Trophy hunting: Import ban

While the tourist season is in full swing, animal welfare NGOs around the globe call for a ban on hunting trophy imports. Special attention is given to the U.S. and EU travellers, who are the major clients of modern taxidermists. In a joint position manifesto 137 conservation and animal protection organisations from all around the world, including 45 NGOs from the African continent, took a stand against trophy hunting and urged lawmakers to ban imports. “Trophy hunting stands out among the worst forms of wildlife exploitation and is neither ethical nor sustainable. In the face of the man-made global biodiversity crisis, it is unacceptable that exploitation of wildlife simply for acquiring a hunting trophy is still permitted and that trophies can still be legally imported. It is high time that governments end this detrimental practice” Mona Schweizer, Ph.D., from Pro Wildlife said. The statistics point to a huge ongoing crisis in the field of animal conservation: from 2014 to 2018 almost 125,000 trophies of species protected under CITES - the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species - were imported globally, with the U.S. and the EU clients leading in fetishism, ensuring flows of commissions to the taxidermists.