NZ hunts may fund pro-trophy hunt lobbying in U.S

Slaughter of 64 New Zealand mammals to raise American hunting group $530,000 for anti-wildlife agenda

Safari Club International convention in Las Vegas includes New Zealand hunts that may fund pro-trophy hunt lobbying in U.S

(31st January 2017)—According to the auction website of a trophy hunt convention hosted this week by Safari Club International (SCI) in Las Vegas, the lives of nearly 1,000 mammals will be auctioned off in global hunts valued at over US$5.3 million dollars, including 26 auction items for the killing of 64 mammals in New Zealand. The New Zealand hunts are valued at $530,000, with many other mammals offered as “upgrades” for an additional cost.

Nearly 25,000 hunters are expected to attend and bid on trips to kill a polar bear in Canada, elephants in Namibia, giraffe, hippopotamus and zebra in South Africa as well as species threatened with extinction such as rhino, lion, and leopard. In New Zealand the lives of red deer, fallow deer, Himalayan tahr, ram, goat, chamois, Arapawa ram, sika deer, rusa, sambar, and elk are on offer. Although the species offered for the kill are not native to New Zealand, trophy hunting of these animals is extremely profitable for outfitters thus providing a perverse incentive to maintain these animals in abundant numbers.

All profits from these New Zealand-based trophy hunts will go toward funding SCI. SCI is one of the world’s largest trophy hunting advocacy groups, and this annual auction is one of the ways it raises considerable funds (generating US$14.4 million for SCI in 2015) to actively lobby against measures that would increase protection for threatened species. For example, earlier this year SCI filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in defense of aerial hunting and other inhumane predator-killing practices on refuges in Alaska.

SCI also financially supports U.S. political action committees (super PAC) like the Hunter Defense Fund which works to elect pro-trophy hunting politicians. According to SCI, 94% of SCI-PAC supported candidates emerged victorious in the 2014 U.S. Congressional election.

Sons of U.S. President Donald Trump – Donald Jr. and Eric – are both avid trophy hunters and images of their African safari kills angered conservationists and wildlife-lovers. The influence SCI will have in Trump’s Department of the Interior that manages natural resources, especially with the influx of millions of dollars from its Las Vegas convention, will likely be significant in the coming years.

Masha Kalinina, International Trade Policy Specialist at the Wildlife Department of Humane Society International said: “We are worried that with the new U.S. administration in power, pro-trophy hunting advocacy groups like SCI will have undue negative influence on key wildlife conservation issues. This is why it’s troubling that the lives of innocent New Zealand mammals are helping finance this agenda far across the globe.

It’s time to bust the myth that killing for kicks helps conservation in any significant way at all, it simply doesn’t. New Zealand outfitters have every reason to ensure non-native species stick around, its big business for them. And by allowing hunters to pay to shoot deer on New Zealand soil, New Zealand is boosting the coffers of a powerful U.S. organization that threatens global wildlife. The New Zealand public should be seriously concerned.”

Some of the most shocking SCI auction items this year:

• A Canadian polar bear (hunt valued at USD $72,000) - polar bears are threatened by climate change and unsustainable hunting

• Two Namibian elephants (hunts valued at USD $25,000 and USD $35,000) - elephants are facing a poaching crisis

• Eight African leopards (hunts valued between USD $16,500 and USD $81,400, some combined with other species) - leopards are threatened with extinction, recently moved from Near Threatened status to Vulnerable (2016)

• New Zealand big game trophy hunt auction items range between US$6,100 and US$92,000.

• Some of the New Zealand trophy hunts offer canned hunting, a practice in which wild animals are shot in fenced enclosures without any ability to escape. For example, the outfitter Wilderness Quest says that “[o]ur hunting options range from the most prestigious and famous tahr hunting private properties in New Zealand to the wildest and most remote of all tahr hunting areas, the West Coast wilderness.” See hunt here.

• All auctions may be viewed here: http://www.onlinehuntingauctions.com/2017-Safari-Club-International-Live-Auction_as45768
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Humane Society International is calling on European citizens to oppose callous killing of wildlife for entertainment by signing a pledge to end trophy hunting and donate to this cause on the HSI website.

Watch HSI's footage from the undercover investigation of the 2016 Safari Club International convention here.

ENDS

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