The ban will apply whether or not a trophy has been obtained from a wild animal or one bred in captivity specifically for the purpose of trophy hunting.
​
This makes the whole thing so bizarre to me. Louis Theroux did a doc on it years ago, the animal is in a cage about the size of a zoo pen, the owners already set up a hide for you and a weapon is readied on a mount. All you do is go in and depress the trigger. You get as much of a thrill as picking out a steak at aldi
How about trophy husband or wifes that I win in poker?
I’m incredulous that this wasn’t banned decades ago!
It weirds me out some people jump to ‘it helps conservation’ and ‘raises money for animals welfare’ like imagine how mad it would sound if a children’s charity that let you kill some of the kids if you donated. If you cared for restoration to wild animals you wouldn’t need to kill them to donate your wealth.
It’s a big money earner and they don’t really tell you how much goes to conservation (unless they count the tame animals they breed for the hunt as population) and they don’t really have evidence too that the animal was a danger to its own or too infertile to breed when that excuse is used when selling the hide. Blood sports and trophy hunting is bullshit
While this law is good news and a step in the right direction, personally i’d prefer to see prison sentences for anyone found to have engaged in this kind on hunting, wherever in the world it takes place. Not only if they bring trophies home.
I.e. You hunt an endangered animal in Africa, don’t plan on setting foot in the UK again – if you do and there’s evidence, you should expect a lengthy prison sentence.
No doubt someone will be along to talk about jurisdiction and where UK laws apply. To that, i’ll refer you to Gary Glitter, and his disgusting crimes that were actually *committed* in SE Asia. Crimes being committed abroad do not preclude prosecution in the UK.
Watch rich wankers continue to bring them home anyway and for the authorities to turn a blind eye.
The solution is very easy, you can kill whatever animal you want, whether it be a Elephant, Tiger, Lion, Jaguar etc… but you have to do it bear handed.. no weapons at all.
I would happily pay to watch a rich dickless cunt take a Lion with no weapons.
About fvcking time?
How has this not been banned yet?
Its illegal to import ivory (non antique) and crocodile skin handbags.
Why are there British big game hunters? How is that still even a thing?
Can we ban them from coming home?
Ps culture warriors on the hunt for illiberal lefties – that was a joke
They want to hang comprehensive proof that they are selfish murderous twats on their living room walls?
This is a mixed message, since there is definitely a market for trophy-hunting conservationists. You pay a lot of money for a guide to pick out a specific, older animal that is no longer capable of breeding and so its death doesn’t harm the survival of the species. That money is then reinvested in to conservation efforts including keeping the animals away from villager where they’ll be killed or hunting poachers.
So I get it, but I guess it’d be difficult to prove since any documentation or certificates could be faked or require a huge amount of admin.
I’ll offer the flip side of this and say it’s terrible news and very short sighted.
It’s a very emotive subject I understand people getting upset, for the most part we’re don’t have a culture of hunting in the UK so the average person in the street doesn’t have a point of reference to put this into perspective. On top of this the image of Africa/big game hunting we’re presented in the UK bears no resemblances to the reality on the ground and is massively skewed against hunting again due to it not being part of our culture and being made into a political issue.
So you know where I’m coming from I shoot here in the UK to feed myself/family with sustainable meat that isn’t full of antibiotics, battery farmed or washed in chlorine. I’ve also worked in Kenya and South Africa out in the bush (not part of the shooting industry) and seen many people injured and 1 killed out there, it’s no joke.
So that’s a bit of background, the reason why this bad is hunting is run by licenced Professional Hunters (PH) they will a small crew of 2-4 who are full time employees, on top of this they will have a wide network of contacts across the area that they hunt in (farmers, goat herders, stockmen etc…). The PH will maintain a good relationship with these people, with various contractors, government agencies and clients aswell as being out on the ground between hunts (6-12 a year).
