Trump may help US Fish and Wildlife Association to circumvent law on trophy hunting
By Alex Lloyd Gross
A very small minority of people in the United States like to trophy hunt. They think it’s fun and it makes them feel good about themselves. They enjoy killing large animals for sport. Trophy hunting works like this” The individual goes to a different country, pays a large fee and is taken to a place where animals are penned up with no where to go. They are allowed to kill one animal and it’s head is cut off. They then import that head back after it is stuffed. They hang it on their wall and feel proud of what they had done.
About five years ago, Walter Palmer, a dentist from Minnesota paid $50,000 and killed a beloved lion named Cecil. Palmer had death threats against him , his building was vandalized, he had to hire security at great expense and saw his dental practice fall apart. The country was outraged and new regulations were put in place to insure this does not happen again.
It was announced that the US Fish and Wildlife Association wants to circumvent and circumnavigate those measures and allow hunters to bring in the heads of slaughtered animals, in spite of what public sentiment is. What has the majority of the population in an uproar, is the fact they want to do it in secret. The DC Circuit court erroneously ruled that when Obama administration ruled this behavior illegal, they allegedly failed to adhere to the Administrative Procedure Act.
President Trump said he would let stand the protections enacted by President Obama, Now the US Fish and Wildlife Agency wants to rule on importing on a case by case basis, which is essentially ruling in secret. No one will know about the rulings. There is no provision for public sentiment or comment. President Trump waffled on the issue, before falling in the majority, of supporting a ban on trophy hunting. He now appears to be for it. He is going to decide on allowing the imports to continue very shortly. This issue alone could be a deciding factor in 2020. Should he let this stand, he could be easily defeated by an inferior candidate in 2020.
Trump’s children like to engage in Trophy hunting and Trump has not taken a kind view of animals. This is not the first time that the Federal Bench got a ruling wrong. At times, it appears the justices have slept through arguments, or law school, when an appeals or higher court ruled against them on every level.
The vast majority of people in the United States are opposed to trophy hunting and some psychologists view those that like to engage in this behavior as people with “small person syndrome”, and have little or no elf esteem. They see themselves as bigger and more superior to others when they kill a larger animal. If you put those same people into an environment where an opponent has a fair advantage in a fight, they run or are beaten badly.