Vantara works with lobbyist tied to Trump Jr. and pro-hunting groups

Filed 2h ago · Via Mongabay · The Buffoon Desk

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Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Number 10 · CC BY 2.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Vantara, the sprawling 3,000-acre private zoo run by Anant Ambani and already under scrutiny for how it acquired some of its 150,000-plus animals, has been using Checkmate Government Relations, a Trump-Jr.-adjacent lobbying firm, to work Washington and London.

The firm's man in London, Tristan Breijer, has spent years representing pro-hunting groups and sent an unsolicited email pitching a Vantara side event at a CITES meeting in Geneva. That event vanished from the schedule without explanation and was replaced by a quiet, invitation-only roundtable attended by 15 to 20 people.

Checkmate was founded by a hunting buddy of Donald Trump Jr. who reportedly co-owns a hunting business with him, and the firm boasts more than 100 clients including Reliance Industries' U.S. subsidiary, owned by Anant Ambani's father. Vantara did not answer questions about the lobbying directly, instead issuing a statement about its commitment to transparency.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

A place that swears every life matters went out and hired the folks who help sell the pleasure of ending a few. That's a curious errand for an animal sanctuary, and curiouser still that the Geneva side event went from a public pitch to a room of twenty people you had to be invited to. When somebody answers a plain question about lobbying with a paragraph about transparency, he's told you which one he'd rather talk about.

Source: Read the original at Mongabay → Scored: Miri's Magic Dance · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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