As the result of an assault by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and Friends of Animals on a rule exempting captive U.S. members of three antelope species from Endangered Species Act (ESA) prohibitions, those three species are now in jeopardy. While HSUS and Friends of Animals celebrate a success in court, the ramifications of their empty victory have undermined conservation efforts for these species in the United States.
Although scimitar-horned oryx, dama gazelle and addax have either disappeared, or all but disappeared, in their home ranges in Northern Africa, captive herds of the species have been thriving on ranches here in the United States, in great part due to the ranchers’ ability to sell, trade, breed, and allow hunting of members of these captive populations without ESA restriction. The scimitar-horned oryx is in fact extinct in the wild. But the freedom to manage these three species has encouraged private owners to raise large herds, and these animals now number in the thousands in the United States.
Although the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the three species as endangered in 2005, at the same time the agency adopted a rule that exempted captive members of the three species in the United States from ordinary ESA restrictions. With approval from the Fish and Wildlife Service, ranchers have been able to allow hunting within the herds they manage.
HSUS and Friends of Animals filed suit to challenge that rule. Their goal was to prevent the hunting of individual animals, regardless of the cost to the species as a whole. They did not succeed. On June 22, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia did not find that hunting of these species was illegal and rejected the antis’ assertions that hunting in the United States encouraged poaching or brought any other harm to members of the species outside of the U.S. The court also dismissed the animal rights groups’ allegations that they were in any way harmed by the hunting of the species in the United States.
The court ruled in the two groups’ favor on only a single issue. The judge decided that the ESA does not allow a blanket exemption to endangered species prohibitions, and that those who wish to hunt or otherwise conduct activities that amount to a “taking” of these three antelope species must apply for an individual enhancement of survival permit from the Fish and Wildlife Service. The judge ruled that because the permit applications must be published in the Federal Register, the notice of the application makes it possible for individuals and groups to comment on the proposed activities.
Safari Club International intervened in the case supporting the Fish and Wildlife Service.
“Everyone is waiting to see what the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will do,” said Susan Recce, NRA-ILA’s Director of Wildlife, Conservation and Natural Resources. “The agency has the authority to come up with some permit system that is between a blanket exemption and the ‘taking’ requirements of ESA. Worth underscoring is that these three species of antelope are nearly extinct in the wild, but thriving on Texas ranches.”
Phone calls to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service asking if any determination had been made on how a permit system would work were not immediately returned.
However, it’s plausible that the judge’s ruling forecasts the end to the system that has allowed the three species to increase in the United States. The additional bureaucracy and delays introduced by the application and Federal Register notice procedures will make it more difficult and more expensive for ranchers to raise these animals. More likely than not, ranchers with existing herds will no longer wish to raise and breed these animals if it is no longer economically feasible to do so. Fewer and fewer ranchers will keep their herds and as a result, the next few years will see a dramatic decline in the number of herds and ultimately the number of animals in the U.S.
HSUS and Friends of Animals are busy patting themselves on the back over their “victory” in the courts. Ironically, there is no victory for anyone. HSUS and Friends of Animals did not succeed in making hunting of scimitar-horned oryx, dama gazelle and addax illegal. They only succeeded in sabotaging an amazing conservation effort for these three species.
