In this 2008 file photo, a lion’s head and skin from an African safari expedition are seen in the Explorers Club’s trophy room. The head and skin were donated to the New York club by former president Theodore Roosevelt. (Kathy Willens/AP)
Hunters and others looking to ship lion, leopard, elephant, rhinoceros and buffalo heads and other big-game trophies across the world still have options available, even as Delta Air Lines, American Airlines and Air Canada announced this week that they will no longer allow such cargo on their planes.
Shipments of hunting trophies are still allowed by United Parcel Service, a UPS spokeswoman told The Washington Post on Tuesday, noting that the global shipping giant follows U.S. and international laws, not public opinion, in determining what it will and won’t ship.
“There are many items shipped in international commerce that may spark controversy,” UPS public relations director Susan Rosenberg wrote in an e-mail. “The views on what is appropriate for shipment are as varied as the audiences that hold these views.
“UPS takes many factors under consideration in establishing its shipping policies, including the legality of the contents and additional procedures required to ensure compliance. We avoid making judgments on the appropriateness of the contents. All shipments must comply with all laws, including any relevant documentation from the shipper required in the origin and destination location of the shipments.”
[While other trophy hunters hide, Idaho’s ‘Italian Huntress’ is flaunting her kills]
Although FedEx doesn’t ship animal carcasses, the company “may accept legitimate shipments of parts for taxidermy purposes if they meet our shipping guidelines,” a spokesman said in an e-mail to The Post.
“These are legitimate shipments, not shipments that are illegally obtained,” spokesman Jim McCluskey wrote Tuesday. “Our priority is to ensure we abide by laws and regulations for all shipments.”
The policies of airlines and shipping companies are drawing extra attention and scrutiny following the death of one of Africa’s most iconic lions, which was killed in a hunt this summer.
That lion, known as Cecil, was killed in Zimbabwe by an American big-game hunter, an act that has sparked international outrage. Walter Palmer, a Minnesota dentist, has said he had “no idea that the lion I took was a known, local favorite.”
[Zimbabwean hunter says he did nothing wrong in luring Cecil the lion to his death]
“I relied on the expertise of my local guides…
Exposing the Big Game 
I thought FedEx didn’t ship animal carcasses – remember Bill, Tom and Erin White who shipped a bloody, poached wolf carcass to Canada? They were indicted by a Federal Grand Jury in Spokane, thankfully.
http://www.examiner.com/article/methow-ranchers-indicted-for-wolf-killings-as-battle-lines-drawn
Good God. I wonder is that woman hunter was one of Palmer’s tacky cocktail waitresses. 😦
Hope it comes back to haunt them (CEO a hunter?). Anyway, there’s FedEx and the USPS.
Reblogged this on Wolves of Douglas County Wisconsin.
I guess there’s too much money to be lost in animal carcass shipment. At least Fedex isn’t doing it.
It’s highly likely that some wealthy UPS executives are trophy hunters. EMAIL: sgaut@ups.com
BOYCOTT UPS.
Good point.
Thank you! I sent email UPS!!!
I am so glad that this wild animal slaughter is getting the attention it needs, worldwide. If animal people don’t take advantage of this now-known atrocity taking place everywhere on the planet, nothing will change, & the planet will become totally Domesticated. Too many well-meaning people do not consider the plight of the millions of wild beings who are going extinct–forever–if we do not fight for them. This battle is will be a hard one, but we are talking about the End of Nature, of the wild, of Biodiversity. It is not in domestication, but in the remaining wild, that some of the Earth, and perhaps some wild species, might have a chance.
As Thoreau said “in wildness is the preservation of the Earth.”
I am glad we have a site that makes Wild Nature a priority, for without this, Biodiversity will become extinct, ending the Evolutionary Process, perhaps to the extent that the most tiny bacteria will be gone.
http://www.foranimals.org
Every now and then, you need something a little bit uplifting:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/dentist-doesnt-hunt-lions_55c23945e4b0f7f0bebb2dc9?utm_hp_ref=green&ir=Green§ion=green&kvcommref=mostpopular