Under 1996 amendments to the Freedom of Information Act, agencies are obligated to post their decisions – including orders, policies, and interpretations – online for public inspection.
BORN FREE USA: Born Free USA, The Humane Society of the United States, Humane Society International, and Center for Biological Diversity sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) today for violating the law by failing to post online elephant and lion trophy permitting records as required by the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)… The lawsuit asks a federal district court in Virginia to order the Fish and Wildlife Service to routinely post elephant and lion trophy permit applications, the agency’s permitting decisions, and related findings regarding the sustainability of hunting species threatened with extinction.
Under 1996 amendments to the Freedom of Information Act, agencies are obligated to post their decisions – including orders, policies, and interpretations – online for public inspection. The same obligation applies to certain types of records that are frequently requested and that have been released in the past. FWS’ FOIA log demonstrates that conservationists, journalists, and others request elephant and lion trophy import records often enough that this information should be posted online automatically as soon as the agency receives it.
Despite immense public interest in the government’s decision of whether to allow the import of hunting trophies from imperiled species, and despite repeated attempts by conservation organizations to shed light on this important conservation issue, the Fish and Wildlife Service is covertly conducting this Endangered Species Act permitting program… For most of the past decade, according to tallies from the CITES trade database, U.S. trophy hunters killed and imported the parts of approximately 500 African lions and 500 African elephants each year. SOURCE…
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