Real quick… can you sign this elephant petition?
Add your name to Environmental Action’s new elephant petition and urge Congress to pass lifesaving legislation for these beloved animals.
Africa’s elephants are dying. And at least one president on the continent says that President Donald Trump’s administration may be driving up the demand for elephant and lion hunting trophies in the United States.1
The Threat to Elephants
Africa’s elephants once numbered in the millions. Sadly, only an estimated 415,000 now remain in the wild. Scientists say these intensely loyal and intelligent creatures are recovering in some areas, but the rate of elephant deaths is still outpacing new births.2
Governments around the world are stepping up to reduce the poaching of and illegal trade in animal parts from such imperiled animals. Unfortunately, the Trump administration seems to be doing just the opposite.3
In March, the Trump administration eliminated the ban on elephant and lion hunt trophy imports. Since then, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke has stacked an advisory committee on the issue with representatives for trophy hunters.
Botswana President Ian Khama remarked:
I think that this administration is undermining our efforts and also encouraging poaching in the process because they are well aware of our laws that prohibit hunting in Botswana.”4
The ProTECT Act for Elephants
To save elephants, Environmental Action is calling on key Republican and Democratic leaders to hold committee hearings to advance the Prohibiting Threatened and Endangered Creature Trophies (ProTECT) Act.
This federal legislation would restore the US ban on hunting threatened or endangered species or importing tusks, hides, and other trophies from elephants, lions and other threatened or endangered species that have been killed outside the US.5
Sign the Elephant Petition
You can help save the lives of African elephants and other threatened and endangered animals. Urge leaders in the US Congress and Senate to support the ProTECT Act to reinstate the US ban on importing hunting trophies from imperiled African elephants.
Add your name to this petition. We will personally deliver your comments to the lawmakers responsible for ensuring this elephant- and lion-saving legislation gets an up-or-down vote in Congress.
Human-caused habitat loss and poaching are driving African elephants to extinction. Taking this small step is the very least we can do to save them. Please take action for elephants now.
- Staff, “Botswana’s Ian Khama accuses Trump of ‘encouraging’ elephant poaching,” Agence France Presse, March 17, 2018.
- Christopher Torchia, “Battle to save Africa’s elephants is gaining some ground,” The Associated Press, April 13, 2018.
- Rachel Nuwer, “U.S. Lifts Ban on Some Elephant and Lion Trophies,” The New York Times, March 7, 2018.
- Staff, “Botswana’s Ian Khama accuses Trump of ‘encouraging’ elephant poaching,” Agence France Presse, March 17, 2018.
- Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, “H.R.5690 – ProTECT Act of 2018,” Congress.gov, May 7, 2018.