BIG LAME HUNTERS
CASHED-UP Australian trophy hunters paying to kill endangered animals in countries like Africa are shipping body parts from their kills back home as souvenirs.
Furious animal activists want the practice banned, as it can be revealed our authorities have rubber-stamped the importation of “trophies” from 200 vulnerable or threatened species including hippos, giraffes, zebras, bears and vervet monkeys in the past three years.
Since 2012, more than 1000 import permits have been issued.
And, alarmingly, in just six weeks since January 10 import permits were dished out for 14 trophies for the near-threatened Siberian Ibex and Marco Polo sheep.
It comes as details have emerged about increasing numbers of “great fun” group hunts being spruiked starting at $10,000 with everything arranged from flights to trophy preparation and shipment to Australia.
A social media storm erupted this
month when Survivor reality TV contestant Paige Donald was shown posing with dead animals on her Instagram. However, these were feral animals and not endangered species, making her completely different to the big game hunters and there is no suggestion she would hunt a threatened species.
The pictures were pointed out by fellow contestant and Australian filmmaker Rogue Rubin – who feuded with Ms Donald on the show – and who has campaigned tirelessly to stop the killing of African animals.
Ms Rubin, 35, who produced the documentary, Lion Spy, where she went undercover to film the killing
of lions, wants a ban on all trophy hunting of endangered species.
“I would like to see an immediate halt in Australia to the importation of animal trophies of vulnerable, threatened or endangered species and for Australia to implement a version of the Henry Smith MP bill,” said Ms Rubin.
Henry Smith introduced a bill to the British parliament last year pushing for ban on the import of all trophies from threatened species, saying it is “madness when so much wildlife is at risk of extinction”. The Italian parliament is also considering a similar ban.
Last year 136 conservation and
animal protection organisations from around the world, including 45 NGOS from African countries, called for a ban on imports.
A spokeswoman for the Environment Department said they are watching the progress of the Henry Smith bill.
The federal Government has banned all imports of endangered lions, rhino and elephant trophies but still allows vulnerable or near threatened species to be imported – if the hunter has paperwork saying it was acquired and exported legally.
But there have been reported cases from African countries involving high-quality counterfeit documents, faked permits and corrupt officials making black market trades.
Dr Megan Kessler from Humane Society International said Australia was now among the world’s 10th largest importer of hunting trophies and despite “hippos, zebras, giraffes, bears and vervet monkeys all being on the mammals endangered species list, they are still being imported”.
Trophy hunters, however, argue the money they pay to hunt the big game goes back into conservation.
Markus Michalowitz from Down Under Taxidermy and Hunting, who leads hunting tours to Namibia, said these animals were bred for hunting: “It is farming on a large scale”.
However economist Dr Cameron K. Murray concluded in a report The Lion’s Share: On The Economic Benefits Of Trophy Hunting, that it does not automatically provide incentives for conservation.
Ms Rubin warns the world is at a tipping point. “When people tell me of their African dreams I say: ‘Go now, go today!’ because if we continue to turn a blind eye there will be no animals,” she said.