Donald Trump’s administration has decided to loosen restrictions around the importation of elephant trophies from Zambia and Zimbabwe, reports The Guardian.
This has put the Trump family back in the spotlight, with speculation around the president’s family’s own personal connection to the controversial sport.
Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump are keen big-game hunters. During the 2016 campaign, images re-emerged of the two on a hunting trip in 2011, posing with animals they had killed whilst on safari, including an elephant, buffalo and leopard.
Trump Jr told Forbes in 2012 the images were misplaced. Forbes columnist, Frank Miniter, said Trump Jr told him: “Elephants are overpopulated in the area the Trumps hunted and so need to be hunted to prevent them from further destroying their habitat.”
President Trump told TMZ in 2012: “My sons love hunting. They’re hunters and they’ve become good at it. I am not a believer in hunting and I’m surprised they like it.”
Last year the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) reported that Africa’s elephants had suffered significantly, with the worst drop in population recorded in 25 years.
The Obama administration’s US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) banned the importation of elephant trophies from Zimbabwe in 2014 on the basis that the country had failed to demonstrate that it was taking elephant management seriously.
After the reversal of the ban this week, an FWS Spokesperson reportedly told the Guardian: “Legal, well-regulated sport hunting as part of a sound management programme can benefit the conservation of certain species by providing incentives to local communities to conserve the species and by putting much-needed revenue back into conservation.”
The decision was said to be applauded by Safari Club International, a hunting rights group, and the National Rifle Association.