Let’s say the PH is out for a drive and gets chatting to the goat herder and it turns out he’s had 6 goats killed by a lion (usually a sign of an aging/injured animal that’s unable to take down wild prey). The goat herder is going to kill the lion but instead the PH says I’ll compensate you for the goats and kill the lion, great says the goat herder saves him a job and a f***ing risky morning. The PH has a client waiting for a lion, quick ring and they’re out hunting. They camp near the goat herders, pay him, his wife and kids to wash pots, cook etc… in the camp.
The goat herder is happy because he gets paid twice and doesn’t have to get killed by a lion, the PH is happy because all the bits have lined up and everyone is still in a job, the client is happy because they have the trophy they want, the government is happy because they’re getting money for their counter-poaching program and it doesn’t know it but the lion is happy because it has an instantaneous death rather than being eaten alive by the hyenas.
In fact the only people that aren’t happy are people on the other side of the planet who don’t have anything to do with hunting and will never go to Africa.
This is dragging on a bit but there is a whole poaching/counter-poaching angle to this but it’s another essay.
TL:DR it sounds good on paper but scratch the surface and it’s a bad move
It’s expensive enough to import, where else am I meant to send my Thai wife?
Time to send them to the ~~taxidermy~~ ethical reuse and recycle disposal company, They send the invoices in nice 10kg boxes.
They shouldn’t be allowed home at all. Leave them there as feed.
It’s a barbaric and old fashioned practice to bring back trophies.
I dont know why anyone would even want to bother in the first place, 12 hour flight to some hunting lodge in the middle of nowhere, just to get up at 6am and shoot a lion from 50 meters? What’s the frickin point! Go and play CoD or something
…..Unless you keep it at a depot at a Freeport. Don’t worry chaps, there’s a way around all the rules if you’ve got the lolly.
Stupid PR move. Trophy hunting is for the most part well regulated and beneficial practice.
Why go abroad to hunt when they can get the thrill right here at home by putting on a blindfold and having them chase the fucking kids if the sad bastards have any.
Who fucking knows it might even bring the family closer together.
This might actually slow down legal hunting, which would be terrible for conservation efforts and for the animals. A lot of people are unaware that legal hunting of controlled numbers actually one of the biggest contributers to conservation efforts and sustaining parks and such in those areas, and funding park rangers etc. to curb uncontrolled poaching.
Probably go the same way as fox hunting. It’s illegal, but we won’t bother checking that you haven’t done it.
As someone who grew up in South Africa and has spent many many months volunteering in conservation, I have mixed feelings over this.
Caged hunting should be banned under all circumstances, it is simply vile. And unregulated hunting of wild animals should also be banned.
However, as sad as it is, hunting can and does play a really valuable role in conservation. Case in point, the reserve where I spent the most time allowed for two animals to be hunted while I was there. One was a female buffalo that was very old and no longer able to breed. The other was a majestic old male lion who had recently been kicked out of his pride and had a few months left to live max. Both animals were hunted with all the correct licenses in place and raised around $200,000 for the reserve. That is huge, huge money that goes directly towards conservation.
Especially now that covid has utterly annihilated tourism, reserves which are at the forefront of conservation are seriously suffering. I wish they had enough money without the need for ‘ethical’ hunting but that sadly isn’t the case. I personally would never ever hunt a wild animal but o do recognise it sadly has a role in conservation at the moment. Maybe in the future it won’t be necessary.
Similar arguments can be made over other conservation issues as viewed by animal rights activists in the west. A prime example is elephant culling. In some areas elephants are seriously overpopulated and this can be catastrophic for the ecosystem. In an ideal world they would be given contraceptives, relocated or given more land. Sadly this is often not possible, mainly due to monetary constraints, and culling becomes the only option to save the wider ecosystem. What would you rather, cull elephants or watch the ecosystem get destroyed? A similar thing is going on with the hippos of Colombia, which should all be culled to prevent further damage to the ecosystem.
Yet another example, far too much money is spent by western charities building fences and hiring guards. This money would be better spent on investing in the people surrounding reserves, building schools and providing employment opportunities. At the end of the day, if you’re dirt poor with no prospects and a criminal offers you money you could only dream of to poach an animal, you wouldn’t hesitate. Who could blame them? Start treating them as part of the solution, not the problem.
