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Yesterday we were honoured to spend an hour with Ray Lesniak and his Chief of Staff Tony Teixeira. Ray has become a leading figure in lion conservation  – he authored the Bill making it illegal to import lion hunting trophies into the State. Ray is a highly moral and ethical man, responsible for a number of other Bills now signed into law in New Jersey – for example abolition of the death penalty, so it is no wonder that he embraced the issue of banning future lion trophy imports.

During a broad-ranging discussion we focused mainly on a number of ways and means to leverage Ray’s successful Bill. These would  include contacting other State legislatures to encourage submission of similar bills, contacting Ministers of Environment  in Australia, France and the Netherlands which recently imposed national bans to facilitate lobbying at the international level, and encouraging international organizations to list lions as an endangered species across their remaining African range.

We will remain in close contact with Senator Lesniak to plan future means of political action to aid the conservation of lions.