INGRAM, Texas – For years, select ranchers across the state of Texas have raised exotic animals to buy, sell, trade, and hunt.
It is an industry that has seen wild game like the Scimitar-Horned oryx, the Addax, and the Dama gazelle (all species of African antelope) flourish, despite an endangered status in their native Africa.
"The population has literally exploded to almost over 400 percent," said Charly Seale, executive director of the Exotic Wildlife Association. "There's over 11,000 Scimitar-Horned oryx here in Texas, 5100 Addox, and 894 Dama gazelles."
That explosion, according to Seale, was due to a federal government exemption of the Endangered Species Act that allowed ranchers to raise and sell the three species for hunting purposes.
But now, a long legal battle from a group called "Friends of Animals" has challenged the exemption and it has resulted in a reversal of the rule by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.
Starting April 4, the three species can no longer be imported, exported, or culled (hunted) without a permit.
That permit, according to Seale, will be hard to obtain.
"It's about an eight- or nine-page permit process," said Seale.
The process would take 60 to 90 days and require a yearly fee. The three species of antelope can still be possessed or bred without the permit, but not hunted.
Seale believed this would leave little reason for ranchers to own and raise the antelope and populations of the animals would rapidly decline.
"Already the value of these animals has decreased by 20 to 30 percent," said Seale. "The population numbers have gone down 20 to 30 percent."
Now, the Exotic Wildlife Association has filed two civil suits against the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, arguing that the hunts actually help conserve the population and feel the government is overstepping its bounds.
"It makes us angry. These are private property," said Seale. "It's not over, no, it's not over."