August 1, 2018 JOSH RUSSELL FacebookTwitterGoogle+Email
MANHATTAN (CN) – Urging a federal judge to disband the board that is supposed to advise the White House on wildlife conservation, four nonprofits claim in court Wednesday that council flouts federal law by operating in secret to advance the interests of the trophy-hunting industry.

Represented by Jeffrey Dubner from the Democracy Forward Foundation, the National Resources Defense Council is the lead plaintiff in the complaint filed today in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke appointed the advisory board at issue last fall.

Despite its name, the complaint says, Zinke’s International Wildlife Conservation Council “actually exists to promote the anthesis of sound conservation policy: the hunting of imperiled species as a means to import their heads, hides, tusks, feet, and other body parts.”

The complaint notes that Zinke “has accepted tens of thousands of…