Center for
Biologicla Diversity
December 2018
This lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, D.C, comes weeks after the International Union for the Conservation of Nature updated its assessment of Africa’s giraffes, reaffirming the species is “vulnerable” to extinction and classifying two subspecies as “critically endangered.”
Tanya Sanerib, Center for Biological Diversity
Conservation groups today sued the Trump administration for failing
to consider protections for Africa’s rapidly dwindling giraffe population
under the Endangered Species Act.
Today’s lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, D.C, comes weeks
after the International Union for the Conservation of Nature updated its
assessment of Africa’s giraffes, reaffirming the species is “vulnerable” to
extinction and classifying two subspecies as “critically endangered.”
The suit challenges the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s refusal to act on
an April 2017 petition seeking Endangered Species Act protection for
giraffes. The agency was required to respond within 90 days, but 19 months
have passed without action.
“Giraffes capture our imaginations from childhood on, but many people don’t
realize how few are left in the wild,” said Tanya Sanerib, international
legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Instead of throwing
these unique animals a lifeline under the Endangered Species Act, Trump
officials are twiddling their thumbs. Trump will be to blame if future
generations know giraffes only as toys and not the long-necked icons of
Africa.”
Fewer than 100,000 giraffes remain in the wild, and the population dropped
nearly 40 percent over the past three decades. The species is gravely
imperiled by habitat loss, civil unrest, and illegal hunting for meat, and
is also threatened by the international trade in bone carvings, skins and
trophies.
Anna Frostic, managing wildlife attorney for the Humane Society of the
United States and Humane Society International, said: “The United States
cannot stand idly by and allow thousands of U.S. imports of giraffe parts
every year without any regulation while these animals are on a path to
extinction. It is time that the United States stands tall for giraffes and
gives this at-risk species the protection that it urgently needs.”
Endangered Species Act protection would help track and curb imports of
giraffe bones, trophies and other parts and increase funding for
conservation efforts in Africa. On average the United States imports more
than one giraffe hunting trophy a day, and the country imported more than
21,400 giraffe-bone carvings between 2006 and 2015.
“The Trump administration would rather allow its rich donors to mount
giraffe trophies on their walls than protect giraffes,” said Elly Pepper,
deputy director of NRDC’s Wildlife Trade Initiative. “Giraffes are headed
toward extinction, in part due to our country’s importation of giraffe parts
and trophies. It’s shameful — though unsurprising — that the Interior
Department has refused to protect them under the Endangered Species Act and
I hope the courts will agree.”
The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., by the Center
for Biological Diversity, Humane Society International, Humane Society of
the United States and Natural Resources Defense Council.
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