|
On the 25th November 2022, the Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Bill is scheduled to receive its Second Reading in the UK Parliament.
This is an important date and we would ask all our UK supporters to contact their local MP and urge them to attend and vote in favour of this Bill.
You can find your local MP here.
We need this BAN now.
Why is this so important?
- The Bill enjoys government, cross-party and public support. The Bill has been promised in successive Queen’s Speeches and was an election manifesto commitment.
- Trophy hunters are killing large numbers of animals that are in decline. Lion populations have crashed from maybe 200,000 in the 1970’s to likely less than 10,000 today. Elephants have recently been reclassified as Endangered on the IUCN Red List. Cheetahs have disappeared from 98% of their range. Polar bears face extinction because of climate change but are still shot by British hunters. Without action, trophy hunters could shoot as many as 170 million animals this century.
- Trophy hunting makes species extinction more likely. The best genes of threatened species are being lost as hunters pursue the biggest trophies. Lions have lost 15% of genetic diversity in southern Africa over the last century. Elephant tusks are getting shorter and there are more tuskless elephants. Rhino horns are shrinking because of hunting too. Evolutionary biologists say this process of artificial selection makes it less likely species will survive accelerating climate change.
- Switching to non-lethal alternatives is better for people and wildlife alike. Photographic safaris can generate far more revenues for conservation and local communities. Kenya banned trophy hunting in the 1970’s: nature tourism here generates 70 times more money for conservation per hectare than in neighbouring Tanzania where trophy hunting continues. Switching to nature tourism could provide up to 11 times as many jobs in poorer rural communities.
- Most Africans are opposed to trophy hunting A major study revealed Africans’ “resentment towards the neo-colonial character of trophy hunting in the way it privileges Western elites in accessing Africa’s wildlife resources”. A recent poll in South Africa showed only 16% of people support trophy hunting, whilst 74% wanted the government to focus instead on nature tourism. According to a leading African conservationist, Paula Kahumbu, “The idea that trophy hunting benefits African economies is also a myth – or more accurately, a lie.”
Perhaps most important of all, trophy hunting is quite simply wrong. Taking the life of a sentient living creature purely for entertainment and for a souvenir is barbaric, archaic and completely contrary to the values of a modern civilised society.
Please take the time to contact your local MP in the UK, and urge them to attend and vote in favour of this Bill.
Thank you.
|
