Two years after its introduction, the British government is finally moving forward with a ban on trophy hunting imports. The new law, which bans bringing back trophies from exotic animal hunts, plans to protect 7,000 species threatened by international trade.
The law is expected to go before Parliament for a vote in spring or early summer of next year. According to the All-Parliamentary Group on Banning Trophy Hunting, British hunters have imported more than 25,000 trophies since the 1980s, including 5,000 from species at risk of extinction like lions, elephants, black rhinos, white rhinos, cheetahs, polar bears, and leopards.
The bill was first conceived following the killing of Cecil the lion in 2015 by an American hunter who lured the animal out of its protected habitat. Conservationists urge that making it illegal to bring back trophies will significantly dissuade hunters from traveling abroad to hunt threatened animals in the first place. We will continue to follow this bill and report on its progress.
April 2023 Update: Plans for this ban are now set to become law after years in the making. It was approved by the Members of Parliament and will now face the House of Lords (BBC News).
