WASHINGTON - The White House says U.S. President Donald Trump still believes that the hunting of African elephants for sport is a "horror show," after the Interior Department quietly lifted prohibitions against importing parts of African elephants shot for sport.
Press secretary Sarah Sanders says "President Trump's position on trophy hunting remains the same."
She says the reversal by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service "is a response to a court decision impacting how trophy import applications are reviewed."
Trump personally intervened in November when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service first said it would lift an Obama-era ban on elephant trophies imported from Zimbabwe and Zambia. The agency contends that encouraging wealthy big-game hunters to kill the threatened species would help raise money for conservation programs.
