November 3, 2021, Humane Society International / United States

Shocking undercover investigation exposes auction house of horrors where over 550 hunting trophies are sold to the highest bidder
Animal feet, skulls, legs, ears, claws, bones, hides and full body taxidermy, including threatened and endangered species, show the pitiful results of the trophy hunting industry!!

Animal feet, skulls, legs, ears, claws, bones, hides and full body taxidermy, including threatened and endangered species, show the pitiful results of the trophy hunting industry!

WASHINGTON—A shocking undercover investigation recently conducted in Iowa by the Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society International found what can only be described as a massive garbage bin of the trophy hunting industry.

A four-day event where thousands of animals—including at least 557 hunting trophies of mammals no longer wanted by the people who killed them—were sold to the highest bidders.
Shelves and bins were packed with discarded trophies including threatened and endangered species like elephants and polar bears, other imperiled foreign species like giraffes and hippos, and countless trophies of American wildlife like grizzly bears, black bears and mountain lions.

Auction items included grotesque home décor such as tables and lamps made from giraffe legs and feet, tables made from African elephant feet and a juvenile giraffe taxidermy.

The auction also included at least 50 rugs made from animals including black bears, grizzly bears, zebras, wolves and mountain lions. The investigator saw piles of giraffe leg bones, sets of hippo teeth and a dusty box labeled “elephant ears and skin.”

Kitty Block, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States, said: “It is unconscionable that not only are these threatened and endangered species of wild animals killed by trophy hunters, but the souvenirs from these hunts are ultimately mothballed and sold off at a fairground full of unwanted animal body parts.
This massive display of animal death is a devastating snapshot of what it looks like when species are being pushed to the brink of extinction.”

Continue reading “US-Iowa: A four-day event of hunting industry with 557 hunting trophies” →

Decision could spare hundreds of wolves scheduled to be killed.

In the best news yet for wolf conservation in the United States in 2021, a Wisconsin court issued an injunction on 10/22/2021 requiring the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to lower the quota for the upcoming wolf trophy hunt that to begin on November 6th to zero wolves.

MADISON, Wis. — A judge on Friday halted Wisconsin’s fall wolf season two weeks before hunters were set to take to the woods, siding with wildlife advocacy groups who argued that holding the hunt would be unconstitutional.

Dane County Circuit Judge Jacob Frost issued a temporary injunction halting the season, which was set to begin Nov. 6. The order comes as part of a lawsuit that a coalition of wildlife advocacy groups filed in August seeking to stop the hunt and invalidate a state law authorizing annual seasons.

Among other things, the coalition argued that the season is illegal because the Department of Natural Resources hasn’t updated its regulations setting up season parameters and has been relying on an emergency rule put in place shortly after then.

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Cov. Scott Walker signed a law in 2012 authorizing annual seasons and a wolf management plan that hasn’t been updated since 2007.

Frost said the law creating the wolf season is constitutional on its face, but that the DNR failed to create permanent regulations enacting it.
The law gives the DNR great leeway in setting kill limits, hunting zone hours and the number of licenses making it all the more important that the department following the regulatory process to ensure it doesn’t violate the separation of powers between the legislative and executive branches, Frost said.

“I’m not overruling the wolf hunt law. In fact, I’m saying it has to be enforced as it was written and intended,” Frost said.
“The DNR is currently not following the law or following the constitution. Its decisions are built on a faulty basis, meaning they can’t stand, either.”

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The judge said the injunction will remain in place until the DNR implements updated regulations on determining quotas and the number of licenses it issues and updates its wolf management plan with new wolf population goals for the state
Hannah Jurss, an assistant attorney general representing the DNR in the case, asked Frost to stay his ruling pending appeal, calling his ruling “unquestionably a dramatic decision.” (!!!)

Frost refused!

Continue reading “US-Wisconsin: “the Department of Natural Resources have to obey the law.”” →