A new Endangered Species Act proposal from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that would step up protections for African elephants came in response to two legal rulemaking petitions Friends of Animals submitted to the agency over the past few years.

Under the proposed rule, imports of the body parts of elephants would be prohibited from nations such as Tanzania, Botswana and Zambia, major destinations for trophy hunters.

FoA is asking our members to send in comments in support of the rule citing the reason above. FWS is accepting comments on the proposed rule by Jan. 17, 2023. You can submit comments by visiting https://www.regulations.gov. In the Search box, enter FWS-HQ-IA-2021-0099, which is the docket number for this rulemaking. Then click on the Search button. On the resulting page, in the panel on the left side of the screen, under the Document Type heading, click on the Proposed Rules link to locate this document. You may submit a comment by clicking on “Comment.”