Urge FWS to Deny Animal Abuser Permit to Import and Export & Rescind Generic Tiger Exemption

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1. Urge FWS to Deny Animal Abuser Permit to Import and Export Tigers

2. Repost – Help Protect All Tigers Under the ESA: Sample Letter

1. BACKGROUND | FROM PETA

The Hawthorn Corporation has accumulated $200,000 in U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) penalties for willful violations of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) as well as thousands of dollars in fines relating to other settlements. The USDA has even suspended Hawthorn’s exhibitor’s license twiceand ordered the company to relinquish custody of 16 elephants. Hawthorn’s long history of AWA violations includes physically abusing elephants, causing physical harm to elephants, and failing to provide veterinary care to elephants, including both an emaciated elephant and an elephant with severe chemical burns. The USDA has also cited Hawthorn multiple times for cruelly confining tigers to transport cages—sometimes for months at a time—and numerous tigers have met with untimely deaths in the neglectful hands of Hawthorn handlers. The USDA also has an open investigation into Hawthorn. Despite its abysmal track record, Hawthorn is currently requesting government approval to export and import seven endangered tigers and their future offspring.

Hawthorn claims that the tigers will be used for “conservation education,” but the company has failed to provide any evidence that it will do anything other than cruelly display these animals for commercial entertainment. Experts agree that keeping tigers in captivity negatively impacts conservation efforts for wild animals, citing public confusion about what tigers are and the serious threats they face.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has the authority to deny this misleading permit request, and the agency wants to hear from you. Public input will be accepted until the end of the day on September 16. This input is extremely important to officials—it influences them when they are determining their course of action. These tigers need you to speak up for them now! Please ask the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to deny Hawthorn’s misleading application to export and import endangered tigers! 


2. BACKGROUND | FROM BORN FREE (previously posted 08/30/11)

In 1900 there were estimated to be 100,000 wild tigers. Today, fewer than 4,000 remain. Sadly, there are more tigers in captivity in the United States than exist anywhere in the wild — where they belong. And many of the tigers in captivity can be sold, killed or in other ways exploited because of a loophole in the Endangered Species Act.

After much pressure, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to close this loophole! Please take a minute today to tell the FWS that you support its proposal to rescind the “generic tiger exemption.” The deadline for comments is Wednesday, Sept. 21.

Since its promulgation 13 years ago, the “generic tiger exemption” has left us in the dark. The majority of tiger dealers in the United States have had free reign to cruelly exploit their tigers with virtually no oversight, and it has been next to impossible to determine the fate of thousands of tigers kept in certain unaccredited breeding operations.

Tigers are considered “generic” largely because they often are inbred and cross-bred in order to generate cubs for photo opportunities. Once the cubs grow up and the breeding pairs grow older or too difficult to handle, the lack of a paper trail makes it far too easy for unscrupulous “owners” to abuse and kill these tigers and even sell their parts without detection. This further fuels the illegal trade in tiger products, one of the leading and most dire threats to wild tiger populations today.

Please commend FWS for its proposal to rescind the “generic tiger exemption” today. Feel free to use (the sample letter below):


SAVE THE TIGER

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You are commenting on a Proposed Rule: Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants: U.S. Captive-bred Inter-subspecific Crossed or Generic Tigers (Document ID FWS-R9-IA-2011-0027-0001)

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Project Vote Smart

SAMPLE LETTER | COURTESY BORN FREE

Dear Representative,

As a member of Born Free USA, I strongly support the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposal to remove the “generic tiger exemption.”

By removing “generic” subspecies from the list of animals exempt from registration under the Captive-Bred Wildlife (CBW) regulations, USFWS will close a dangerous loophole that allows people to keep these tigers without even applying for a permit. This loophole has put thousands of captive-bred tigers in danger of being further exploited with virtually no oversight.

I am especially concerned that the “generic tiger exemption” makes it nearly impossible for law enforcement to regulate the number of tigers in the United States and prosecute ESA violations such as the illegal trade in tiger parts, one of the leading threats to wild tiger populations today. I strongly support this proposal as a strong step toward protecting the fewer than 4,000 tigers who exist in the wild, as well as the many more tigers held in captivity, today.

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i have said it before
and here i say it again
it is time for man to
learn to be kind
if not right now,
when

Karen Lyons Kalmenson