Bush Administration Set to Gut Endangered Species Act on Behalf of U.S. Circus, Zoo, Trophy Hunting and Aquarium Industries

August 18, 2003

Letters are urgently needed from across the U.S. and around the world to oppose a proposal by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to water down protections for endangered species. Citing specific facts, information or experts on why this is a bad proposal would be helpful.

The FWS has proposed to make it legal to allow circuses, zoos, trophy hunting operations and others to be able to buy endangered species (dead and alive) from range countries. This upside-down policy basically says that killing or selling endangered animals will help to fund "conservation." The reality is that change in policy will encourage poaching and the trade of endangered animals and will do nothing to protect any animals.

Below are talking points and background information.

The FWS proposal can be read at:
http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/14mar20010800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2003/03-20941.htm

Your letters are urgently needed before October 17 to stop the FWS from rolling back the clock on endangered species protection.

Capitulating to intense lobbying efforts by the zoo, circus and trophy hunting industries, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) is attempting to significantly weaken the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Its recently-published "Draft Policy for Enhancement-of-Survival Permits for Foreign Species Listed Under the Endangered Species Act" would essentially allow zoos and circuses to buy exotic endangered species, such as Asian elephants, by simply claiming that the money spent to purchase the animals would be used for "conservation" efforts.

Similarly, the proposed policy change would allow the FWS to issue permits to trophy hunters who wish to gun down endangered species, such as the Canadian wood bison, if they claim that the animals are from a "managed population" where conservation measures are in place. It would also allow the import of endangered animal parts, such as the skins of endangered crocodiles, if similar claims were made.

This proposed policy change represents a major gutting of the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA). If the captive display industry and the hunting lobby get its way, animals endangered in foreign lands will no longer be protected from harm and exploitation by commercial interests in the United States.

Comments on this disastrous policy are due October 17.

It is critical that we flood the administrative record with comments opposing this change. Please write today and get your friends and family to write as well.

Talking points are provided below, but please personalize your comments as much as possible. For example, are you a mother concerned with preserving endangered species for your children and grandchildren? Are you a teacher with students concerned about preservation of endangered species? Do you work in the tourism industry that will be hurt by the accelerated demise of endangered species like elephants and leopards? Please let the government know your personal connection to these issues.

Please write today!

Chief, Division of Management Authority
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
4401 N. Fairfax Dr., Rm. 700
Arlington, VA 22203
703-358-2093
703-358-2280 (fax)
ManagementAuthority@fws.gov

Reference your opposition to the "Draft Policy for Enhancement-of-Survival Permits for Foreign Species Listed Under the Endangered Species Act" 68 Fed. Reg. 49512 (August 18, 2003). Again, comments are due by October 17, 2003.

Background

Congress passed the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1973, to protect animals facing extinction in the wild. Recognizing that endangered species "are keys to puzzles which we cannot solve, and may provide answers to questions we have not yet learned to ask," Congress passed this law, not only to "see that this situation is not permitted to worsen," but also to "reverse the trend toward extinction, whatever the cost."

The ESA prohibits the capture, import, sale, and killing of endangered species without a permit from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Parties requesting permits must demonstrate that their proposed activity enhances the survival of the species in the wild and that the animals will not be used primarily for commercial purposes. In effect, the law largely prevents zoos and circuses from importing endangered foreign species for the purpose of caging them and training them to perform for human entertainment. It also protects endangered species from trophy hunters.

This proposed policy change would reverse those protections and open the pipeline for zoos and circuses to "restock" their collections with highly endangered animals like the Asian elephant and the giant panda. It would also allow trophy hunters to aim their sights on endangered animals that have been off-limits since the passage of the ESA. It would also allow endangered animal parts to flood U.S. markets and show up in American stores as items like shoes and handbags.
Any party that wants to "take" an endangered species has merely to claim that the money they pay to capture or kill an elephant, leopard, crocodile or other endangered animal, will be used by the range country for "conservation" purposes. No criteria are provided to define the parameters for adequate conservation programs, and no enforcement mechanisms are suggested to ensure that money used to buy endangered species is actually spent on conservation of that species in the wild. Any country or private reserve, therefore, can make such claims, whether or not they are based in reality.
If this policy passes, the floodgates will open for the commercial trade in endangered animals, hastening their demise in the wild and turning back the clock by 30 years on protections for these species.

The threat is real. There are only 1,000 giant pandas left in the wild, yet Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas has announced its desire to import two pandas to use as a curiosity display to amuse customers at its casino. According to an August 2001 Salon.com article entitled "The Greatest Vendetta on Earth," Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus hired a "disgraced, suave, former CIA chief of covert operations [...] to work on Œinternational‚ duties, including the acquisition of a Chinese panda for a circus act." The American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA), which sets animal-care standards for the zoo industry, permits accredited zoos to keep elephants in outdoor enclosures that measure just 40 feet by 45 feet and to train them with cruel and barbaric bullhooks.

While all animals deserve protection, whether they are endangered or not, the special laws in place to protect endangered species must at least remain intact or, even better, be strengthened. Please write today!

Talking Points:
• Congress passed the Endangered Species Act in 1973 not only to prevent the crisis facing endangered animals from worsening, but also to reverse the trend toward extinction, whatever the cost. Weakening this law by fueling the international trade in endangered species puts these animals in great peril and violates the intent of the lawmakers who created this law.

• The FWS has no jurisdiction to ensure that the money used to purchase endangered species will be spent on conservation efforts in foreign countries (the animals‚ native lands). Therefore it is inappropriate and potentially illegal for the FWS, to dictate how monies will be pent abroad as a condition for issuance of U.S. permits. In addition, the FWS has failed to clearly define "conservation," and has previously demonstrated a very low standard for defining "conservation" measures in the U.S.

• The "Draft Policy" will promote breeding or capturing endangered species in their native lands for the purpose of selling them to U.S. zoos, circuses, shoe manufacturers, trophy hunters, or virtually any other cruel industry that will pay for them. In fact, this FWS action provides absolutely no incentive for countries to protect endangered animals when they can make money by selling them to U.S. businesses.

• The "Draft Policy" does not recognize that animals need to be treated as individuals rather than "specimens." This is especially important for social animals such as elephants and primates, since removing them from the wild has a huge negative impact on the remaining populations as well as the individual animals themselves.

• Nearly all captive elephants in zoos and circuses today were captured in the wild. Captivity is documented to be detrimental to elephants, and other exotic animals‚, well being. Elephants kept in captivity breed poorly and have excessive health problems associated with the confinement of captivity. The numbers of captive Asian elephants is rapidly declining as they die off. The "Draft Policy" will open the floodgates for more Asian elephants to be captured and imported to replenish captive "stock." Elephants are subject to so much abuse in captivity˜beatings, intense confinement, and loneliness˜and should be phased out of circuses and zoos.

• If the FWS wants to provide incentives for range countries to protect species and habitat; there are a host of alternatives to making it profitable for those countries to sell those animals the government ostensibly seeks to protect. For example, FWS can lobby to tighten up protections under CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna), enhance international enforcement tools, and expand grants for habitat protection.

• This proposed policy change would have tremendous impacts on the environment and conservation of species; therefore, under the National Environmental Policy Act, a full Environmental Impact Statement must be prepared before this "policy" is enacted.