Summary: The International Wildlife Conservation Council exists solely to approve permits to trophy hunters who want to import the body parts of animals they have killed abroad.

Personal story: During the summer of 2015, Cecil the lion, a truly magnificent and beloved animal in the Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe, was hunted down and killed by American dentist Walter Palmer. In October of 2018, Idaho Fish and Game Commissioner Blake Fischer used bow and arrow to murder an entire family of baboons along with over a dozen other animals during a hunting trip in Namibia. I was gratified to learn that the governor of Idaho fired Fischer from his position shortly after a media storm engulfed both Fischer and the governor's office. In 2012, California’s Fish and Game Commission ousted its president, Daniel W. Richards, amid uproar over his killing of a mountain lion in Idaho. Critics said it raised questions about his suitability for the post in California, where lion hunting is illegal. Clearly, the American public does not approve of government officials, who enjoy positions of authority over wildlife, to decimate animals during their free time. And clearly, the Trump administration has filled the "swamp" to the brim with human waste of those whose self-interest profits at the expense of the American public and the animals of other countries.

The issue: The Trump administration has reversed an Obama era policy disallowing trophy hunters to import the bodies of their animal victims back to the US. The Obama Administration believed that without the ability to display their "kills" in their homes and offices, it would be less likely that US citizens would make the effort and spend the money hunting and killing animals, many of whom are endangered species. As they have done with many Obama era policies, the Trump Administration has not only tossed this policy, but has created the International Wildlife Conservation Council whose duties include advising the agency chief on removing barriers to importing legally hunted wildlife, streamlining the permitting process and reviewing import bans ― and in some cases lifting those prohibitions. Steven Chancellor, an Indiana coal executive who raised more than $1 million for President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, sits on this council, appointed by Ryan Zinke. In a serious conflict of interest, Chancellor has obtained permits to import the heads and hides of at least three male lions from Africa. Representing him in his effort to obtain the permit was Conservation Force, a trophy-hunting advocacy group and law firm based in Louisiana. The nonprofit’s president, John J. Jackson III, is also on Zinke’s advisory hunting council. African lions were listed under the Endangered Species Act in 2015. The International Wildlife Conservation Council is stacked with trophy hunters and gun advocates. The purpose of this committee is specifically designed to assist the interests of wealthy hunters at the expense of conservation and more specifically the animals whose lives are at risk.

Take action! Please sign this petition urging US Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to dissolve the International Wildlife Conservation Council which has shown itself to have a serious conflict of interest as its members act in their own self-interest while the interests of wildlife and the American public are willfully ignored.