Thank you for contacting me about trophy hunting. I note your request for me to sign EDM 50, which called for a ‘Ban on trophy hunting imports’. Unfortunately, as this EDM fell at the end of the previous parliamentary session, I am unable to oblige this request. Nevertheless, I would like to take this opportunity to share with you my views on this important subject.
Killing animals to display their heads, horns, antlers or hides as ‘trophies’ is cruel and unjustifiable. This is why I endorsed the Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting, and have consistently voted to ban all forms of hunting in Parliament. Trophy hunting can also be used as a cover for illegal poaching as traffickers pass off illegal wildlife products as legal. It only helps push endangered wildlife closer to extinction and brings unnecessary suffering to animals.
A report by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) in 2016 found that at least 1.7 million animal ‘trophies’ were traded between countries over the previous decade. Of this number, 200,000 trophies were from threatened species.
I support ending the import of wild animal trophies from threatened species, and any ban should cover all species above ‘least concern’ on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species. This would include species classed as vulnerable, endangered, critically endangered, and extinct in the wild. I further believe that hunting holidays should not be legal.
Currently, the import of hunting trophies is legal if the animal is licensed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). However, the trade is exacerbating the decline of threatened species and causes unnecessary suffering to animals.
Following a consultation on options to restrict the import and export of hunting trophies into the UK, which closed on 25 February 2020, the Government announced in December 2021 that it intends to ban the import of hunting trophies from nearly 7,000 endangered, threatened, and near-threatened species. It also stated it will introduce legislation to deliver this.
I am aware of media reports surrounding the future of this legislation and the Government’s reiteration of its commitment to ban trophy hunting. No legislation has yet been published but I will continue to follow developments closely.
Thank you once again for contacting me and sharing your views. I can assure you that I will continue to press for urgent action to be taken to ban these imports.
Yours sincerely,
Barry Gardiner
Member of Parliament for Brent North