Trophy hunting is exploitation, not conservation
Posted 15th April 2019
On the 13th April I joined around 200 people at Birmingham’s first march against trophy hunting. A team of my colleagues also took part in the sister march in London. This was part of a global day of marches around the world asking to end all imports of animal trophies into the country and to protest about trophy hunting.
When people think about trophy hunting they often think of it happening to Elephants, Rhinos, Lions and Tigers abroad. The crowd were horrified to hear that the disturbing reality is that trophy hunting is also happening here in the UK under our very noses. Since 2018 the League has been working with Bedfordshire Against Trophy Hunting who exposed the story that trophy hunting is taking place at Woburn Deer Park in Bedfordshire. Specialist tour companies are offering hunters from all over the world packages to shoot any of the species roaming the park.
Deer are bred to have extremely large antlers and are then offered up to hunters for around £25,000. If £25k is out of your price range, then it’s also possible to shoot a Soay sheep for £600 or even a wallaby is on the list for £220. Many years ago the Duke of Bedford saved The Pere David deer from extinction, now its on the list for Trophy hunters.
The League Against Cruel Sports believes the Trophy hunting industry is totally unjustifiable from both an animal welfare and conservation point of view. it’s pushing some of the worlds most threatened species towards extinction and we will continue to campaign against it. Trophy hunting is not conservation it is exploitation!
Please follow our campaign supporting Bedfordshire Against trophy hunting. They are also on Facebook and Twitter and there is a petition to sign. A demo will be taking place outside Woburn Deer Park on the 6th May. Please join us if you can.
Thank you to all our supporters who came and helped us give out leaflets and to everyone else that attended. If you want to join our West Midlands supporter group please take a look please take a look here.
Many thanks to the organisers for inviting us and allowing me to speak and spread the word on UK trophy hunting.