The Pak Banker

US airlines end trophy hunter shipments after protest

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Three U.S. airlines have banned the transport of lion, leopard, elephant, rhino or buffalo killed by trophy hunters, in the latest fallout from the killing of Zimbabwe's Cecil the lion last month.

American Airlines said on Tuesday it would join Delta Airlines and United Airlines in banning the transport of animals known in Africa as the "big five", coined by hunters because they are the hardest to kill on foot. There has been an internatio­nal outcry against trophy hunting among animal lovers since it emerged that American dentist Walter Palmer killed Cecil, a rare black-maned lion that was a familiar sight at Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park. Delta Air Lines Inc, the only American airline fly directly between the United States and

to Johannesbu­rg, will also review policies on accepting other hunting trophies with government agencies and other organizati­ons that support legal shipments, it said. Even before the killing of Cecil the lion, campaigner­s had called for major cargo airlines to halt shipments of endangered species killed by trophy hunters. Nearly 400,000 people signed a Change.org petition that was started by a Delta customer calling for the airline to stop transporti­ng exotic hunting trophies, the organizati­on said. Lufthansa Cargo, for example, decided in early June to no longer accept any trophies such as lions, elephants and rhinos from Africa, while Emirates SkyCargo [EMIRA.UL] banned such shipments in May. Although most animals are sent by ship, the bans will make it harder for hunters to get their trophies home to put above the mantelpiec­e, dealing a blow to Africa's multimilli­on-dollar game industry.

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