Lobbying Firm with Ties to Pro-Hunting Groups Represents Controversial Indian Zoo
Checkmate Government Relations, a lobbying firm founded by a hunting friend of Donald Trump Jr., recently represented Vantara, a controversial private Indian zoo that has been in the spotlight over the questionable origins of some of its more than 150,000 animals, which include protected and endangered species. Tristan Breijer, the head of the U.S.-based lobby firm Checkmate’s London office, sent an unsolicited email “representing the Vantara initiative in the United Kingdom,” sometime before July, according to a source who asked not to be named. Breijer is a lobbyist and has a history of representing pro-hunting groups in Europe. Vantara is a massive private zoo that sprawls over 3,000 acres (1,200 hectares): It’s about four times the size of Central Park in New York City and is run by Anant Ambani, the son of one of Asia’s richest men, Mukesh Ambani. The zoo, which claims to be an animal rescue facility with about 2,000 species, came under scrutiny after media reports surfaced that it allegedly acquired endangered animals illegally. A report by CITES, the global treaty that regulates commercial international trade in endangered wildlife, flagged irregularities in some of its animal imports. Vantara has denied wrongdoing and India’s top court dismissed similar allegations after an investigation last year. In the email allegedly sent by Breijer, he invited the recipient to a roundtable meeting hosted by Vantara on the sidelines of the Animals Committee meeting of CITES, held July 13-17, 2026, in Geneva, Switzerland. This scientific meeting, attended by CITES members, advises the Secretriat on sustainable trade in wild species. Mongabay spoke with sources who attended the meeting as observers, alongside representatives from the Greens Zoological Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre (GZRRC), as Vantara is legally known. At the meeting, Vantara proposed to host a side event on July 14, 2026, titled “ Every Life Matters, ” according to a provisional schedule shared by the CITES Secretariat before the gathering and obtained by Mongabay . Side events are small meetings hosted by any organization or country attending the CITES meeting, where participants discuss key issues and share knowledge, independent of the main agenda. They are open to all attendees. However, the event was canceled and disappeared from the schedule without explanation . Instead, Vantara hosted an invitation-only roundtable on July 15, 2026, at 17:15 local time, sources told Mongabay. It’s not clear what was discussed, but sources said some 15-20 people, including Breijer and Amit Aggarwal, president of regulatory affairs at Vantara, attended it. Mongabay asked Checkmate about their lobbying efforts for Vantara. It declined to comment for this story. The zoo did not answer questions on the record about lobbying activities. Instead, it issued a statement: “Like many non-profit organisations, Vantara is committed to transparency and engages constructively with regulators, NGOs, scientific institutions and conservation partners around the world. Our focus remains on the rescue, rehabilitation and conservation of wildlife, and we welcome informed dialogue about that work.” Breijer is a well-connected lobbyist, and his career has deep roots in pro-hunting advocacy in Europe. Over the past five years, he has represented the European Federation for Hunting and Conservation (FACE), a Brussels-based umbrella group for hunters’ associations across the continent. In that role, he has repeatedly pushed for what he calls the “social acceptance” of hunting, through public speaking appearances, interviews, and hunting conference panels in Ukraine, Bosnia and Herzegovina and elsewhere. Since 2024, he has also served as director of communications and public affairs at the International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation (CIC), a European NGO that promotes sport and trophy hunting. CIC also participated in the 2026 Safari Club International ’s annual convention, a gathering of sport and trophy hunters, promoted as “the Super Bowl of hunting,” in Nashville, Tennessee, in the U.S. Safari Club International is a pro-hunting organization, which also promotes big game hunting . Breijer works as the senior advisor for Checkmate at its recently opened London office. In his previous lobbying activities, he engaged with the U.K. Parliament at Westminster, the European Parliament and UN convention processes on “complex and politically sensitive regulatory matters,” according to his company biography . For an organization like Vantara that claims “every life matters” in its tagline, having ties to individuals linked to pro-hunting groups for lobbying on its behalf is unsettling, some argue. “It would also