew guidelines issued by the U.S. Department of the Interior now prohibit staff members from informing private interests when they must obtain a permit before they can develop properties where activities may affect habitats of endangered species.A memorandum issued last month by the Fish and Wildlife Service principal deputy director, Greg Sheehan, declared that it’s “not appropriate” for staff to tell developers when they need to obtain such a permit — even though it may be required by law in many circumstances.Under a section of the 1973 Endangered Species Act, businesses and individuals must request what’s called an “incidental take permit” if they believe their developments could interfere with the habitats of endangered species.Sheehan insists in his memo that it’s the “decision of the applicant” whether or not to apply for such a permit. Staff members should not use “mandatory language (e.g., a permit is ‘required’),” the memo warns.“The biological, legal, and economic risk assessment regarding whether to seek a permit belongs with the private party determining how to proceed,” Sheehan said.Staffers will still be able to provide “critical technical assistance” when it’s requested, according to the memo.The memo also appears to sharply limit situations where such permits may be required. That includes only cases “where a non-federal project is likely to result in a ‘take’ of a listed species of fish or wildlife ... habitat modification, in and of itself, does not necessarily constitute take,” according to the memo. That would seem to imply such a decision would rely on the judgment of a private interest with a commercial business at stake.Sheehan was the official who announced to trophy hunting lobby group Safari Club International in Tanzania last year that the Trump administration was lifting an Obama-era ban on elephant trophies from two African nations, Zimbabwe and Zambia. Donald Trump later held off on the action, but the ban was officially lifted again on a “case-by-case basis” in March.He’s considered among the Interior officials “behind the curtain who are really, really changing our public lands and setting a future direction that may or may not be consistent with what the law requires,” Jim Lyons, a research scholar at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, told The Revelator.

Environmental advocates have criticized Sheehan’s newest edict as a way to weaken regulations with the kind of single-handed action that has been a hallmark of the Trump administration. Noah Greenwald of the environmental nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity told The Hill that he believes it will be harder to enforce requirements protecting habitats of endangered species because there will no longer be a record of permit recommendations.The memo is the latest erosion of wildlife protections by the Trump administration.The administration is also battling blanket safeguards when a species is declared threatened. Under the Endangered Species Act, once a species is listed as threatened, a series of protections automatically go into effect. Under a proposed new rule, specific protections would be decided on a case by case basis.An endangered species is at risk of extinction, while a threatened species is likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future. Threatened species include such animals as manatees, sea otters, the Guadalupe fur seal, wood bison, the gray wolf, the grizzly, the polar bear and the northern spotted owl. There are more than 300 threatened animal and plant species in the U.S. More than 500 animal species are endangered in the U.S.Last month, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke tapped Susan Combs — a rancher and fierce opponent of the Endangered Species Act with strong ties to the oil industry — to serve as acting secretary for fish, wildlife and parks.

https://www.alternet.org/animal-rights/trump-administration-erodes-protections-endangered-animals-developers-new-attack

kitty bock HSUSA

...Now, a new action by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Agency puts at further peril endangered and threatened animals in the United States.

The FWS has issued a memorandum prohibiting agency staff from even telling developers when they are required to file for a permit before they begin development projects on properties that could degrade the habitats of endangered and threatened species. According to the Huffington Post, the memo, issued last month by the agency's principal deputy director Greg Sheehan, says it's "not appropriate" for staff to tell developers when they need to obtain such a permit—even though it may be required by law in many circumstances.

The situation is pretty simple to understand: the survival of wildlife depends on biologically healthy and intact ecosystems and habitats, and our government should be giving the benefit of the doubt to imperiled species, not to commercial interests. Notification of the requirement to secure a permit is not onerous red tape; it’s a sign of a functional and effective government.

I have written before about Sheehan, who is closely associated with Safari Club International, a membership club for American trophy hunters. In March, Sheehan greenlighted the lifting of existing bans on the import of elephant and lion trophies from certain African countries and signaled that FWS will approve such imports on a case-by-case basis—a decision that the Humane Society of the United States is challenging in federal court.

Last year the FWS prematurely and unlawfully removed ESA protections for grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, leading states in the region to move to open up a trophy hunting season for these great bears.

Pandering to commercial interests and reducing transparency has become an alarming tendency for this administration, especially at the Department of the Interior. These furtive and reckless actions put at risk the beautiful wildlife that we all, as Americans, enjoy, cherish and wish to protect. We’ve got to stand up for wildlife, by standing strong against misguided moves by federal agencies charged with the protection of wild animal species.The FWS has also established an "advisory board" stocked with trophy hunters, giving them a platform to destroy any and all barriers to international trophy hunting and the import of trophy heads and parts by U.S. citizens.

This is not the first time Zinke has created an advisory panel filled with business representatives. Most members of theRoyalty Policy Committeecome from the oil, gas and mining industries. The newInternational Wildlife Conservation Councilis mainly comprised oftrophy huntersand individuals with ties to President Trump's oldest son, who is an avid hunter.

Melissa

Simpson

Department of the Interior

Special Assistant to the Secretary

Safari Club International; Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation; Department of Interior (Pres. George W. Bush)

The Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation has taken contributions from oil and gas companies and trade associations

oil and gas; fossil fuel

Her tasks for IPAMS included “advocating on behalf of industry during Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies (AFWA) meetings, improving communication with state fish and wildlife agencies through an organized industry effort, and facilitating a dialog to mutually share information with the goal of predevelopment planning and monitoring.”

These efforts served “as a tool to address wildlife protests from the Teddy Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP) and other sportsmen’s groups.” Simpson and IPAMS staff “met with companies that have agreed to fund and participate” in these efforts.

IPAMS, [Meeting Minutes, 05/01/09]

Melissa Simpson, from 2011 to 2015, was the Director of Government Affairs and Science-Based Conservation atSafari Club International (SCI), where she “spearheaded” their “strategic partnership” with the oil and gas industry.

At SCI, Simpson regularly supported anti-environmental legislation, including bills to “peel back existing conservation provisions on tens of millions of acres,” “rewrite the Wilderness Act, National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act,” and legislation to allow recreational shooting on national monument land. Simpson also spoke at petroleum association forums and a congressional reception sponsored by major oil companies.

While at SCI, she “spearheaded” SCI’s “strategic partnership” with the oil and gas industry. Simpson has been described as a “former oil and gas cartel lobbyist, turned SCI lobbyist.”

[Trump 2016 General Election Campaign Organization Colorado Page, p2016.org, accessed 02/13/17, Safari Club International, “Missions & Involvement,” accessed 02/13/17, Matt Lee-Ashley, “Oil and Gas Industry Investments in the National Rifle Association and Safari Club International: Reshaping American Energy, Land, and Wildlife Policy,” Center for American Progress, 04/14, and Rich Landers, “House approves Sportsmen’s Heritage Act; not all sportsmen approve,” Spokesman Review, 04/17/12]

In 2011, Melissa Simpson testified before the House Committee on Natural Resources in support of H.R. 1581, the Wilderness and Roadless Area Release Act, which was legislation to “peel back existing conservation provisions on tens of millions of acres of roadless areas in national forests across the West.”

