Earlier this week, Andrew attended a campaign event with actress Dame Joanna Lumley and legendary explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes to pledge his continued support for the campaign to stop British trophy hunters bringing home the heads and bodies of endangered wildlife.
A new report by the Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting – published on the 9th anniversary of the killing of Cecil the lion by American dentist Walter Palmer – shows that BRITISH trophy hunters are also killing lions. It also reveals that British trophy hunters have killed thousands of elephants, hippos, giraffes and other endangered animals including rhinos and polar bears. A number of British companies are selling trophy hunting ‘holidays’ in Africa where trophy hunters can shoot hand-reared lions in enclosures.
Andrew said “this is an issue many constituents feel very strongly about and I, too, have long supported a ban on the import of hunting trophies to the UK. It is a cruel and unjustifiable activity which acts as a cover for illegal poaching and only helps to push endangered wildlife closer to extinction.
Tens of thousands of animals are killed each year, purely for fun, so that people can take photos, dismember the animal and bring home a souvenir.
Hunting such beautiful creatures for sport is barbaric and should be condemned to the history books and I can assure you I will continue to support action to implement a ban on trophy hunting imports”.
Joanna Lumley said the government needed to bring in a complete ban on hunting trophies. “The British people want a comprehensive ban – not one riddled with loopholes and exemptions. It must be brought to the House of Commons immediately. It’s high time this ban was in place.”
Ranulph Fiennes said: “I’m 100% behind the work to bring an end to this disgrace. It’s high time we had a comprehensive ban on these sick souvenirs of innocent animals killed for so-called sport. What kind of world are we living in where this is still allowed? I’m really pleased Andrew Western MP is campaigning to stop this.”
Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting founder Eduardo Gonçalves said: “We often think of trophy hunters as crazed gun-toting Americans, so it’s a shock to many people to learn that large numbers of lions and other animals are killed every year by British trophy hunters. It’s fantastic that Andrew Western MP has taken up the cudgels on this issue. Polls repeatedly show that voters want these sordid mementoes banned and trophy hunting abolished.”
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