Conservation is an extremely complex thing, especially on the ground in some of the poorest places in the world. All too often the west oversimplifies everything and applies morals that simply do not hold water on the front lines of conservation.
Just ban the hunters themselves from returning. Problem solved.
Am I allowed to hunt them while they’re hunting lions? I’d really love to. I’ll just shoot ‘em in the ass a few times, go for the wispering eye.
Is anyone else surprised that there is not already a ban in place?
Good! This practise of ”Sport” hunting is barbaric and should have been criminalised years ago, this is definatly a step in the right direction (which is very unusual for this Tory government – a rare stopped clock moment) anyhow I’m glad to hear this hopefully it will reduce the number of these Sick F*ckers going to Africa to kill animals for no reason but to overcompensate for something…
This boils my piss. Why is this even a thing? Fuck these people.
The UK government announcement that they will not only ban the import of endangered species but threatened species as well – essentially a list of 7000 animals saying this ban will protect them, is a conservation disaster. I appreciate hunting is an emotional issue and many are against it due to there own subjective morals, but time and again it has been proven as a net benefit to the environment in which it takes place.
Conservation hunting, particularly in Africa, is an essential part of sustainable wild life management and it can be explained in the simplest terms.The greatest threat to wildlife is habitat loss. You need habitat for ALL wildlife to survive. What protects the most habitat in Africa and likely across the world? People who hunt. Banning hunting, takes away that protection and all wildlife will suffer not just the wildlife hunted. Approximately 80% of African wildlife is found outside of national parks and so faces many competing interests, many of which destroy and decrease their habitat. So instead of 7,000 species being protected, it’s likely that more than 7,000 species are now imperilled.
It is also interesting in the Governments own press release they quote Humane Society, Born Free, and Eduardo Concalves. No scientist is quoted, no African country leaders are quoted, no community voices or stake holders are represented.This is a serious blow to sustainable conservation, particularly in Africa.
30 comments
The ban will apply whether or not a trophy has been obtained from a wild animal or one bred in captivity specifically for the purpose of trophy hunting.
​
This makes the whole thing so bizarre to me. Louis Theroux did a doc on it years ago, the animal is in a cage about the size of a zoo pen, the owners already set up a hide for you and a weapon is readied on a mount. All you do is go in and depress the trigger. You get as much of a thrill as picking out a steak at aldi
How about trophy husband or wifes that I win in poker?
I’m incredulous that this wasn’t banned decades ago!
It weirds me out some people jump to ‘it helps conservation’ and ‘raises money for animals welfare’ like imagine how mad it would sound if a children’s charity that let you kill some of the kids if you donated. If you cared for restoration to wild animals you wouldn’t need to kill them to donate your wealth.
It’s a big money earner and they don’t really tell you how much goes to conservation (unless they count the tame animals they breed for the hunt as population) and they don’t really have evidence too that the animal was a danger to its own or too infertile to breed when that excuse is used when selling the hide. Blood sports and trophy hunting is bullshit
While this law is good news and a step in the right direction, personally i’d prefer to see prison sentences for anyone found to have engaged in this kind on hunting, wherever in the world it takes place. Not only if they bring trophies home.
I.e. You hunt an endangered animal in Africa, don’t plan on setting foot in the UK again – if you do and there’s evidence, you should expect a lengthy prison sentence.
No doubt someone will be along to talk about jurisdiction and where UK laws apply. To that, i’ll refer you to Gary Glitter, and his disgusting crimes that were actually *committed* in SE Asia. Crimes being committed abroad do not preclude prosecution in the UK.
Watch rich wankers continue to bring them home anyway and for the authorities to turn a blind eye.
The solution is very easy, you can kill whatever animal you want, whether it be a Elephant, Tiger, Lion, Jaguar etc… but you have to do it bear handed.. no weapons at all.
I would happily pay to watch a rich dickless cunt take a Lion with no weapons.
About fvcking time?
How has this not been banned yet?