raise real credibility questions if an organization claiming to rescue animals were, of all things, working with someone tied to trophy hunting and lobbying for trade in highly threatened species,” Daniela Freyer, co-founder of the German NGO Pro Wildlife , told Mongabay. Checkmate Government Relations LLC was founded in the United States in 2023 by Charles ‘Ches’ McDowell, who is reportedly a personal friend of U.S. President Donald Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., and is said to be a sport hunter. Their friendship reportedly included a three-day bear hunt in North Carolina. Public records in North Carolina show that McDowell and Trump Jr. operate a joint hunting business called The Bear Store. The lobbying firm claims to have “unparalleled” access to the Trump Administration with more than 100 registered clients. U.S. lobbying records show that those clients include the U.S. subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd., the Indian oil and gas conglomerate owned by Mukesh Ambani. His youngest son, Anant Ambani, who started Vantara, is serves as executive director at Reliance Industries. Reliance’s U.S. subsidiary, RIL USA, hired Checkmate beginning in 2025 — the same year the Trump Administration hiked tariffs on India from 25% to 50% and accused the Ambani family of profiting from importing cheap Russian oil. Through the end of July 2026, RIL USA has paid Checkmate $570,000 to lobby the White House and the U.S. Department of Energy on trade and energy issues, according to the latest lobbying filings maintained by the U.S. Senate. Reliance has hired other U.S. lobbying firms as well. According to a Scroll.in investigation , Reliance spent $1.49 million in 2025 — its highest in more than a decade — on lobbying efforts in the U.S. By February 2026, President Trump waived 25% tariffs imposed on India, and announced that Reliance would invest $300 billion in a Texas oil refinery project that Trump Jr. has invest ed in, according to ProPublica ’s investigation. Anant Ambani is said to have personally worked on this deal with the Texas-based America First Refining, according to media reports . In a May 2026 press release , Checkmate announced it was opening its first European office in London. It hired Breijer to lead operations, offering services to clients “requiring effective representation across the United Kingdom, the European Union, and international multilateral institutions.” A press release from the Nashville conference of the Safari Club International has Breijer, along with two other CIC members, photographed with Trump Jr., who is known to be an avid trophy hunter and has killed animals around the world, including endangered species. Photos have surfaced over the years of him and his brother, Eric, posing with dead animals, including a leopard , a Cape buffalo and a crocodile , among others. In November 2025, during his second trip to India, Trump Jr. visited Vantara and called it “incredible” and “a wonder of the world.” Checkmate isn’t yet registered with the U.K.’s Office of the Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists , a public list of lobbyists. The list is updated every three months. Reliance Industries has been among a group of Indian businesses that lobbied then-Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government in the U.K., according to data from Transparency International. When Starmer was in India , two meetings were set up with the prime minister and his minister of business and trade on Oct. 9, 2025, to discuss business opportunities between India and the U.K. in the wake of a free trade agreement the two countries signed . Less than a year before those meetings, in December 2024, Starmer met a business delegation from India, which included representatives from Reliance Industries. Photos obtained by Mongabay from the recent CITES meeting in Geneva show Vantara’s Aggarwal with Breijer and Mike Oropallo, a wildlife law attorney who represented Dallas Safari Club there. The club is a U.S.-based sport hunting organization that actively lobbies for trophy hunting. Vantara has been a subject of meetings with EU parliamentarians through lobbyist groups, according to public records. On Jan. 7, 2026, representatives from American Humane Society, a U.S.