Two tonnes of tusks in UK over the past decade

Big-game hunters have freely brought almost two tonnes of elephant tusks to the UK from Africa over the past decade, a campaigning group has said.

Some 400 dismembered parts taken as “trophies” from some of the world’s most endangered animals like Nile crocodiles, lions, and rhinos have also been brought to Britain in recent years, the Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting said.

A cross-party group of MPS including Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Conservative Zac Goldsmith have backed the group’s calls for an urgent ban on importing hunting trophies, which is currently exempt under international rules.

Hunters often pay tens of thousands of pounds to go on safari killing expeditions and are free to bring trophies home owing to an “extraordinary loophole” in CITES legislation (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species), the campaign said.

Eduardo g on calves, from the campaign, said poachers posing as trophy hunters were even taking advantage of the rule to export and sell items like rhino horns. A spokeswoman for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “The UK government will not issue an import permit for a trophy unless the importer can show there has been no detrimental impact.”