ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Six environmental or animal rights groups have filed court documents to maintain a ban on importing polar bear hides from Canada.
They filed to intervene in a lawsuit promised by Safari Club International, a pro-hunting group that last month gave formal notice it would sue to overturn the ban.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service put the ban in place last month when Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne declared polar bears a threatened species.
Trophy hunting of Alaska polar bears has been banned since 1972 but Congress in 1994 made exceptions for importing hides from bears killed in healthy populations in Canada.
Safari Club International claims that money helps support Canadian polar bear research and conservation.
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