“Trophy Hunting & Britain: The Case for a Ban”

The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Banning Trophy Hunting today hosted an event at Westminster Hall, Houses of Parliament to launch a comprehensive report, full of insightful expert testimonies, facts and figures to support the proposed trophy hunting import ban into the United Kingdom.

“Trophy Hunting & Britain: The Case for a Ban,” APPG on Banning Trophy Hunting, June 2022

“Key facts & Figures,” APPG on Banning Trophy Hunting, June 2022

Guest speakers included the Rt Hon George Eustice MP (Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA)), His Excellency Seretse Khama Ian Khama (President, Botswana (2008 – 2018)), Jane Goodall, PhD, DBE (Founder – the Jane Goodall Institute & UN Messenger of Peace), Boniface Mpario (Senior Elder, Massi and former Safari Guide, Kenya), Dr Adam Cruise (Wildlife investigative journalist and academic) and Kris Verduyckt MP (Vooruit, Flemish Socialists, one of the leaders of the legislation to ban trophy hunting imports into Belgium).

Sir Roger Gale MP  (Chair, APPG on Banning Trophy Hunting), His Excellency Seretse Khama Ian Khama (President, Botswana (2008 – 2018)), Boniface Mpario (Senior Elder, Massi and former Safari Guide, Kenya), Peter Egan

Today’s event was hosted by Eduardo Gonçalves (Founder & Director, Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting) and Sir Roger Gale MP  (Chair, APPG on Banning Trophy Hunting). All guest speakers and hosts spoke eloquently and passionately, reiterating why a ban on hunting trophy imports is needed:

“While the world prepares to mark yet another anniversary of the killing of Cecil the lion, British trophy hunters are bringing home the heads and bodies of lions. 

Many of them were shot in enclosures they could not escape from.

British trophy hunters are also shooting polar bears, elephants, rhinos, and scores of other defenceless and often endangered animals.

The Prime Minister Boris Johnson was right when he said it is time to “end this barbaric practice”. It is now three years since the Queen’s Speech announced that the government would ban ‘trophies’ of animals killed for pleasure by British hunters.

An extensive Defra consultation exercise received 44,000 submissions from conservationists, African community leaders and the British public. Nine out of ten of these expressed support for a ban.

An opinion poll shows that nine out of ten voters want the ban brought in
immediately.

We need this ban now” – “Trophy Hunting & Britain: The Case for a Ban,” June 2022

The Rt Hon George Eustice MP (DEFRA) restated that the government was fully behind The Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Bill which was officially listed in Parliament 15 June 2022. The bill is due to receive its second reading 25 November 2022 – hopefully, quickly passing into enacted United Kingdom legislation thereafter.

His Excellency Seretse Khama Ian Khama (President, Botswana (2008 – 2018)), The Rt Hon George Eustice MP (DEFRA)  and Eduardo Gonçalves (Founder & Director, Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting)

It will be the government’s legislation but presented as a Private Member’s Bill. Henry Smith MP, a longstanding friend of the Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting, will be the bill’s standard bearer.

The APPG on Banning Trophy Hunting also hosted the world premiers of:

“Lions, Bones and Bullets” (Richard Pierce and Jagged Peak Productions) showing the murky depths of the canned lion hunting and lion bone trade;

“Land of the Free: Out of the Shadows”  (James Ganiere, Lynn Santer) exposing the tactics used by the trophy hunting lobbyists.

Further Reading

“US hunting lobby spent £1m on fight to delay UK trophy import ban,” The Guardian, 29 June 2022

“Putin ally Sergey Yastrzhembsky funds British pro-hunting group,” The Times, 29 June 2022 – The Times today reveals that Britain’s pro-hunting lobby is funded by top allies of Vladimir Putin

“Trophy hunters kill every three minutes… and UK marksmen are among deadliest of all with some boasting of shooting monkeys and cats in trees for ‘fun’, report says,” The Mail, 28 June 2022

“Botswana’s ex-president pleads with Boris Johnson to ban hunting trophy imports,” The Independent, 28 June 2022

“Ministers should not be swayed from trophy hunting ban,” The Times, 28 June 2022 – “It takes a particular breed of person — someone rich, bored and lacking in any moral compass — to glory in the killing of defenceless animals for pleasure. Sergey Yastrzhembsky, a former spokesman for President Putin of Russia, is exactly the type, most recently posting a photo of himself with a bighorn sheep he shot in the Rocky Mountains in Montana in January“

“Latest attempt to ban sick trophy hunting imports welcomed by campaigners,” The Mirror, 16 June 2022

Mail on Sunday, 26 June 2022

Sunday Mirror, 26 June 2022

Sunday People, 26 June 2022