NRA Secretly Backs Group Aiming To Save Elephants Now, Kill Them Later

A couple of weeks ago, a group called the Elephant Protection Association (EPA) sent an email to a Maryland woman with elephant-hugging tendencies after she'd registered for membership online. There was an important measure coming before the General Assembly in Annapolis, HB713, which would restrict the sale of ivory in the state, and the EPA wanted its members to be ready for its March 4 hearing.

For about the last 10,000 years, ever since the woolly mammoth went extinct, man's only real source of ivory has been dead elephants. So the woman—an animal-rights volunteer who requested anonymity out of fear of the anti-elephant crowd—said she was flummoxed to read that the Elephant Protection Association was asking her to help kill the bill.

Rob Mitchell, the EPA's founder and leader, wrote that the proposed law "strips commercial value from legal property for no rational reason" and "wastes resources hurting Americans without doing anything to help elephants in Africa." He urged the would-be elephant protector to "please contact Shannon Alford ... who is coordinating our effort to put the best possible presentations together for the legislature."

Claiming that ivory bans don't protect elephants is not the typical elephant-conservationist position. But Alford isn't your typical elephant conservationist. Advising the EPA is a sidelight to her main job as a staff lobbyist with the National Rifle Association. Her profile photo in a directory of lobbyists shows her posing with a smile and a gun, the latter of which looks stout enough to bring down the biggest jungle creature.

http://deadspin.com/nra-secretly-backs-group-aiming-to-save-elephants-now-1688221469