House Committee on Natural Resources, [Melissa Simpson Testimony, 07/26/11, and Ben Long, “Beware of Wolves” Tucson Weekly, 09/29/11]

In 2011, Melissa Simpson described H.R. 2834, the Recreational Fishing and Hunting Heritage and Opportunities Act, as a “‘vital'” piece of legislation. The bill, which was “strongly supported” by SCI, would “rewrite the Wilderness Act, National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act, excusing the Refuge System from compliance with NEPA for all decisions related to hunting and fishing.”...

https://www.ecowatch.com/elephants-lions-trump-2511386998.html

Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration Over New Elephant and Lion Trophy Policies, Still in Effect Despite Trump's Tweets

The Center for Biological Diversity and Natural Resources Defense Council sued the Trump administration Monday for allowing U.S. hunters to import elephant and lion trophies from Zimbabwe. The lawsuit aims to protect animals and resolve confusion created by the administration's contradictory announcements in recent days.

The suit comes days after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service abruptly reversed an Obama-era ban on elephant trophy imports based on catastrophic elephant population declines. Fish and Wildlife also recently greenlighted lion trophy imports from Zimbabwe, despite the controversial killing of Cecil the Lion in Zimbabwe in 2015.

After massive public outcry, including from established Republican politicians and pundits, President Trump and Interior Sec. Ryan Zinke announced a "hold" on issuing elephant trophy import permits late Friday night. President Trump suggested on Twitter that a new big-game trophy decision would be forthcoming. Unfortunately, the new federal policies allowing imports of elephant and lion trophies—referred to as "positive enhancement findings" under the U.S. Endangered Species Act—remain in effect.

"The Trump administration must clearly and permanently halt imports of lion and elephant trophies to protect these amazing animals from extinction," said Tanya Sanerib, a senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. "Trump's abrupt backpedaling after public outcry, while appreciated, shows how arbitrary this deplorable decision was. These incredibly imperiled creatures need a lot more than vague promises."...

omg

https://www.alternet.org/animal-rights/after-targeting-elephants-trump-administration-puts-african-lions-crosshairs

Wednesday, I reacted in real time on my blog to the Safari Club International’s announcement that the U.S. Department of the Interior plans to lift a ban on the import of sport-hunted trophies of rare and beleaguered African elephants. In short, our government is essentially turning loose American trophy hunters in Zimbabwe, at a time when declines in elephant populations have been documented because of the ruthless killing of the animals for their ivory. The United States has led the fight against the ivory trade worldwide, and now it’s undermining that morally urgent fight by allowing one class of ivory hunters to have their way with elephants. The upper class, that is.

And it’s just as shocking that the agency is also turning trophy hunters loose to kill African lions. The lion hunters are typically the elephant hunters too, because of the contest killing framework that the Safari Club has devised. You see, SCI has an awards program that promotes the trophy killing of the world’s rarest animals, as a way to drive business to the guides and outfitters who contribute to the organization. One award is the Africa Big Five, which involves killing an elephant, lion, rhino, leopard, and Cape buffalo.

With yesterday’s news, which has prompted trophy hunting companies to advertise Zimbabwean elephant hunts on their websites, the Interior Department and the government of Zimbabwe (whoever is in charge) are rolling out the red carpet for the next Walter Palmer, the Minnesota dentist who lured a famous and beloved lion, Cecil,out of a national park and shot and wounded him with an arrow.

Palmer left Cecil to bleed through the night, and then went out the next morning to finish him off. Walter Palmer never ended up facing any charges. Adding insult to injury, as an example of Zimbabwe’s inability to properly manage trophy hunting, its government dropped all charges against the hunting guide who accompanied him on this infamous and illegal hunt.

In July, I wrote about an eerily familiar slaying in Zimbabwe: a trophy hunter shot and killed Xanda the lion, whose primary range consisted of a portion of Hwange National Park. Xanda was the son of Cecil, and about four years old when Palmer killed his father.

No one knew what would become of Cecil’s progeny, since trophy hunting disrupts social relationships among family members. Lions live in communities where males sometimes work together to protect their mates and cubs; when a dominant male is lost, new male coalitions may seize the moment and try to take over their prides. When they succeed, they are known to kill the cubs to ensure the females continue only their lineage. Xanda survived the loss of his father and grew into a mature male who mated and had cubs of his own.

In 2016, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, acting on a petition from The HSUS and Humane Society International, classified all African lions as endangered or threatened. In response to that plea, the agency, based on the best available science, forbid the imports of sport-hunted trophies effective January 22, 2016. Each year prior to that, trophy hunters had been killing as many as 600 lions in Africa and bringing their parts home, with the continent-wide population at only 20,000 and rapidly declining. Their numbers have been cut in half in just the last two decades. Trophy hunting is, without question, one of the greatest threats to lions.

Yesterday’s announcement from the Interior Department will not only allow sport-hunting trophies for 2017 to come into the United States, but it will also permit entry of those from 2016. The administration is doing a reachback and accommodating all of those American hunters who killed lions in 2016 but couldn’t legally bring them back. Call it an amnesty program for the lion hunters.

The outrage factor is almost beyond compare for us at The HSUS.

Remember, this same administration took aim at two Obama-era rules to protect grizzly bears, wolves, and other native carnivores on 100 million acres of national wildlife refuges and national preserves. In April, President Trump signed a repeal of the refuge rule protecting predators. And just last week, the agency announced that it was revisiting the rule—which means starting the process to nix it—for National Park Service lands in Alaska.

So first there was an assault on Alaskan wildlife. And now an assault on African wildlife. The American public should not stand for these human attacks on these remarkable animals—all drivers of rural economies at home and abroad because of the wildlife-watching they attract.

The laughable part of this latest regulatory maneuvering dance is that the Interior Department is essentially saying that Zimbabwe has strict controls and has a sound wildlife management program. Remember, this is a nation run by a ruthless dictator who has targeted political opponents and average citizens. It is a country where poaching by shooting and poisoning of wildlife has been rampant. And it is a country that has a notorious pay-to-play approach—offering up animals to the highest bidder. In the middle of a political crisis of the worst order there, the U.S. government is working not to improve governance and promote the democratic process in Zimbabwe, but to open the door for Americans to join in the pillaging of that nation’s extraordinary wildlife.

What also defies understanding is, why would the U.S. government allow American trophy hunters to import lion trophies when they are unlikely to find an airline that will carry them into the country. After the killing of Cecil, 43 airlines, including all major U.S. carriers, said they would no longer ship lion trophies in the cargo holds of their planes.

The folly that the killing helps lions and elephants is just that—pure folly. We’ll see the agency in court.African elephants and African lions drive billions of dollars of economic activity in Africa. But they drive that activity only when they are alive. Killing them deducts from their populations, diminishes wildlife-watching experiences for others, and robs the countries of Africa of its greatest resources.

trump kids trophy hunt

http://www.alternet.org/environment/trump-administration-puts-yellowstone-grizzlies-crosshairs

Melissa

Simpson

Department of the Interior

Special Assistant to the Secretary

Safari Club International; Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation; Department of Interior (Pres. George W. Bush)

The Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation has taken contributions from oil and gas companies and trade associations

oil and gas; fossil fuel

wtf? doe landing team

Thomas Pyle, president of the American Energy Alliance and a former Republican congressional aide.

Kelly Mitchell, sales executive at Multi-Automatic Tool & Supply Co., outreach vice chair for Michigan Republican Party.

Travis Fisher, economist at the Institute for Energy Research, former economist at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Martin Dannenfelser, Jr., previously at the Energy Innovation Reform Project and House Energy and Commerce Committee.

