Bush Undoes a Century of Progress

[glitch]

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/1019-06.htm
snip:
A century ago this week, President Teddy Roosevelt gave us the bountiful and enlightened National Wildlife Refuge System.

As a result, there are national wildlife refuges in every state, important centers for the preservation of a sense of wildness in each place. In addition, these refuges have served as models for states like New York, which have created their own supplemental patchwork of refuges large and small. As much as anything, the refuge safety net has created a long-standing public policy for establishing wildlife sanctuaries, and the tacit understanding that without them, wilderness is doomed.

snip:
Under a proposal being floated by the administration, trophy hunters, circuses and the pet industry would be permitted to kill, capture or legally import certain desired species, many of which are at the door of extinction.

The sick premise being that poor countries can use the money raised by selling some of their endangered wildlife to support badly needed conservation efforts for the others.