BILL NUMBER: S5014

SPONSOR: SEPULVEDA
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the environmental conservation law, in relation to
enacting the "Big Five African Trophies Act" relating to foreign game

 
PURPOSE:

To amend the environmental conservation law, in relation to foreign
game.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 of the bill states that this act shall be known as the "Big
Five African Trophies Act."

Section 2 of the bill amends the environmental conser- vation law by
adding new section 11-0535-d. The addition includes the definition of
"foreign game" the "big five African species" and adding new provisions
which specifically prohibits the import, possession, sale or transporta-
              

tion of any of the "big five African species" and give any law enforce-
ment officer authority to enforce this prohibition and where necessary
authority to execute any warrant to search for and seize "big five Afri-
can species" that have been imported, possessed, sold, offered for sale
or transported in violation of this section.

Section 2 also includes the following exemptions and defenses to these
prohibitions, unless such activity is prohibited by federal law: the
"big five African species" was located or possessed within New York
prior to the effective date of this section and the legal owner has
obtained a certificate of possession. From the Secretary of State, or b.
the "big five African species" is to be made part of a temporary or
permanent collection of a museum chartered by the board of regents
pursuant to the education law or a museum authorized by a special char-
ter from the legislature, provided that the article is not thereafter
sold, offered for sale, traded, bartered or distributed to any private
party, or c. the "big five African species" is distributed directly to a
legal beneficiary of a trust or to a legal heir provided the article was
located or possessed by the decedent prior to the effective date of this
section and that after transfer to the beneficiary or heir that the
article is not thereafter sold, offered for sale, traded, bartered or
distributed to any private party and that the beneficiary or heir obtain
a certificate of possession from the secretary of state within 180 days
of obtaining the article.

Section 3 of the bill amends subdivision 1 of section 71-0919 of the
environmental conservation law by adding a new paragraph g stating "In
the cases provided for in section 11-1717 of this chapter (a) Any big
five African species, property and/or item used in connection with a
violation of this section shall be held pending criminal proceedings in
any court of proper jurisdiction, (b) a defendant convicted of this
offense shall be sentenced pursuant to paragraph (b) of subdivision one
of section 55.10 of the penal law; 'provided, however, that any term of
imprisonment imposed shall be a definite sentence, which may not exceed
two years, (c) upon conviction, or upon the entry of a Judgment.
restraining a defendant from Importing, selling, offering for sale, or
transporting any big five African species on the grounds that such
activity is or would be in violation of section 11-1717 of this chapter,
any seized property under this paragraph shall be forfeited and upon
forfeiture, destroyed.

Section 4 sets forth the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

The continued importation, possession, sale and/or transportation of the
so-called "Big Five African Species"-lions, leopards, elephants, black
rhinos, white rhinos and giraffes-is detrimental to the survival of
these species.

All of the Big Five African Species are threatened with extinction if
the current rate of illegal poaching continues. Additionally, some Afri-
can countries are considering (or have already) legalizing sport hunting
and exportation of Big Five African Species. Such countries have based
the legalization on the faulty logic that legalizing hunting of Big Five
African Species will decrease the illegal poaching and trade of these
animals. Such logic is not only erroneous, but also detrimental to the
survival of the Big Five African Species.

There is growing scientific evidence that legal trade of trophy-hunted
species preserves and reinforces the illegal sourcing of the same.  For
example, South Africa, home to the second largest black rhino population
in the world, received permission by the Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora to sell permits for
trophy-hunted rhinos in 2004. Many of these hunts are purchased by Amer-
icans, and the trophies are imported into or through the state of New
York. The country has since seen a marked rise in illegal rhino poach-
ing, with the World Wildlife Fund reporting that rhino poaching has
increased 5,000% since 2007.

Accordingly, by banning the importation, possession, sale and transpor-
tation of all Big Five African Species within New York, the State will
not be encouraging or abetting the continued demise of these species by
sport-hunting. Only a complete ban can stem the tide of illegal traf-
ficking caused by the legalization of hunting and capture of the Big
Five African Species in some African, countries.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

S.3302 of 2023-2024: Passed Senate, Delivered to Assembly, Referred to
Environmental Conservation;

S. 2814 of 2021-22: Passed Senate, Referred to Assembly Environmental
Conservation;

S.4325-A of 2019-20: Passed Senate, Referred to Assembly Environmental
Conservation;

S.1833-B of 2017-18: Referred to Environmental Conservation; S.4686-A of
2016: - Passed the Senate

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect one year after it shall have become a law.