WORKERS NEED OUR SUPPORT PM must be healer

The latest estimates put the remaining population of this most majestic of animals at less than 35,000.

But they are now one of the most popular trophies for wealthy British hunters who pay thousands of pounds to brutally kill them.

In April 2018 the International Union for the Conservation of Nature officially listed zebras as vulnerable.

And tragically the death count is going up.

Yet unbelievably there are hardly any legal restrictions on shooting wild animals for fun, including zebras – and the killings continue.

Hunters such as Andy Denson and Pete Livesey, who our investigation today shows enjoying cheap thrills on South African safaris, are not doing anything illegal.

But that does not make their sick hobby right.

They claim they are helping conservation, but the benefits are dubious at best.

Evidence suggests it is causing harm to endangered species and that proceeds from the killings rarely, if ever, reach local communities.

Attitudes are changing. Australia and France have introduced a ban on trophy hunting and the Netherlands have the strictest ban.

We applaud animal welfare minister Zac Goldsmith, who yesterday revealed there will be an urgent consultation on stopping the imports of trophy hunt parts.

And today we urge him: A ban cannot come soon enough. THE personal stories of heartbreak following the collapse of Thomas Cook are just shocking.

A couple missing their dream wedding, parents telling their children they won’t be going on their long-awaited Christmas holidays, and a widow stranded during a trip to scatter her husband’s ashes.

I’m disappointed to hear how the firm’s 9,000 UK employees were left in the lurch after the travel company ceased trading.

The Government could – and should – have done more to intervene. Thousands of workers haven’t been paid and some are stranded abroad, despite £20million paid in bonuses to Thomas Cook directors in the past five years.

These are the people who have made so many of our family holidays possible.

I fully support their protest this week.