Sorry, Importing Polar Bear Heads from Canada is Still Illegal

The US Fish and Wildlife Service rejected an attempt by trophy hunters to re-allow shipments of polar bear parts from countries where it is legal to kill the embattled species.

The Humane Society of the United States lobbied the agency hard against the proposed reopening of the trade. The animals are listed as a threatened species in the United States, but other countries still allow the bears to be hunted.

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“We are grateful to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and the Fish and Wildlife Service for rejecting the Orwellian argument that we can only save rare and declining polar bear populations by shooting them,” said Michael Markarian, executive vice president of The HSUS. “Federal law prohibits the sport hunting of polar bears within our own borders, and we shouldn’t abet the commercial killing of polar bears in other countries for nothing more than a headhunting exercise.”

Trophy hunters were allowed to import polar bear parts from 1994 until 2008, but once the bears were listed in the Endangered Species Action, the trade was automatically banned. The Safari Club, a trophy hunting organization that keeps a record book of trophy hunts that includes many endangered species.

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