David Jonas, partner at Fluet, Huber + Hoang, PLLC; former general counsel for the National Nuclear Security Administration.

Jack Spencer, vice president of the Institute for Economic Freedom and Opportunity at the Heritage Foundation.

William Greene, deputy director of government affairs at Safari Club International.

Mark Maddox, former acting assistant secretary of fossil energy at DOE during the George W. Bush administration.

Daniel Simmons, vice president for policy at the Institute for Energy Research, formerly at the American Legislative Exchange Council.

Thomas Norris, owner of Cap Square Solutions LLC.

John Giordano, former aide to Trump presidential campaign.

nra ila:

Calling All Lawyers! Registration for Safari Club International’s 2015 Wildlife Law Continuing Legal Education Course is open. The course will be held at the SCI Annual Hunters’ Convention at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada on Friday, February 6, 2015, from 1:00 to 5:15 p.m. As in past years, the Nevada State Bar is co-sponsoring the CLE course and has approved it for 4.0 hours of Continuing Legal Education credit, including 3.0 hours of general credit and 1.0 hour of ethics credit. SCI staff will assist you in obtaining MCLE credit from all other state bars. (Over the past 8 years, our Wildlife Law CLE course has been approved for credit by every state bar to which we have applied.)

SCI’s Wildlife Law CLE course is unique in its focus on wildlife, hunting, conservation, importation and firearms related law. As demonstrated by the agenda below, this year’s course covers a variety of current significant issues and will be taught by SCI’s Litigation Team as well as state and federal legal experts:

AGENDA

Using Suppressors for Hunting: Is It Legal? When, Where and How? – W. Douglas Mann, Jr., Special Assistant Attorney General Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks

Update on Recent Developments in Hunting Related Criminal Law – Chris Tymeson, Chief Legal Counsel for the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks, and Tourism

The Elephant Importation Ban Litigation: Why Haven’t We Gotten to the Merits Yet?– Anna Seidman, Director of Litigation, Safari Club International

A Window to Decision-Making Inside the Department of the Interior – L. Michael Bogert, Managing Shareholder, Parsons Behle & Latimer and former counselor to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne

Update on Recent Wildlife Conservation & Outdoor Recreation Law – Anna Seidman, Doug Burdin and Jeremy Clare, SCI Litigation, Safari Club International

Wildlife Law in Jeopardy – Jeremy Clare, Litigation Associate, Safari Club International

Ethics for the Wildlife Law Practitioner: A Lawyer’s Responsibility for the Conduct of Others – Including an original skit performed by the SCI Wildlife Law CLE Troupe.

Registration is being handled by the Nevada State Bar. The fee of $279.00 includes the cost of the course and materials, a refreshment break, and same-day, half-day attendance at the SCI Annual Hunters’ Convention. To register, please click this link: http://www.nvbarcle.org/course-sales-page/current-issues-domestic-and-international-wildlife-and-hunting-law-live (Note: Your registration for the SCI Convention does not include payment for attendance at the Wildlife Law CLE Course. Registration for the course must be arranged separately).

Membership in SCI is not a requirement for attendance. If you are or know an attorney who would like to fulfill his or her CLE requirements by learning about the latest issues in hunting, conservation, firearms and importation law, this is the place to get it all!

IN THIS ARTICLE

SAFARI CLUB INTERNATIONAL 2015 WILDLIFE LAW CONTINUING LEGAL EDUCATION COURSE CLE

https://www.nraila.org/articles/20141219/safari-club-internationals-2015-annual-wildlife-law-course-for-lawyers-is-now-open-for-registration

http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/just-half-million-bucks-you-can-kill-beautiful-wild-animals-trump-sons-or-get-photo-op

energy transfer partenrs:

safari

c I

Dr. Cunningham retired in 1997 fromCITGO PetroleumCorporation,where he served as President and CEO since 1995. He has more than 200 entries in SCI’s trophy record book. Among his many other accomplishments and hunting awards, he is Past-President of SCI, a Founding Member of SCIF Hunter Legacy 100 Club and has received theSCI’s World Hunting Award. He is a Past-President of theHouston Safari Club. He is a Life Member of the Houston Safari Club and SCI."[1]

education

http://www.alternet.org/environment/how-safari-club-international-turning-children-wildlife-killers

he fatal shot that killed Cecil the lion finally drew some much-needed attention to the shady business of international trophy hunting. Since the incident last June, 45 major airlines, including Delta, Virgin Atlantic and United, have banned the transportation of trophies—i.e. the heads and skins of wild animals—of the “big five”: African lion, African elephant, Cape buffalo, African leopard, and rhinoceros. A small victory for wildlife, but Cecil's death had an undeniably negative impact on Safari Club International, the organization that helped facilitate the lion’s death as well as that of countless other wild animals since its founding in 1971.

Still, it's nothing a little rebranding couldn’t fix.

Walter Palmer, the Minnesota dentist who allegedly paid $54,000 for the "privilege" to kill Cecil, a beloved resident of the Hwange National Park in Matabeleland North, Zimbabwe, was conveniently scorned by SCI for infractions and had his membership revoked. SCI also took the opportunity to make the contents of its website “members only.” In an effort to inspire sympathy amidst waning public support, the club overhauled one of its biggest PR vehicles: the International Wildlife Museum in Tucson, Arizona.

The so-called museum, located down the road from SCI’s global headquarters, is a 40,000-square-foot complex filled to the brim with taxidermied animals. Officially, the museum claims to be “dedicated to increasing knowledge and appreciation of the diverse wildlife of the world as well as explaining the role of wildlife management in conservation.” But the use of the terms “appreciation” and “conservation” are relative.

On October 13, the museum will be hosting a three-day “Conservation Education Course.” The workshop, one of several new initiatives designed to draw visitors to the museum, is ostensibly geared toward providing educators with school curriculum materials with a focus on teaching children about conservation in accordance with a program created by Project Wild, a K-12 environmental education program run by the Council for Environmental Education, a Houston-based nonprofit.

Though the direct link between Project Wild and SCI is fuzzy, it’s worth noting that the course includes archery lessons and a disclaimer on the application stating that participants agree any photos taken of them during the course may be used for "SCI promotions.” Alongside this workshop, the museum also regularly welcomes learners to its premises from both public and charter schools.

In light of the abovementioned activities, all focused on molding young minds, the critical question is, how exactly does Safari Club International define “conservation”? In essence, SCI and its various subsidiaries promote the questionable theory that trophy hunting is a necessary form of wildlife conservation, claiming that the large sums of money trophy hunters like Walter Palmer fork over are an essential part of maintaining financial support for wildlife.

But is this really the case? Most scientific research on this matter says no.

A paper titled "The Myth of Trophy Hunting as Conservation" presents a thorough breakdown of that research. Submitted to U.K. Environment Minister Elliot Morley, the paper was compiled by the League Against Cruel Sports, a U.K. charity dedicated to exposing the cruelty of sport hunting. Citing a 2004 study by the University of Port Elizabeth in South Africa, the paper noted that eco-tourism (non-hunting-related safari) generates on average "more than 15 times the income of livestock or game rearing or overseas hunting.”

