Dear reader.
What do the Safari Club, the Alaska Oil and Gas Association, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the National Mining Association have in common?
They're all spending boatloads of money to ensure that polar bears can be killed by oil and gas drillers, hunters, and just about anyone else.
To do this they have to strip or bypass federal Endangered Species Act protections for the beleaguered polar bear. Though we're completely outgunned by the enormous sums of money these groups spend on lobbyists and lawyers, the Center for Biological Diversity won't let the Safari Club and its allies win.
Please donate to our Polar Bear Legal Defense Fund today so we can save the polar bear. If we can raise just one dollar for every $100 industry and lobby groups are spending to kill polar bears, we will definitely prevail.
The Safari Club is not your average hunting group. It boasts past presidents George W. Bush and George H. W. Bush, Idaho Governor Butch Otter, and Norman Schwarzkopf as lifetime members. It donates hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republican candidates. It was a close ally of Sarah Palin in her war on Alaska's wolves.
The Safari Club has filed two lawsuits to strip federal protection from the polar bear:
- The first seeks to allow importation of polar bear heads and hides even though the species was listed as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act in 2008.
- The second seeks to remove the polar bear from the threatened list altogether.
Why? Because at $40,000 a kill, polar bear hunting is big business -- and heavily promoted. Every year the Safari Club gives out a "Grand Slam" award to anyone who kills at least five great-bear species, including the polar bear. It is even accepting "Record Book" entries to encourage its members to kill the largest bears possible.
The Center has formally intervened in the Safari Club's lawsuits in defense of the polar bear, but we need your help to win both crucial legal battles. Please donate today to our Polar Bear Legal Defense Fund.
For the bears,
 |  | Kierán Suckling
Executive Director
Center for Biological Diversity |
|
P.S. While The New York Times recently called the Center a "brazen…tiny activist group with a shoestring budget and an aggressive attitude," the Safari Club had former President George W. Bush and Liz Cheney give speeches at its annual conference three months ago.
Please help us level the playing field: Donate generously to our Polar Bear Legal Defense Fund. A bear-loving donor will match every gift of $50 or more, so please give today and pass this email on to your friends.
Polar bear kill photo by Safari Club International.
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