|
Hi John,
Even while the pandemic was raging, trophy hunters traveled abroad to kill imperiled giraffes — among the world's most beloved and iconic creatures.
Rare and vanishing wildlife isn't room decor, and we're fighting to stop it from being treated that way.
Please help with a gift to the Saving Life on Earth Fund.
In 2020 alone more than 400 giraffe specimens were imported into the United States — only slightly down from a yearly 500-plus before the pandemic began.
New data just obtained by the Center — after we sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to release it — show that between 2016 and 2020, more than 700,000 hunting trophies were brought into the United States.
This gruesome tally includes mounts, skulls, wings, feet, skins and teeth. In addition to giraffes, hunters imported more than 260 trophies of near-threatened southern white rhinos, along with wallabies, zebras, porcupines, birds and even lizards.
U.S. giraffe trophy imports steadily increased over the five years leading up to the pandemic, then slightly decreased. But trophy hunters kept traveling while most of us were quarantining — and in 2020 zebra trophy imports almost doubled.
We need to save the precious animals we share our landscapes with, not kill them for pelts or to hang up on walls.
We're already in court to secure federal protection for giraffes. And we're pressing the Biden administration to end trophy hunt imports of endangered species once and for all, making such imports illegal.
The extinction crisis demands we do all we can to protect species. We must put an end to Americans' barbaric, colonialist practice of killing imperiled wildlife across the globe for sport and trade.
Endangered species deserve to live free in the wild, not be shot dead for thrills or ego.
Please help with a gift now to the Saving Life on Earth Fund.
For the wild,
|
