http://worldanimalnews.com/four-animal-welfare-groups-sue-trump-administration-approving-elephant-lion-trophy-imports-behind-closed-doors/

By Lauren Lewis –
March 23, 2018

Four conservation and animal-protection groups sued the Trump administration earlier this week over its secretive new policy of approving elephant and lion trophy imports behind closed doors.
The new lawsuit targets a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decision, outlined in a March 1st memo, to shut the public and scientists out of the process for evaluating the impacts of trophy hunting of elephants, lions and other threatened and endangered species in Africa.
The Center for Biological Diversity, the Humane Society of the United States, Humane Society International, Ian Michler and Born Free USA filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.
A federal court ruled in December that the administration needed to involve the public in trophy import decisions. Instead of complying, Interior Department officials adopted a case-by-case permitting approach that fails to comprehensively consider trophy hunting impacts and severely…