The paper goes on to explain the reasons for this:

Although hunters pay large sums, ordinary tourists are much more numerous. Hunters shoot an animal once, but photographic tourists can shoot it a thousand times and the animal is still there … Hunting safaris are seasonal and are open for a maximum of six months a year. They use very basic camps and staff rarely learn any other skills to support themselves during the rest of the year. In contrast, photographic safaris run all year. They use well-established, often luxurious camps or hotels. Staff are trained in management and other useful professional qualifications which advance their careers.

In order to uncover the true extent of SCI’s precarious position on conservation, one need look no further than the 2016 Arizona state tax budget. Despite the fact that Arizona is an austerity state with the lowest spending per student in the U.S.,over $1 million was allocated by the state’s Republican governor, Doug Ducey, for litigation against federal species protection and increased hunting access to state land.

Cyndi Tuell, an Arizona-based conservation attorney says these budget allocations are indicative of the questionable definition of conservation used by SCI and its affiliates....

http://www.alternet.org/environment/bigger-story-behind-killing-cecil-lion-media-overlooked

hen Walter Palmer, a wealthy dentist from Minnesota, killed Cecil the

lion in Zimbabwe last July, people all around the word were sickened

and outraged.

Action was quick. After the news broke, late-night talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel used his monologue to read Palmer the riot act,

then helped raise $150,000 in donations in less than 24 hours to

support Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, the Oxford, U.K.-based

nonprofit that had been tasked with tracking Cecil's location and

activities. Within a month, thanks to pressure from the Animal Legal

Defense Fund, Humane Society of the U.S. and public demand, American

Airlines, Delta Airlines and United Airlines announced bans

in the transport of “trophies” (i.e., animal parts) from Africa’s

so-called big five species: the African lion, African elephant, Cape

buffalo, African leopard and white/black rhinoceros.

Beyond these

specific achievements, a silver lining to emerge from Cecil’s tragic

killing has been the dramatic increase in the global awareness of the

obscenity of trophy hunting. “Dr. Walter Palmer has done something

worthwhile after all,” wrote Capt. Paul Watson, founder of the Sea

Shepherd Conservation Society and former star of Animal Planet's “Whale

Wars,” in a Facebook post.

“His special combination of vanity, smugness, greed, arrogance and

stupidity has taken something which happens all the time, usually out of

sight and out of mind, and has elevated it to international

recognition.”

But while the slaughter of African wildlife has been

elevated to the global stage as never before, there is a larger story

behind Cecil’s death that has largely been overlooked by the media. That

story is the role played by Safari Club International (SCI), a stealthy

and powerful pro-hunting group that masquerades as an organization

dedicated to “promoting wildlife conservation,” according to its mission

statement.

Wildlife conservation could not be further from the

truth of what SCI does. In fact, SCI’s activities — both in the wild and

on Capitol Hill — have had a destructive impact on wildlife and

wildlife policies on the state, federal and even international levels.

With some 50,000 members, 150 chapters and over $10 million

in revenue ($3 million from annual membership dues and another $7

million raised from its annual convention), Safari Club International

exercises a substantial amount of lobbying power, shaping anti-wildlife

conservation policies that only satisfy trophy hunters’ bloodlust,

negatively impacting wildlife on a global scale.

In Africa, SCI

has been a longtime driving force in the sustained killing of the

continent’s lions, contributing to the species’ sad, rapid decline: A

loss of more than 50 percent of the lion population over the last three

decades alone. Today, there are fewer than 40,000 African lions left in

the wild. And even though two-thirds of them remain unprotected, SCI has

for many years worked to block the conservation efforts of several

wildlife protection groups seeking to list the lion as endangered.

Thankfully, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service recently announced the African lion will be protected under the Endangered Species Act, a ruling that will go into effect in February.

The nonprofit In Defense of Animals describes SCI as “the most ruthless trophy hunting organization.” On its website, IDA describes the activities of the group:

Clearly

leading the list of voracious hunting clubs with an appalling

callousness towards wild animals worldwide, is the Safari Club

International (SCI), a hunting advocacy group that promotes competitive

trophy hunting throughout the world, even of rare species, and not

shying away from canned hunts, through an elaborate awards program. The

SCI continues to create and feed a culture glamorizing death and

violence globally, across political lines, international borders, and

against wildlife and even people. Fortunes are made on the back of

millions of animals, whose lives are taken by trophy hunters for the

sake of killing in an endless spiral of competition....

Most

people would be shocked to learn about the length these wildlife

killers go to legally (and illegally) murder the largest, most beautiful

and “exotic’ animals — the rarer the animal, the better....

SCI

responded to Cecil’s killing by suspending the memberships of Palmer

and Theo Bronkhorst, a professional hunter and guide who helped Palmer

slaughter the lion, stating, "those who intentionally take wildlife

illegally should be prosecuted and punished to the maximum extent

allowed by law." Indeed, the law is so important to SCI that it has

devoted significant time and financial resources to change it in its

favor. Primarily through its political and legal arm, the Department of

Hunter Advocacy, SCI is knee-deep in state and federal legislative and

judicial battles over how legal hunting is defined and regulated. “SCI

lobbyists are a fixture in Washington,” In Defense of Animals reports.

“Members are urged constantly to pressure their Congressional

representatives for less wildlife protection and more hunting leniency,

which is what concerns the SCI and nothing else.”

In 1981, SCI, in

cahoots with the National Rifle Association, argued against measures

intended to strengthen the Lacey Act, a 1900 United States law that bans

trafficking in illegal wildlife, such as the inclusion of a felony

penalty. More recently, SCI worked closely with Rep. Dan Benishek (R-MI)

in crafting the pro-hunting bill H.R.1825. The

bill, which was introduced in 2013, stalled in the Senate. It has been

backed by the NRA and the U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance, both of which, like

SCI, wield significant influence on Capitol Hill. In addition to being

criticized by environmental groups, the bill has been slammed by some

pro-hunting conservation groups like the Wilderness Society, the

National Wildlife Federation and Wilderness Watch for seeking to gut provisions in the Wilderness Act designed to keep some federal lands “untrammeled by man.” That same year, SCI introduced more than 20 pro-hunting bills to Congress.

But

beyond its lobbying work, what is most distressing about SCI, as Sea

Shepherd's Paul Watson points out, is how the group glorifies a culture

of death by celebrating the slaughter of animals — a ritual supported by

an elaborate system that rewards killing. He writes:

What

is truly despicable about this organization is that it encourages

slaughter through awards. SCI’s record book system ranks the biggest

tusks, horns, antlers, skulls and bodies of hunted animals. Hunters are

rewarded with trophies for completing a “Grand Slam.”

There are 15 “Grand Slams.” The ones that cover Africa are:

The African Big Five Club (African lion, African leopard, African elephant, African buffalo and African rhinoceros)

“Dangerous

Game of Africa” (requires a minimum of five from the African lion,

African leopard, African elephant, African rhinoceros, African buffalo,

hippopotamus and Nile crocodile)

“African 29” (African lion,

leopard, elephant, rhinoceros, buffalo, eland, bongo, kudu, nyala,

sitatunga, bushbuck, sable antelope, roan antelope, oryx/gemsbok,

waterbuck, lechwe, kob or puku, reedbuck or rhebok, wildebeest,

hartebeest, impala, gazelle, pygmy antelope, springbok, dik-dik, bush

duiker, forest duiker, nubian ibex, aoudad, hippopotamus and wild pig)

“Cats

of the World” (minimum of four of: lion, leopard, cheetah, jaguar,

cougar, lynx, cougar or puma, serval, carcal, African golden cat or

bobcat)

...There is the Hunting

Achievement Award that requires a minimum of 125 animals, or 60 if

hunting with a bow. And for women they have the Diana award, given to

women who “have excelled in international big game hunting.” And finally

there is the obscenely named “World Conservation & Hunting Award,”

given to hunters who have killed on six continents and have killed more

than 300 species. This “esteemed” award goes to the killer who has taken

all 14 Grand Slams, the 23 Inner Circles, Pinnacle of Achievement

(fourth) and the Crowning Achievement Award.

