British Explorer Ranulph Fiennes: Trophy Hunters "Bullying Bastards", Calls For Import Ban

Banning the import and export of big game hunting trophies would recognise the destructive impact European powers have had on wildlife in former African and Asian colonies, Sir Ranulph Fiennes has said. Speaking to the Guardian, the veteran British explorer said hunting endangered species such as rhinos, elephants and lions to keep their body parts as trophies should be viewed with the same scepticism as Chinese traditional medicine in terms of the damage it does to biodiversity.

The 75-year-old explorer, who spent a large part of his childhood in South Africa, has called for trophy hunting to be “stopped country by country” and said efforts to halt the extinction of wildlife around the world were hypocritical while big game hunting was still allowed.

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Fiennes’s comments come during a consultation by the British government on applying controls to trophy hunting, including a proposal to ban imports, that was laid out in the Queen’s speech. In the wake of the death of Cecil the lion in 2015, France, Netherlands and Australia introduced bans on the import of lion trophies. Last year, the Guardian revealed lion bones, leopard skulls and an ottoman chair’s elephant leather were among the 74 rare animal body parts legally brought into the UK in 2018.

Under international rules overseen by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), trophies can be moved around the world if they do not affect the survival of a species. Fiennes said: “Bearing in mind that climate change is helping to remove animals and in 50 years time probably humans as well, now is the time for us to get into a position without being hypocritical. “We are all hoping that Boris will see that cruelty is what we’re talking about – bullying bastards are involved and people who are vain sticking lovely dead animals on their walls.”

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/17/ranulph-fiennes-labels-trophy-hunters-bullying-bastards-and-calls-for-uk-import-ban-aoe