Its illegal to import ivory (non antique) and crocodile skin handbags.
Why are there British big game hunters? How is that still even a thing?
Can we ban them from coming home?
Ps culture warriors on the hunt for illiberal lefties – that was a joke
They want to hang comprehensive proof that they are selfish murderous twats on their living room walls?
This is a mixed message, since there is definitely a market for trophy-hunting conservationists. You pay a lot of money for a guide to pick out a specific, older animal that is no longer capable of breeding and so its death doesn’t harm the survival of the species. That money is then reinvested in to conservation efforts including keeping the animals away from villager where they’ll be killed or hunting poachers.
So I get it, but I guess it’d be difficult to prove since any documentation or certificates could be faked or require a huge amount of admin.
I’ll offer the flip side of this and say it’s terrible news and very short sighted.
It’s a very emotive subject I understand people getting upset, for the most part we’re don’t have a culture of hunting in the UK so the average person in the street doesn’t have a point of reference to put this into perspective. On top of this the image of Africa/big game hunting we’re presented in the UK bears no resemblances to the reality on the ground and is massively skewed against hunting again due to it not being part of our culture and being made into a political issue.
So you know where I’m coming from I shoot here in the UK to feed myself/family with sustainable meat that isn’t full of antibiotics, battery farmed or washed in chlorine. I’ve also worked in Kenya and South Africa out in the bush (not part of the shooting industry) and seen many people injured and 1 killed out there, it’s no joke.
So that’s a bit of background, the reason why this bad is hunting is run by licenced Professional Hunters (PH) they will a small crew of 2-4 who are full time employees, on top of this they will have a wide network of contacts across the area that they hunt in (farmers, goat herders, stockmen etc…). The PH will maintain a good relationship with these people, with various contractors, government agencies and clients aswell as being out on the ground between hunts (6-12 a year).
Let’s say the PH is out for a drive and gets chatting to the goat herder and it turns out he’s had 6 goats killed by a lion (usually a sign of an aging/injured animal that’s unable to take down wild prey). The goat herder is going to kill the lion but instead the PH says I’ll compensate you for the goats and kill the lion, great says the goat herder saves him a job and a f***ing risky morning. The PH has a client waiting for a lion, quick ring and they’re out hunting. They camp near the goat herders, pay him, his wife and kids to wash pots, cook etc… in the camp.
The goat herder is happy because he gets paid twice and doesn’t have to get killed by a lion, the PH is happy because all the bits have lined up and everyone is still in a job, the client is happy because they have the trophy they want, the government is happy because they’re getting money for their counter-poaching program and it doesn’t know it but the lion is happy because it has an instantaneous death rather than being eaten alive by the hyenas.
In fact the only people that aren’t happy are people on the other side of the planet who don’t have anything to do with hunting and will never go to Africa.
This is dragging on a bit but there is a whole poaching/counter-poaching angle to this but it’s another essay.
TL:DR it sounds good on paper but scratch the surface and it’s a bad move
It’s expensive enough to import, where else am I meant to send my Thai wife?
Time to send them to the ~~taxidermy~~ ethical reuse and recycle disposal company, They send the invoices in nice 10kg boxes.
They shouldn’t be allowed home at all. Leave them there as feed.
It’s a barbaric and old fashioned practice to bring back trophies.
I dont know why anyone would even want to bother in the first place, 12 hour flight to some hunting lodge in the middle of nowhere, just to get up at 6am and shoot a lion from 50 meters? What’s the frickin point! Go and play CoD or something
…..Unless you keep it at a depot at a Freeport. Don’t worry chaps, there’s a way around all the rules if you’ve got the lolly.
Stupid PR move. Trophy hunting is for the most part well regulated and beneficial practice.
Why go abroad to hunt when they can get the thrill right here at home by putting on a blindfold and having them chase the fucking kids if the sad bastards have any.
Who fucking knows it might even bring the family closer together.
