Hunters who donate to Republicans given special permits to import lion trophies, report says

Hunters who have donated to Donald Trump and the Republican Party are being given special permits to import lion trophies, a new report has alleged.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service provided at least 33 Americans with permits to import 38 lion trophies between 2016 and 2018, according to copies of the applications received by the non-profit advocacy group Friends of Animals.

Those Americans include a major Republican fundraiser, a donor to Mr Trump's presidential campaign and another donor who supports Republican candidates and committees.

The Fish and Wildlife Service released a statement defending the lion trophy import permits after they were first reported by HuffPost, saying "Legal, well-regulated hunting as part of a sound management program can benefit the conservation of certain species by providing incentives to local communities to conserve the species and by putting much-needed revenue back into conservation."

An official with the Fish and Wildlife Service could not specify the number of permits from past years in an interview with The Independent, but suggested that there did not appear to be a significant increase in approved applications.

The report arrived as Mr Trump's White House continued efforts to roll back regulations on trophy imports and seemingly reduce the size and scope of federal conservation efforts.

The administration's recently proposed changes to the implementation of the Endangered Species Act were met with swift backlash from conservation groups, who accused the White House of signing a “death sentence for polar bears.” The changes would significantly alter the way the government determines regions of protected land for endangered species, foregoing a practice of saving land where an animal species could be expected to live if its population were to return to normal levels.

Under Mr Trump, the federal government has also changed the way it processes trophy import applications, agreeing to review each in a "case by case" basis. The government has also reversed bans on imports from African countries like Zambia and Zimbabwe, with the Fish and Wildlife Service claiming sport hunting in those regions would “enhance the survival of the species in the wild."

Priscilla Feral, president of Friends of Animals, said in a statement that trophy hunting "must expire" in order to save certain species from extinction.

"If African wildlife is to survive the next few decades in their homelands, these elephants, lions and other animals ― coveted by hunters for their strength and beauty ― must be worth more alive than dead," she said. "That means safeguarding habitat along with photographic safaris and ecotourism must outpace blood-drenched trophy hunting expeditions. Trophy hunting must expire and collapse from its own dead weight."