On July 31, 2003 U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler dismissed a lawsuit brought two years ago by the Fund for Animals aimed at stopping the importation of threatened sheep from abroad.
The case centered around Argali sheep which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service classifies as endangered in every country except Mongolia, where it is listed as threatened. Since it is listed only as threatened rather than endangered, hunters in the United States have been travelling to Mongolia to hunt the animals and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been issuing permits allowing hunters to import the carcasses of the animals they kill back into the United States.
The Fund for Animals sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service arguing that this practice was a violation of the Endangered Species Act. The lawsuit claimed that the USFWS was violating its own rules by allowing a proposed rule for dealing with the import of argali to stay in effect for a decade, and that the argali sheep should be listed as endangered rather than threatened.
As Michael Markarian said in a Fund press release in April 2002,
It is unconscionable that hundreds of animals in this imperiled species have been killed simply so wealthy American trophy hunters can add more heads to their collections. The USFWS has acted illegally and irresponsibly by granting hundreds of import permits, by not soliciting public comment, and by leaving this proposed rule in limbo while the argali population continues to decline.
If the lawsuit had been successful it could potentially have affected other international game hunts, but Judge Gladys Kessler ruled that the Fund and other plaintiffs lacked standing to bring the lawsuit. In addition Kessler ruled that even if they had standing, the Fund and other groups failed to demonstrate they would likely succeed on the merits of their case saying that the plaintiffs,
. . . failed to meet their burden of demonstrating that those choices, which can only be made by the governments of Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia and Tajikistan, have been or will be made in such a manner as to reduce the sport hunting and killing of argali.
In fact there is evidence that when the United States previously banned imports from Tajikistan, the government did not limit sport hunting, and the killing of argali continued by virtue of non-U.S> citizens and increased poaching.
Sources:
Anti-hunters dealt legal setback. New York Post, August 10, 2003.
Hunt and protect? Amanda Onion, ABCNews.Com, May 7, 2003.
SCI wins major victory for hunters. Arizona Outdoorsman, August 7, 2003.
Court Rules in Favor of Imperiled Argali Sheep. Press Release, Fund for Animals, April 4, 2002.