Tuesday, October 12, 2021

Groups sue U.S. government over failure to protect giraffes


"Recognizing that giraffe have a complex cooperative social system and live in matrilineal societies will further our understanding of their behavioral ecology and conservation needs,"



Two newborn South African giraffe calves (Giraffa camelopardalis giraffa) nurse from a female giraffe in the African section of the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo in Jerusalem, Israel. 
File Photo by Debbie Hill/UPI | License Photo

Oct. 12 (UPI) -- The Humane Society's U.S. and international branches, along with a conservation group, sued Tuesday the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to protect Africa's giraffes from extinction.

The Center for Biological Diversity, Humane Society International and Humane Society of the United States argued in the 24-page suit that the federal agency and Secretary of the Interior Debra Haaland missed a legal deadline to propose Endangered Species Act protections.

The Humane Society petitioned for the giraffe protections in April 2017, which triggered a 12-month statutory deadline, which the Service and Haaland failed to meet, according to the suit.

"As giraffes face a silent extinction, it's shocking and sad that federal officials are punting on protections for these desperately imperiled animals," Tanya Sanerib, international legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity said in a statement. "The U.S. market is flooded with products made with giraffe bones and skins, from knife handles and saltshakers to rugs and pillows. It's past time we halt these gruesome imports to help save everyone's favorite long-necked mammal."

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The statement noted that the giraffe population has decreased nearly 40% due to habitat loss, civil unrest, poaching and human-caused habitat changes, exacerbated by international trade in bone carvings, skins and trophies, and fewer than 69,000 mature giraffes remain in the wild.

"It is tragic that the U.S. is a top importer and seller of giraffe parts--heads, legs, feet, tails, skin--and a leading contributor to the species' threat of extinction," Adam Peyman, wildlife programs director for Humane Society International, said in the statement. "It is the responsibility of the Fish and Wildlife Service to stop this horrific trade and provide the long overdue protection that these animals deserve, before it is too late."

In August, a study revealed that giraffes are socially complex, but have been misunderstood.

"Recognizing that giraffe have a complex cooperative social system and live in matrilineal societies will further our understanding of their behavioral ecology and conservation needs," researchers wrote in the study published in Wiley Online Library.

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