Trophy hunters lose positions

World Wildlife Fund/Spain honorary chair King Juan Carlos was dethroned on July 21,  2012 when 94% of the membership opposed continuing his appointment.  Juan Carlos had held the honorary chair since helping to form WWF/Spain in 1968.  He tried to save his position with an unprecedented April 2012 public apology for participating in an ill-fated $60,000 elephant hunt in Botswana, during which he broke his hip and was airlifted home to Spain, reportedly at taxpayer expense.

Juan Carlos had survived previous scandals over his hunting habits.  The Russian business daily Kommersant in October 2006 published a written allegation by Vologda region deputy hunting chief Sergei Starostin that a “good-natured and joyful bear” named Mitrofan was in August 2006 taken from his home at a local holiday resort, “generously fed vodka mixed with honey,” and “pushed into a field” where “His Highness Juan Carlos of Spain took him out with one shot.”

Formed by trophy hunters in 1961, WWF has become increasingly sensitive in recent years to growing donor opposition to sport hunting, especially when the targets are rare and endangered species.

Puma hunter loses wildlife post in California

All five members of the California Wildlife Commission, including president Dan Richards, voted to remove Richards as president on August 8, 2012, reported Mary Slosson of Reuters.

Richards is to remain on the commission, however, until his appointment expires in January 2013.  The Sierra Club of California and the Humane Society of the U.S. led appeals to California Governor Jerry Brown for Richards’ ouster after he legally shot a puma in Idaho and posted photos of himself with the carcass.  Killing the puma in California would have been illegal, under a ballot measure approved by voters in 1990.  Richards was appointed to the California Wildlife Commission by Brown’s predecessor,  Arnold Schwarzenegger.