It

is this award system that is driving thousands of wealthy primarily

white men and a few women to spend millions of dollars stalking animals

around the world for the sole purpose of killing in the name of vanity

and self-glorification.

In his book Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy,

Matthew Scully, who calls himself a “pro-life vegan

conservative” addresses SCI's unethical and illogical argument that

sport hunting is a necessary form of population control. It is a truly

speciesist argument if there ever was one, giving Homo sapiens primacy over all other sentient beings.

Scully writes:

Wildlife,

we are constantly told, would run loose across our towns and cities

were it not for the sport hunters to control their population, as birds

would blanket the skies without the culling services of Ducks Unlimited

and other groups. Yet here they are breeding wild animals, year after

year replenishing the stock, all for the sole purpose of selling and

killing them, deer and bears and elephants so many products being

readied for the market. Animals such as deer, we are told, have no

predators in many areas, and therefore need systematic culling. Yet when

attempts are made to reintroduce natural predators such as wolves and

coyotes into these very areas, sport hunters themselves are the first to

resist it. Weaker animals in the wild, we hear, will only die miserable

deaths by starvation and exposure without sport hunters to control

their population. Yet it's the bigger, stronger animals they're killing

and wounding — the very opposite of natural selection — often with bows

and pistols that only compound and prolong the victim's suffering.

While

the sport hunting of animals is unnatural, it is also exceedingly

unfair. Marc Bekoff, a renowned animal behaviorist biologist who

specializes in non-human cognition and emotion, is on a mission to help

people understand that animals have many of the same feelings humans do,

and that understanding should be the basis for our ethical treatment of

them.

“Hunting

and fishing involve killing animals with devices (such as guns) for

which the animals have not evolved natural defenses,” he writes in his

book Animals Matter: A Biologist Explains Why We Should Treat Animals with Compassion and Respect.

“No animal on earth has adequate defense against a human armed with a

gun, a bow and arrow, a trap that can maim, a snare that can strangle,

or a fishing lure designed for the sole purpose of fooling fish into

thinking they have found something to eat.”

Beneath the lack of

fairness and morality and the appalling level of cruelty of sport

hunters lies something quite basic — and ultimately pathetic. The late

novelist John D. MacDonald knew something about the minds of

psychopathic killers. In his 1965 novel A Deadly Shade of Gold, he addressed the arrested emotional development of sport hunters, bluntly stating, “It is the search for balls.”

Sadly for the world’s wildlife, that search has a powerful ally in Washington: Safari Club International.

godaddy ceo, trump jr

http://www.alternet.org/environment/6-rich-white-people-who-get-killing-wild-african-animals

dunno if member

minn dentist

The Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force [9] said Palmer is the culprit and he was abetted by two Zimbabwean men, professional hunter Theo Bronkhorst and farm owner Honest Ndlovu,who will appear in court for allegedly helping lure the lion outside of its protected area to kill it, reports the AP [10]. They are charged with poaching offenses for not having the required permits and could face up to 15 years in prison if found guilty, reports the BBC [11].Palmer could also face poaching charges.

WATCH: [12]

The lion was wearing a GPS collar as part of an ongoing research project, so authorities were able to track his last movements and his final location. “The hunters tried to destroy the collar, but failed,” authorities told The Guardian.The lion was found skinned and headless on the outskirts of the park.

Palmer, an avid hunter, and the two Zimbabweans claim they didn’t know the lion they killed was protected. “I had no idea that the lion I took was a known, local favorite, was collared and part of a study until the end of the hunt,” Palmer told the AP, maintaining that to his knowledge, everything about the hunt had been legal. “I deeply regret that my pursuit of an activity I love and practice responsibly and legally resulted in the taking of this lion,” Palmer told CNN [13], saying he would cooperate with authorities’ inquiries.

Palmer closed his dental practice as its Facebook page and website were flooded with angry comments and threats. Some users then turned to Yelp with one calling him [14] an “American psycho incarnate.” Palmer had a similar incident in 2006 when he shot a black bear “outside an authorized zone” and then lied about where he shot and killed the animal, according to CNN.He was given a one-year probation and fined $3,000.

The death of Cecil the Lion comes as countries in Africa are working to crack down on illegal poaching, which is second only to the drug trade [15] in its scope. The World Wildlife Fund [16] has enlisted Jared Leto in its efforts [17] and solutions run the gamut from 3D printed rhino horns [18] to drones [19].

For now, the wildlife trade is alive and well, as proven by the recent report from International Fund for Animal Welfare [21] (IFAW) and Wildlife Conservation Society [22] on the ivory and wildlife trade on Craigslist [23].

In response to Cecil the Lion’s death, Jeff Flocken, North American regional director for IFAW, issued the following statement:

“We are extremely saddened by the news of Cecil the Lion being illegally killed for sport — not only from an animal welfare perspective, but also for conservation reasons. African lion populations have declined sharply, dropping nearly 60 percent in the last three decades. With as few as 32,000 African lions remaining in the wild, individuals matter for conserving the species.

Even worse, the killing of a dominant male in a pride, like Cecil, can have a ripple effect and result in the deaths of other males, young cubs and females in that pride. And as troubling as it is, the rarer these trophy hunted animals become, the more hunters are willing to pay to kill them — like the American hunter, who recently paid $350,000 to kill a critically endangered black rhino in Namibia [24].

Actions, like these, are quickly pushing imperiled species toward extinction [15]. So long as a value continues to be placed on these animals, where they are worth more dead than alive, the future of majestic creatures like elephants, lions, tigers and rhinos will remain in grave jeopardy.”

It’s not just conservation groups that are up in arms, though. The lion’s death has sparked wi

http://www.alternet.org/environment/dentist-walter-palmer-murdered-cecil-african-lion-sparks-internet-outrage

===

Man Pays $350K to Kill a Rhino

Brandon Baker

Should the opportunity to kill an animal be sold for six figures or for any amount of money at all?

That’s what happened at an auction in Texas a week ago, and now the winner bidder is left reading death threats directed at his children. As dozens of protesters looked on, the Dallas Safari Club’s auctioned a permit to hunt a black rhino in Namibia for $350,000. The club says it sold the permit to hunter Corey Knowlton to protect the endangered species, particularly the young rhinos who are sometimes killed by their older counterparts.

“A lot of people say, ‘Do you feel like a bigger man?’ or ‘Is this a thrill for you?” Corey Knowlton told *CNN*. “The thrill is knowing that we are preserving wildlife resources, not for the next generation, but for eons.”

Despite running a website and business that offers “ultimate hunting packages,” Knowlton has supporters in organizations like the The International Union for Conservation of Nature. His money will benefit the Namibian Ministry of Environment and Tourism for anti-poaching patrols, habitat protection, research and other measures crucial for protecting populations of endangered black rhinos, the club said.

