Following the highly publicized accidental killing of a lion some years ago the Obama administration put a ban on the importation of animal trophies, in an attempt to discourage African trophy hunters. A few days ago, President Trump seemed poised to reverse an Obama era ban on the importation of big game trophies. Now it looks like Trump may allow that restriction to remain in place. The President even went as far as to call trophy hunting a “horror show.”
Big-game trophy decision will be announced next week but will be very hard pressed to change my mind that this horror show in any way helps conservation of Elephants or any other animal.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 19, 2017
As I pointed out when I first raised the possibility that President Trump would delay the pro-big game hunting decision, the practice is considered a benefit by anyone with an actual functional understanding of the realities of wildlife conservation.
Trophy hunting provides the cash necessary to keep game preserves and conservation efforts up and running. Without the money many endangered species would be poached to extinction . . .
It removes problematic aging elephants who would otherwise terrorize the herd and prevent mating, provides cash to pay the employees of the wildlife preserves, and provides a legal means for hunting animals for those who absolutely feel the need to go shoot something big and dangerous.
The problem is that this reality doesn’t fit into a five-word sound bite. “Don’t shoot defenseless animals” sounds much better. And so low information voters never get educated about the reality of the situation.
Despite the Trump sons being avid hunters and supporters of trophy hunting, it seems that President Trump has adopted that same line of thinking. Based on this tweet it looks like the trophy ban will remain in place for the foreseeable future. I wonder how the NRA will respond come election time . . .