-based animal welfare organization and a subsidiary of Global Humane Society, met Olivér Várhelyi, the EU commissioner for health and animal welfare, and Flavio Facioni, cabinet member, according to lobbyist data from LobbyFacts.eu . The meeting was facilitated through the Brussels-based lobbyist firm Capital European Affairs , which calls Global Humane Society one of its partners. The subject of that meeting was stated to be “Greens Zoological Rescue & Rehabilitation Centre,” Vantara’s legal name. On that same day, representatives also met Andrea Gavinelli, head of the animal welfare EU unit, with the subject of the meeting declared as “information about the actions performed by Vantara to ensure the health and welfare of endangered species of animals in captivity across the world.” A few days before the meeting with EU representatives, in December 2025, Global Humane Society awarded Anant Ambani the “Global Humanitarian Award.” Previous awardees include Hollywood celebrities such as Shirley MacLaine, John Wayne and Betty White, and former U.S. presidents John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton. In an email to Mongabay, a spokesperson from Capital European Affairs confirmed these meetings. “In our capacity as an advisory organisation, we assisted a Vantara representative who was visiting Brussels in January by arranging two introductory meetings with relevant officials from the European Commission. These were general meetings intended to introduce Vantara’s activities and mission,” the spokesperson said. The spokesperson also said “our organisation has never had, and does not currently have, any professional or commercial relationship with Vantara. Our assistance in arranging the January meetings was also provided free of charge and solely in the spirit of partnership.” (Read the full response here .) Mongabay asked Global Humane Society about these meetings related to Vantara and their goals, but did not receive a response by publication. CITES is not new to advocacy and political lobbying, said Susan Lieberman, vice president of international policy at the U.S.-based NGO Wildlife Conservation Society . She is an expert in wildlife trade-related matters with more than three decades experience with CITES. “There’s always been advocacy from wildlife trade organizations — hunters, ivory traders, whalers, reptile traders, pet traders,” she said, adding that sometimes these organizations also fund governments who don’t have resources to attend a CITES meeting. But hiring a private lobby firm is not common, she said. “Legitimate conservation NGOs typically engage governments directly — through their own in-house policy staff, technical submissions and evidence. Not through a commercial government-relations firm,” said Freyer from Pro Wildlife. “Hiring a paid lobbyist is far more typical of companies seeking political access, or worried about their reputation.” In Vantara’s case, its lobbying efforts come at a time when countries are preparing for the 81st Standing Committee meeting — a policy oriented meeting that oversees the implementation of CITES — in November 2026. In November 2025, countries voted to withdraw a recommendation to suspend trade of all endangered species with India because of irregularities in animal imports linked to Vantara. India’s CITES Management Authority, which issues import permits, is expected to report on progress made to improve its process at the upcoming meeting. “Early August is the deadline for India to demonstrate whether it has cleaned up its due-diligence system and properly resourced its authorities to fight illegal wildlife trade. The Standing Committee will judge that progress at its next meeting in November,” Freyer said. If Vantara wanted to establish goodwill about its operations, the timing of the lobbying efforts aligns, she said. The Standing Committee has 32 members, including India, and importantly, the U.K. will chair the upcoming meeting in November. “The chair of the meeting can guide the discussions, but every Standing Committee member has an equal voice,” Lieberman said. However, if the members of the Standing Committee or the chair wanted the discussions to go in a certain direction, that could happen, she added. In a recent feature published in The Sunday Times on Anant Ambani’s efforts to bring Pablo Escobar’s hippos from Columbia to Vantara, Ambani is said to have rescued hippos from a South African hunting lodge. “For $10,000 you could shoot them all,”Ambani told the journalist, and reportedly a prospective hunter paid the fee, but did not kill the animals and instead donated them to Vantara. Recruiting lobbyists can also be expensive, and conservation would be well-served if any money went instead to deserving causes, Lieberman said. “If they really care about wildlife, then put the money into keeping the wildlife in the wild and their ecosystems safe,” she said. “If they care about hippos, they should work with African countries on some of the parks that have hippos. That’s where the hippos are, and where support is needed.” is a staff writer at Mongabay, covering all things wild with a special focus on lesser-known wildlife, the wildlife trade, and environmental crime. This article is republished from Mongabay under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here
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