Right-To-Life For Species Constitutes Free Trade Barrier,
White House Says
By Michael K. Smith Saturday,
March 14, 2004; Page A01
President Bush issued an executive order
abolishing the Endangered Species Act today, declaring that the
arbitrary law is an illegitimate trade barrier. In an
accompanying proposal Bush advocated allowing hunters, circuses and
the pet industry to kill, capture and sell animals on the brink of
extinction in order to help wildlife ""have worth" by
making a contribution to the nation's GDP.
According to the White House, expanding the market to include trade
in endangered species is necessary to the continued realization of
the American Dream. With the Endangered Species Act out of the
way, trophy hunters can realize their ambition of killing the
straight-horned markhor in Pakistan; the pet industry can be
licensed to import the blue fronted Amazon parrot from Argentina;
U.S. circuses and zoos can be authorized to capture endangered Asian
elephants and resume trade in African ivory. No endangered
species will be considered "off market," in recognition of
the fact that all animate and inanimate matter must be converted to
commodities in order to have worth.
Nattering nabobs of negativity that they are, conservationists think
the Bush order is a bad idea. "It's a very dangerous precedent
to decide that killing wildlife is in the best interest of
wildlife," said Adam Roberts, a researcher at the Animal
Welfare Institute. "What's next? Nazi
synagogues?"
But the latest Bush proposal follows logically from the desire to
protect nature. Since corporations are part of nature, anything that
advances their economic well being is perfectly natural. On
the other hand, keeping endangered species off the market is a
violation of free trade, the sort of policy characteristic of the
bygone era of Marxist totalitarianism. As President Bush
explains: "An alligator is just an alligator until it
becomes a pair of shoes. Then it's worth something."
Deborah Johnson of the Nature Conservancy is less upbeat about the
new change. "As soon as you place a financial price on
the head of wild animals, the incentive is to kill the animal or
capture them," she complains. "The minute people
find out they can have an easier time killing, shipping and
profiting from wildlife rather than preserving it, they will do
so." Reached for comment on this matter, Vice President
Cheney said, "Exactly." Meanwhile, Interior
Secretary Gail Norton offered her view that scouring the planet down
to a bald comet will make the animal world more
"efficient."
The Endangered Species Act prohibited removing domestic endangered
species from the wild. Explaining the need for its abolition,
President Bush says, "Different nations have different
ways of managing their natural resources. Some prefer to trade
species extinctions for IMF debt relief. What's wrong with
that?" In short, environmentalists should not be
allowed to impose dogmas about wildlife having value in and of
itself.
President Bush identified several species immediately in need of
harvest in the interests of "job creation":
€ Morelet's crocodile, an endangered freshwater crocodile found in
Mexico, Guatemala and Belize. Worthless in the swamps, it makes nice
bags and wallets, and is a good source of pocket change for
indigenous peoples happily living at the margin of existence.
€ The endangered Asian elephant of India and Southeast Asia is
fiercely coveted by the U.S. office furniture industry. Now
which is more important: elephants in the wild or an
ivory wastebasket next to the solid gold toilet in the executive
wash room?
€ The Asian bonytongue, a valuable aquarium fish, found in
Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia. When pulverized it makes a
wonderful wrinkle cream for American consumers.
€ The straight-horned markhor, an endangered wild goat in Pakistan
distinguished by corkscrew-shaped horns. According to Presiden Bush,
"allowingU.S. hunters an opportunity to mount them on the walls
of their homes could provide a significant source of revenue for
Third World dictators helping us win the war on terror."
John R. Monson, a New Hampshire trophy hunter and personal friend of
Dick Cheney, said the program would help keep hunters fiscally fit.
Last week, Monson applied for a permit to shoot and import a
straight-horned markhor. He was awarded a free rack of hunting
rifles from the Vice President.
Monson said the money he has spent hunting trophies -- including a
leopard from Namibia, a bontebok antelope from South Africa, and a
Democrat he bagged in the garage -- has been used to promote
compassionate conservatism, funding prostitution rings and other
wonders of the natural world.
Monson is president-elect of Smith and Wesson's "Wise Use"
Nature Club, a national advocacy group promoting environmentalism
through hunting.
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Michael K. Smith is the author of "The Madness of King
George" (illustrations by Matt Wuerker) available from Common
Courage Press
