MP’s bid to block import of hunters’ ‘barbaric’ trophies
TROPHY hunters will be banned from bringing their “abhorrent spoils” into Britain.
MPs from all parties are backing calls to end the practice – a 2019 Tory manifesto pledge.
Labour MP John Spellar is leading the Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Bill, which has its second reading today.
Mr Spellar said: “By passing this Bill, Parliament will send a strong message of deterrence to these barbaric hunters – your spoils cannot be brought back into Britain.
“I hope this will go some way to ending British complicity in this abhorrent practice.”
A similar Private Members’ Bill backed by Tory MP Henry Smith was last year thwarted by the tactics of a minority of peers. Mr Smith called it a “terrible denial of democracy”.
But Botswana’s wildlife minister Dumezweni Mthimkhulu is making renewed efforts to stop the Bill. He
has threatened to send 10,000 elephants to Hyde Park “to have a taste of living alongside them”.
The southern African country fears a loss of safari hunt revenue, which it says will hamper wildlife conservation and impoverish villagers.
Mr Mthimkhulu, who is in London, said elephants “are killing children” and numbers have to be controlled.
He said: “Botswana is the most successful country in the world at looking after elephants, buffalo and
lions.We don’t want colonial interference from Britain.”
The practice of trophy hunting was highlighted when Cecil the lion was shot by an American hunter in 2015.
Conservation charity Born Free said hunters “target the animals that make the best trophies because they have the largest tusks, the biggest horns, or the darkest manes”.
It said they are “key individuals” and their removal has “profound implications” for wildlife groups.