Just days after polar bears gained new life-saving protections, the powerful Safari Club International sued the federal government.

The reason? To once again allow wealthy U.S. hunters to kill struggling polar bears in Canada -- and bring their carcasses back as trophies.

On Monday, Defenders went to court to stop them -- but we have a tough fight ahead.To donate to the cause, click HERE.

Polar bears are already on the fast track to extinction. Oil companies are poised to invade their key denning habitat. Rising temperatures are melting sea ice, leading to starvation. Yet the Safari Club wants to ensure that rich hunters can keep polar bears in their gun sights.

Years ago, the Safari Club successfully lobbied for the loophole that allowed trophy hunters to kill Canadian polar bears and return to the U.S. with their heads for wall trophies and fur for rugs. 

Safari Club International isn’t just any special interest. It is a powerful international organization of wealthy trophy hunters that is fighting our conservation efforts on many fronts.

In Alaska, they’re helping to back a $600,000 campaign aimed at defeating a ballot measure to ban the state’s brutal program of aerial hunting of wolves and bears.  Meanwhile, they’ve also sent their attorneys to battle us in the Greater Yellowstone region, where we’re fighting desperately to save wolves.