Britain takes steps to ban big game hunters from bringing home trophies

This story was originally published by The Guardian and appears here as part of the Climate Table collaboration.

Britons who kill endangered animals abroad for fun will not be able to bring their hunting trophies home, the government announced.

The proposed law will prevent big game hunters from bringing home body parts of 7,000 species, including lions, rhinos, elephants and polar bears. It comes two years after the government promised to introduce a ban.

Environment Secretary George Eustice said the measure was expected to be one of the toughest in the world and would go beyond the government manifesto’s commitment to include near-threatened and threatened species, as well as endangered species. .

“We will be leading the way in protecting endangered animals and helping to strengthen and support long-term conservation,” he said.

The prohibition will apply regardless of whether a trophy was obtained from a wild animal or one bred in captivity specifically for the purpose of hunting trophies. Failure to follow the rules could land hunters in prison for up to five years.

In the past two years, some 300 endangered animal trophies have been sent to the UK, according to the Campaign to Ban Trophy. Hunting.

The campaign’s founder, Eduardo Gonçalves, said the government had not specified a timetable for implementing the legislation.

He said: “The bill, from what we have seen, appears to be in pretty good shape, but it has been two years since it was originally announced in the Queen’s speech, and many animals have been cruelly and unnecessarily killed in that hour. . Therefore, it is really imperative that the government brings the bill to Parliament as quickly as possible. “

Gonçalves said ministers had told him the bill could go to parliament next spring or summer, at which point “another 100 or more animals will potentially be killed and their trophies brought to Britain.”

The proposed law will prevent big game hunters from bringing home body parts of 7,000 species, including lions, rhinos, elephants and polar bears. #United Kingdom #CampaigntoBanTrophyHunting #BanTrophyHunting

He said: “The delay costs lives: every week that passes without this ban means that more animals, including endangered species, are shot by British hunters and their trophies returned to the country. Some of these species are on the way to extinction and certainly the British public is strongly opposed to trophy hunting. “

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has called trophy hunting a “disgusting profession,” and his father, Stanley Johnson, has campaigned widely for the ban.

Plans for a law banning hunting trophies were prompted by the shooting of the lion Cecil in 2015 by American dentist Walter Palmer on a reservation in Zimbabwe.

In 2019, the government consulted on plans for a ban, which received overwhelming public support.

Reference-www.nationalobserver.com

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