Briefs Filed Defending Polar Bear "Trophy" Import Ban

On behalf of HSUS, Defenders of Wildlife, and IFAW, on Friday we filed two briefs in the D.C. Circuit defending the Fish and Wildlife Service's (FWS) denial of U.S. sport-hunters' applications to import polar bear "trophies" from Canada.  Once the polar bear was listed under the Endangered Species Act in 2008, the FWS stopped granting these permits, but sport-hunters filed several lawsuits claiming imports should continue despite the ongoing destruction of the species' sea-ice habitat due to climate change.  The district court upheld the import ban, and the sport-hunters have appealed.  The appeals will be decided next year.