There are just 4,000 to 5,000 black rhinos living in the wild, according to the Dallas Safari Club. The Rhino in question could no longer breed.

The club may have been disappointed with the auction—club executive Ben Carter told NPR that he thought the permit could garner up to $1 million.

polar bear lawsuit

http://66.39.128.35/index.php/Safari_Club_International

Safari Club International(SCI) is a U.S. based organisation with a membership of trophy hunters. Safari Club members aspire to collect the heads or skins of big game animals.

Contents[hide]

SCI and the Republicans

In an article on theHumane Societywebsite a consultant to the Humane Society, Michael Satchell, writes "the club contributes large sums to mostlyRepublicancandidates and, not surprisingly, has been able to ingratiate itself with various administrations,most notably theBush Administration, and with theU.S. Fish and Wildlife Service(USFWS)."

"With the help of friendly members of Congress and officials in USFWS, SCI has consistently attempted tonavigate around the intent of the Endangered Species Act(ESA) and the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) and import once-banned trophies of endangered and threatened wildlife.Sometimes, the club has succeeded, sometimes not," he wrote.[1]

On March 17, 2005 the secondBushadministration appointedMatthew J. Hogan, the former chief lobbyist for Safari Club International, as the Acting Director of the Fish and Wildlife Service.

People

Accessed June 2009:[1]

PresidentMerle A. Shepard

President ElectLawrence Rudolph

Corporate SecretarySven K. Lindquist

Corporate TreasurerKevin K. Anderson

Vice President Ron Arendt]]

Alternate Vice PresidentCheri Eby

Director-at-LargePaul Barstad

Ron Bartels

Charles "Chuck" Bazzy

Mike J. Borel

Scott Chapman

Michael J. Drewnowski

Charlie Christopher Keller

Alan W. Maki

Ralph M. Marcum

John McLaurin

Jeanne Smith Beutecale

Honorary International DirectorNicolas Franco

Dieter Ochsenbein

International DirectorGuido Bracchetti

Francesc Marti Jusmet

Jose A. Martinez De Hoz

Archie J. Nesbitt

Contact details

4800 West Gates Pass Road

Tucson, Arizona 85745-9490

USA

Main Phone: (520) 620-1220

Fax: (520) 622-1205

Web:http://www.safariclub.org

External links

Michael Satchell, "A View to a Kill: How Safari Club Int'l Works to Weaken ESA Protections", Humane Society US, undated, accessed August 2005.

Jeffrey St Clair, "Adventures in the Endangered Skin Trade: Why Elephants Hate Neo-Liberals",CounterPunch, June 21 / 22, 2008. (James Blanchard)

Resources and articles

Related Sourcewatch

Francis Anthony Gallela

References

↑Directors, Safari Club International, accessed June 26, 2009.

Categories:

Environment

United States

note F&W has some jurisdiction over oil in ANWR!

Matthew J. Hoganwas appointed acting director of the:{U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service:(style="background-color:#fff200"):}:March 16, 2005, by:{Gale Norton:(style="background-color:#fff200"):}:, Secretary,:{Department of the Interior:(style="background-color:#fff200"):}:,"until a new director is nominated by PresidentBushand confirmed by the U.S. Senate." Hogan, who had served as one of two deputy directors since his appointment in July 2002, replacedSteve Williams, who resigned.[1][2]

On July 15, 2005, it wasannouncedthat President Bush intended to nominateH. Dale Hall, director of the FWS Southwest Region based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, as FWS director, subject to confirmation by the U.S. Senate.[3][4][5]

Contents[hide]

Hogan's Controversial Appointment

Con: "'Having aSafari Club lobbyistin charge, even temporarily, of the federal agency that is supposed to protect endangered species is precisely the wrong course to pursue for any Administration,' saidWayne Pacelle, president and CEO ofThe HSUS. 'Someone with a true wildlife conservation ethic, not an allegiance to the trophy hunting industry, should be nominated by President Bush and confirmed by the U.S. Senate for the permanent director position as soon as possible.'"[6]

Pro:John R. Monson, SCI president, said: "'It is unfortunate, however, ... that the animal extremists at theHumane Society of the United Stateshave chosen to use Mr. Hogan’s appointment as yet another shameless opportunity to defame SCI’s sterling conservation reputation, all in the name of a publicity stunt.'"[7]

Profile

While serving as Deputy Director for the Service, "Matt's focus include[d] Congressional relations and supporting the Director's emphasis on traditional partners of the Service, including hunting, fishing and sportsmen's groups as well as policy issues dealing with migratory birds and the National Wildlife Refuge System," his biographical note states.[8]

From November 1998 until his appointment to the Fish and Wildlife Service Hogan, Hogan was the "Conservation Policy Director of theCongressional Sportsmen's Foundation, serving as a liaison between the hunting, fishing and conservation communities and the Congressional Sportsmen's Caucus."

Prior to this Hogan "served as Government Affairs Manager forSafari Club International, Legislative Director for CongressmanPete Gerenof Texas, and Press Assistant for the Armed Services Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives."

External links

Profiles

Profile: Matthew J. Hogan, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, accessed August 2005.

Articles & Commentary

News Release: :{"Norton Names Matt Hogan Acting Director of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,:(style="background-color:#fff200"):}:"U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, March 16, 2005.

"Trophy Hunting Advocate Named Acting Director of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,"Humane Society of the United States, March 18, 2005.

Tony Dean,"Safari Club Salutes Hogan as Choice to head USFWS - Temporarily,"tonydean.com, March 2005.

Jessica Azuley,"Bush Gives Top Wildlife Protection Job to Trophy Hunter,"New Standard News, March 20, 2005.

Allison A. Freeman,"Mixed Reviews for Bush's Choice to Lead Fish and Wildlife Service,"Greenwire(Natural Resources Defense Council), July 18, 2005. Re H. Dale Hall.

H. Dale Hallis the director of the Southwest Region of theU.S. Fish and Wildlife Servicein Albuquerque, New Mexico. On July 15, 2005, it was announced that President Bush intended to nominate Hall as FWS director.[1][2][3]

Hall wasconfirmedby the Senate on October 7, 2005, replacingMatthew J. Hoganwho has served as acting director since his appointment March 16, 2005, byGale Norton, Secretary,Department of the Interior. Hogan replacedSteven Williams, who resigned.

Contents[hide]

Profiles

Hall "currently serves as Director of the Southwest Region of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. He previously served as Deputy Director of the Southeast Region. Earlier in his career, Mr. Hall served as Manager of the Eden Fisheries Catfish Farm in Yazoo City, Mississippi. He received his bachelor's degree from Cumberland College and his master's degree from Louisiana State University." --White House Personnel Announcement, July 15, 2005.

External links

Profiles

"H. Dale Hall Named Southwest Deputy Regional Director of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,"FWS.org, June 17, 1997.

"New Regional Director Named,"FWS.org, July 22, 2002; alsohere.

Press Release: "Secretary Norton Praises President’s Intention to Nominate H. Dale Hall as Director of the Fish and Wildlife Service,"FWS.gov, July 18, 2005.

Articles & Commentary

Personnel Announcement: H. Dale Hall, White House, July 15, 2005.

