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“The vast volume of hunting trophies pouring into the United States represents a massive exploitation of wildlife during a global extinction crisis.”

U.S. hunting trophy imports: 2016-2020. Credit: Tanya Sanerib, Center for Biological Diversity.

Excerpt from this story from Nation of Change:

Trophy trade from United States hunters was on a rise from 2016 to 2020 with more than 700,000 trophies taken from numerous animals from around the globe. Including mounts, skills, skin, and teeth, data showed a steady and sizeable annual increase in trophy trade.

The data is called the LEMIS data because it is generated by the Law Enforcement Management and Information System and “includes basic information about U.S. wildlife imports and exports,” according to a press release from the Center for Biological Diversity. It was release in conjunction with a lawsuit by the Center filed by Harvard Law School’s Animal Law & Policy Clinic last fall.

“The vast volume of hunting trophies pouring into the United States represents a massive exploitation of wildlife during a global extinction crisis,” Tanya Sanerib, international legal director at the Center, said. “Giraffes, rhinos and other imperiled animals are gunned down for trophies, along with animals from wallabies, zebras and porcupines to birds and lizards.”

While giraffes were assessed as “vulnerable” to extinction in 2016 by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, 554 giraffe trophies were imported into the U.S. in 2019 and in 436 giraffe trophies in 2020, according to the Center.

“While most people in the United States were on lockdown, with many living paycheck to paycheck, elite trophy hunters were still jet-setting around to kill wildlife for skins, skulls, mounts, bones, wings, teeth and feet,” Sanerib said. “These types of revelations from the LEMIS data will be key to fighting human-caused extinctions and future pandemics, and we can’t wait to have a full data set.”

While the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is now releasing data for imports from individuals post-2015, it is expected to make data on imports by companies public at the end of the month. Many call the information “unique and invaluable” for conservationists, scientists and members of the media and are urging the Biden administration to closely look at the data, according to the Center.

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