Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Summer 2022

Abstract

On May 22, 2019, Botswana decided after many years to lift its ban on hunting elephants and in February 2020 held its first auctions for the right to hunt elephants. This turnaround change in their law coincides with a rapidly changing legal landscape in the United States related to the practice of trophy hunting of rare, intelligent animals, including elephants. This Article analyzes the fluid legal landscape surrounding this uncommon form of hunting of rare animals and possible ways of using the Administrative Procedures Act and the Federal Advisory Committee Act as a means of challenging the government’s rapidly changing position. This Article also explores the legal status of rare animals in the context of our property rights and humanity’s cultural heritage, urges Congress to take action to limit this form of hunting, and ends by offering both international trophy hunters and conservationists alike four innovative and practical solutions to consider. In December 2021, the British government announced a ban on importing hunting trophies of rare animals into the UK; the United States government should do likewise in 2022.

Comments

Texas Tech Law Review, Vol. 54, Issue 4 (Summer 2022), pp. 709-754

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