"Inhofe Praises President Bush's Intention to Nominate H. Dale Hall as U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director,"SenatorJim Inhofe(R-Oklahoma) (jiminhofe.com), July 15, 2005.

"Domenici Praises Bush Appointment of Dale Hall to Lead U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service,"SenatorPete V. Domenici(R-New Mexico), U.S. Senate website, July 15, 2005.

Mitch Tobin,"Bush choice to head Fish and Wildlife stirs concern,"Arizona Star, July 16, 2005.

Allison A. Freeman,"Mixed Reviews for Bush's Choice to Lead Fish and Wildlife Service,"Greenwire(Natural Resources Defense Council), July 18, 2005.

"Environmentalists oppose nomination of Hall,"Associated Press (Free New Mexican), July 19, 2005; also in*ABQ Journal*.

Art Lander, Jr.,"Harlan native nominee for post. Hall in Line to Lead U.S. Fish and Wildlife,"Herald-Leader(Kentucky), July 31, 2005.

Contents[hide]

Biographical Information

"Steve Williams joined theCrodaBoard in July 2010 as a non-executive director. Steve was General Counsel and Chief Legal Officer ofUnilever plcand Unilever NV from 1986 until 2010. Prior to this he spent 11 years atImperial Chemical IndustriesPLC as a commercial lawyer and Assistant Secretary. From 1995 until 2004 he was a nonexecutive director ofBunzl plc. From 2004 until 2010 he was Senior Independent Director ofArriva plc. Since 2008 he has been a non-executive director ofWhitbread PLC, where he is also the Senior Independent Director. In addition, Steve is a director ofEvershedsLLP, an international law firm, and a senior advisor toSpencer StuartLLP. He is Chairman of theDe La Warr Pavilion Trustand a member of the Board of theLeverhulme Trust."[1]

Resources and articles

Related Sourcewatch

References

↑CrodaBoard, organizational web page, accessed August 20, 2012.

Categories:

Stubs

United Kingdom

A View To A KillHow Safari Club Int'l Works To Weaken ESA ProtectionsBy Michael Satchell:{The Humane Society of the United States

11-25-3 }:

A View To A Kill

How Safari Club Int'l Works To Weaken ESA Protections

By Michael Satchell

The Humane Society of the United States

11-25-3

What weighs 21 pounds, contains 2,560 pages, and lists thousands of names and numbers? It's not the New York City telephone directory, but here's a hint: Its listings run from Addax to Zebra.

The answer is Safari Club International's three-volume compendium of trophy hunters who are immortalized in this record book for doing nothing more than killing animalsóan entire alphabet of animalsóto win SCI awards competitions. The catalog is a macabre scorecard detailing who shot what animal, where and when. Thousands and thousands of animals, covering more than 1,100 species, are figuratively buried between the covers here.

You can learn, for example, that in 1910 in the Sudan, Theodore Roosevelt killed a rhino whose horns measured 24 4/8 inches and 7 4/8 inches, scoring 67 1/8 points to make the former U.S. president the No.1 hunter of Northern white rhino. Or that one Marc Pechenart shot an elephant in the Central African Republic in June 1970, earning a score of 302 points for the biggest pachyderm. The animal's left tusk weighed 154 pounds and the right 148 pounds.

With its photographs of grinning hunters posing with lifeless animals and its meticulous rankings for the biggest tusks, horns, antlers, skulls and bodies, the SCI record book perfectly encapsulates what trophy hunting is all about: killing for killing's sake. The book lays bare the hunters' obsessions: a craving to shoot the largest animal, a desire to kill the most animals and rack up SCI awards, or a fetish to bring home the animal's head and hang it on the wall.

The mother of all these obsessions, though, is the awards competition. SCI members shoot prescribed lists of animals to win so-called Grand Slam and Inner Circle titles. Thereís the Africa Big Five, (leopard, elephant, lion, rhino, and buffalo); the North American Twenty Nine (all species of bear, bison, sheep, moose, caribou, and deer); and the Antlered Game of the Americas, among many other contests.

To complete all 29 award categories, a hunter must kill a minimum of 322 separate species and sub-species, enough to populate an entire zoo. This is an extremely expensive and lengthy task, and many SCI members take the quick and easy route. They shoot captive animals in canned hunts, both in the United States and overseas, and some engage in other unethical conduct like shooting animals over bait, from vehicles, with spotlights, or on the periphery of national parks.

Wayne Pacelle, HSUS senior vice president for communications and government affairs, captures the essence of SCI members and their motivation:

"It's a perverse and destructive subculture," he says. "Thousands of animals suffer and die for the amusement of wealthy elites who have the means to pursue any form of recreation, but choose to shoot the world's rarest and most beautiful animals. There's no societal value to the exercise, just a selfish all-consuming mentality of killing, collecting, and showing off trophies. They know the price of every animal, but the value of none."

High-Powered Rifles

It's easy to parody and criticize Safari Club International, but it's a mistake to underestimate the club's power and influence on shaping policies that are detrimental to wildlifeóand beneficial to those members who stand tall over freshly killed animals in the SCI record books.

Since it was founded in 1971, the Tucson-based non-profit has grown to some 40,000 trophy collectors. More than half boast an annual income of more than $100,000 (compared to 6% of hunters nationwide). The average member owns 11 rifles, six shotguns, five handguns and a bow. Two-thirds spend about one month hunting each year, and a quarter of the members more than 50 days.

The club contributes large sums to mostly Republican candidates and, not surprisingly, has been able to ingratiate itself with various administrations, most notably the Bush Administration, and with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). With the help of friendly members of Congress and officials in USFWS, SCI has consistently attempted to navigate around the intent of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) and import once-banned trophies of endangered and threatened wildlife. Sometimes, the club has succeeded, sometimes not.

The latest example of SCI's growing influence in Washington is the Bush Administration's initiative to "save" the world's endangered species by killing or selling them, and then using the revenues as an incentive for poor countries to improve their conservation efforts. This scheme to protect rare wildlife is a formula for disaster. It will reverse 30 years of ESA protections for hundreds of exotic creatures who are heading for, or teetering on, the brink of extinction.

The proposal, which conveniently dovetails with SCI's agenda, offers several examples of how wildlife can be exploited for profit. It suggests imports, such as wild-caught Asian elephants for circuses and zoos, Morelet's crocodile skins for luxury leather items like shoes and handbags, and Asian bonytongue tropical fish to supply the aquarium trade. American trophy hunters could shoot and import trophies of straight-horned markhor, a rare goat found in Pakistan, and then head north on a quickie expedition to nail Canadian wood bison.

These are only examples. If approved, the proposal portends open season on many disappearing species, particularly large mammals, the so-called charismatic megafauna. It would also be a huge incentive for poaching and smuggling. Imagine how much rich trophy hunters would offer China to shoot giant pandasóarguably the world's most beloved animalóif they were allowed to import their stuffed remains. Picture furriers importing the hides of endangered snow leopards to swathe the ethically challenged. And now that pet tigers have earned a bad rap, might cheetahs become the newest rage among exotic pet owners?

For three decades and under strict controls, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has allowed only a few rare animals, such as pandas, to be brought in for scientific research and breeding. Until SCI began to push its agenda in Congress and at the Interior Department, USFWS very rarely approved the importation of endangered-species trophies. Now, the agency is proposing not only to ease those trophy import restrictions but also to allow the import of live animals for entertainment (or the pet trade) and the import of skins and hides for luxury apparel.

