Fox’s Ingraham rips Trump for ending ban on elephant trophies

Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Thursday ripped the decision by the Trump administration to lift the ban on importing elephant trophies from Africa.

“I don’t understand how this move by @realDonaldTrump Admin will not INCREASE the gruesome poaching of elephants. Stay tuned,” Ingraham tweeted Thursday morning.

I don’t understand how this move by @realDonaldTrump Admin will not INCREASE the gruesome poaching of elephants. Stay tuned. https://t.co/KqizmlgaGg

— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) November 16, 2017

The Trump administration is reversing an Obama administration ban on bringing to the U.S. the heads of elephants killed in two African countries.

{mosads}

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) said it has determined that hunting African elephants in Zimbabwe and Zambia “will enhance the survival of the species in the wild,” which is the standard by which officials judge whether to allow imports of parts — known as trophies — of the animals.

“Legal, well-regulated sport 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 FWS spokesman said in a statement late Wednesday, after hunting group Safari Club International announced the policy.

Imports will be allowed for elephants killed between Jan. 21 and the end of 2018.

The ban’s reversal is part of an effort by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, whose department includes FWS, to promote hunting.

“Some of my best memories are hunting and fishing with my dad and granddad, and then later teaching my own kids to hunt and fish. That’s something I want more families to experience,” Zinke said in a September statement in which he announced that the arcade game Big Buck Hunter would be temporarily installed in the department’s headquarters.