This might actually slow down legal hunting, which would be terrible for conservation efforts and for the animals. A lot of people are unaware that legal hunting of controlled numbers actually one of the biggest contributers to conservation efforts and sustaining parks and such in those areas, and funding park rangers etc. to curb uncontrolled poaching.
Probably go the same way as fox hunting. It’s illegal, but we won’t bother checking that you haven’t done it.
As someone who grew up in South Africa and has spent many many months volunteering in conservation, I have mixed feelings over this.
Caged hunting should be banned under all circumstances, it is simply vile. And unregulated hunting of wild animals should also be banned.
However, as sad as it is, hunting can and does play a really valuable role in conservation. Case in point, the reserve where I spent the most time allowed for two animals to be hunted while I was there. One was a female buffalo that was very old and no longer able to breed. The other was a majestic old male lion who had recently been kicked out of his pride and had a few months left to live max. Both animals were hunted with all the correct licenses in place and raised around $200,000 for the reserve. That is huge, huge money that goes directly towards conservation.
Especially now that covid has utterly annihilated tourism, reserves which are at the forefront of conservation are seriously suffering. I wish they had enough money without the need for ‘ethical’ hunting but that sadly isn’t the case. I personally would never ever hunt a wild animal but o do recognise it sadly has a role in conservation at the moment. Maybe in the future it won’t be necessary.
Similar arguments can be made over other conservation issues as viewed by animal rights activists in the west. A prime example is elephant culling. In some areas elephants are seriously overpopulated and this can be catastrophic for the ecosystem. In an ideal world they would be given contraceptives, relocated or given more land. Sadly this is often not possible, mainly due to monetary constraints, and culling becomes the only option to save the wider ecosystem. What would you rather, cull elephants or watch the ecosystem get destroyed? A similar thing is going on with the hippos of Colombia, which should all be culled to prevent further damage to the ecosystem.
Yet another example, far too much money is spent by western charities building fences and hiring guards. This money would be better spent on investing in the people surrounding reserves, building schools and providing employment opportunities. At the end of the day, if you’re dirt poor with no prospects and a criminal offers you money you could only dream of to poach an animal, you wouldn’t hesitate. Who could blame them? Start treating them as part of the solution, not the problem.
Conservation is an extremely complex thing, especially on the ground in some of the poorest places in the world. All too often the west oversimplifies everything and applies morals that simply do not hold water on the front lines of conservation.
Just ban the hunters themselves from returning. Problem solved.
Am I allowed to hunt them while they’re hunting lions? I’d really love to. I’ll just shoot ‘em in the ass a few times, go for the wispering eye.
Is anyone else surprised that there is not already a ban in place?
Good! This practise of ”Sport” hunting is barbaric and should have been criminalised years ago, this is definatly a step in the right direction (which is very unusual for this Tory government – a rare stopped clock moment) anyhow I’m glad to hear this hopefully it will reduce the number of these Sick F*ckers going to Africa to kill animals for no reason but to overcompensate for something…
This boils my piss. Why is this even a thing? Fuck these people.
The UK government announcement that they will not only ban the import of endangered species but threatened species as well – essentially a list of 7000 animals saying this ban will protect them, is a conservation disaster. I appreciate hunting is an emotional issue and many are against it due to there own subjective morals, but time and again it has been proven as a net benefit to the environment in which it takes place.
Conservation hunting, particularly in Africa, is an essential part of sustainable wild life management and it can be explained in the simplest terms.The greatest threat to wildlife is habitat loss. You need habitat for ALL wildlife to survive. What protects the most habitat in Africa and likely across the world? People who hunt. Banning hunting, takes away that protection and all wildlife will suffer not just the wildlife hunted. Approximately 80% of African wildlife is found outside of national parks and so faces many competing interests, many of which destroy and decrease their habitat. So instead of 7,000 species being protected, it’s likely that more than 7,000 species are now imperilled.
It is also interesting in the Governments own press release they quote Humane Society, Born Free, and Eduardo Concalves. No scientist is quoted, no African country leaders are quoted, no community voices or stake holders are represented.This is a serious blow to sustainable conservation, particularly in Africa.