Such a plan goes against USFWS's historic rationale, which quite correctly notes that fostering a commercial market for disappearing wildlife will inevitably hasten its demise.

No Trickle-Down Economics

Encouraging the sale and import of heads, hides, and live animals to enhance survival efforts in the wild may sound logicalóuntil you examine the sorry history of other purported "sustainable" wildlife-use programs. The record shows that few of the dollars trickle down to benefit either wildlife or local people in the impoverished range states because corrupt officials inevitably divert the money.

During the 1990s, in a well-intentioned-but-misguided conservation effort, the U.S. government spent more than $12 million to underwrite sustainable wildlife-use programs in Zimbabwe. The idea was to give local people the opportunity to raise money for community projects by selling hunting permits for African elephants. The program ended up subsidizing trophy hunting, and little of their trophy fees reached the villages.

USFWS's new endangered species proposal doesn't offer much hope to alter this historical course. Despite agency assurances, the plan isn't the product of careful scientific assessment or innovative thinking. It's driven, in large part, by the working relationship between the Bush Administration and SCI, and by the administration's apparent hostility toward the Endangered Species Act.

SCI's membership includes former President George Herbert Walker Bush, who has lobbied the government of Botswana on the group's behalf to lift the ban on killing the nation's dwindling lion population. What's more, President George W. Bush appointed Matthew J. Hogan, SCI's former Government Affairs Manager, as one of the two current deputy directors of USFWSóa classic example of the fox guarding the hen house. Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton, in turn, has worked to weaken the ESA, from abandoning federal efforts to restore grizzlies in Idaho to undermining a key provision that allows citizens to sue the government to speed up protection of imperiled species.

Aiming High...Shooting Low

SCI got off to a shaky start during its early forays into Washington politics. In 1979, when the organization was not even a decade old, it sought government approval to circumvent the spirit of the law and import an astonishing 1,125 trophies of 40 animals on the endangered species list. They included gorillas, cheetahs, tigers, orangutans, and snow leopards.

With a straight face, SCI said its goal was "scientific research-incentive for propagation-survival of the species." There was one small problem. The trophies weren't dead yet. The prospect of permitting the wholesale slaughter of more than 1,000 rare animals was a bit too much, even for USFWS, and the request was denied.

As its lobbying became more sophisticated, SCI began pouring money into national political campaigns. Since the 1998 election cycle, it has contributed $596,696 to Republican candidates and $92,500 to Democrats. Not coincidentally, Congressional Republicans have made repeated attempts to amend and weaken the ESA, while USFWS, turning its back on decades of precedents, has proposed to allow hunters to import trophies of endangered animals killed in the wild. These import easements are critical to one of SCI's true aims.

All those pictures in the SCI record books, and in the club's glossy magazines like Safari and Hunt Forever, are a form of pornography to the blood sports crowd. Would-be big-game hunters can pore over photos of triumphant and sated trophy collectors holding up the head of a dead ungulate by its horns or standing atop the hulk of a dead elephant or posing with a dead leopard draped around his neck. But like all pornography, the image is never enough. The hunter eventually wants a taste of the real thing. And, of course, he must have a trophy to savor the experience.

As former SCI president John J. Jackson III once wrote: "A trophy of any species attests that its owner has been somewhere and done something, that he has exercised skilled persistence and discrimination in the agile feat of overcoming, outwitting, and reducing game to possession."

Trophy collectors may rhapsodize about their spiritual love for the quarry, the hunter's path to self-actualization, the thrill of the chase, the test of manhood, and other such philosophical jabberwocky. But at the end of the day, and after a $65,000 safari, the only thing that matters is hanging that head on the wallóand the rarer the animal, the better it feels.

An example: Kenneth E. Behring, who donated $100 million to have the Smithsonian memorialize him with the Behring Family Hall of Mammals on the Washington D.C. Mall, went to Kazakhstan in 1997 and paid the government enough to allow him to shoot a Kara Tau argali sheep.

The animal, even SCI acknowledges, is critically endangered; the species is listed on CITES Appendix I and can not be imported into the United States as a trophy without the help of a museum. Behring, who like all SCI members, regards himself as a conservationist, killed his Kara Tau argali when only 100 remained and shipped it to a Canadian taxidermist. The Smithsonian then petitioned USFWS for an import permit, but withdrew the request in the storm of negative publicity that followed.

But Behring isn't the only SCI member with questionable ethics. Back when Teddy Roosevelt was laying waste to Africa's wildlife, hunting may have embraced those mythic elements that SCI still loves to invoke: a Hemingway-esque mantra of danger, romance, bravery, and the thrill of slaying the beast.

On today's safari, however, the customer is coddled in luxury tent camps, replete with flush toilets, hot showers and gourmet dining. All he (or she) has to do is shell out tens of thousands of dollars, pull the trigger when instructed, and pose for the money shot. He doesn't even get blood on his hands. A professional guide stalks the target, lines up the shot, tells the client when to take it, acts as a backup shooter if the animal is wounded, and supervises the gutting, skinning and decapitation.

And that's in the wild. From South Africa to New Zealand to Texas, many of these trophy collectors shoot captive animals in canned hunts staged in fenced paddocks on game ranches, a practice the Boone and Crockett Club calls "unfair and unsportsmanlike." The animals are habituated to humans and are shot at feeding stations, salt licks and watering holes. The "spirit of fair chase," supposedly enshrined in SCI's code of ethics, is conveniently ignored.

SCI's highly flexible "fair chase" code also urges members to "comply with all game laws and demonstrate abiding respect for game, habitat and property." That admonition regularly falls on deaf ears.

In 1998, several top SCI leaders, including Behring and then-president Alfred Donau, reportedly went on a wildlife killing spree in Mozambique. According to a published report, they left animals wounded and dying and shot elephants in alleged violation of national law. Other SCI members have been convicted of killing endangered species and trying to smuggle them into the U.S.

Wealthy hunters, including SCI members, have also been caught infederal tax scams. In one celebrated case, a museum in Raleigh, North Carolina, gave trophy hunters the title of "associate curator," which helped them persuade foreign officials to grant permits to shoot rare animals. Hunters went on to donate low-value trophies to the museum and receive wildly inflated appraisals, which were then deducted from their federal taxes. In some cases, the mounts were reacquired by the donors. Before authorities busted the ring, the museum took in 1,800 specimens and valued them at a whopping $8.4 million. At SCI's 1999 annual convention, members were offered a document titled Secrets of Tax Deductible Hunting, advising them to declare their home trophy rooms as museums, call themselves curators, and "donate your record-book animal for the mouthwatering tax deduction."

Incidents like these fuel the club's negative image. Most Americans are largely ambivalent about hunting wild animals for food, but polls show strong public opposition to killing exotic animals for fun, competition, and bragging rights. To counter this perception and burnish its reputation, the club donates meat to food banks, stages "sensory safaris" where the vision-impaired can touch and feel stuffed animals, and arranges hunting for the disabled.

To Matthew Scully, author of the highly acclaimed book Dominion, such window dressing is humbug. "They practice a socially conscious sadism here," Scully writes. "Ethics at the Safari Club is ordered libertinism, like teaching cannibals to use a table napkin and not take the last portion."

Michael Satchell is a senior consultant for The HSUS.

http://www.hsus.org/ace/20054

Safari Club Int'l

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