With the decline of wildlife worldwide, and many species approaching extinction, how can there be justification in trophy hunting?

Ten years ago, the world learnt about the horrifying killing of Cecil the lion by an American dentist, Walter Palmer. Today it is learning about the terrifying scale of killing – even of endangered animals – that continues with the tacit blessing of governments. Policymakers have had 10 years since Cecil was killed to act. Now they have no more excuses.

What century are we living in? How can we call ourselves a civilisation if we think murdering animals for a laugh is OK? Trophy hunters are spoilt little brats; haven’t they got enough toys to play with. They’re wiping out wildlife. Soon there will be nothing left for them to kill. How are we going to explain that to future generations? Let’s get it banned.

We need to come to our senses now and say enough is enough. For centuries, Spain and her South American colonies have undertaken thousands of bullfights. Bullfighting is now unpopular and has started to be banned. In the UK, fox hunting has also been outlawed. It is time to add trophy hunting to this list.I believe that the pastime of trophy hunting is one of the vilest and cruellest so-called sports that there is. The idea that a person can go out and for pleasure shoot and maim a proud wild animal is wholly unacceptable. To then allow the importation of the product of that slaughter is worse.

Trophy hunting really is the lowest of the low. These people, these wealthy sadists, get on a plane and pay huge sums of money with the sole intention of killing as many animals as they can and then they get a prize for it. I find it staggering that the government allows trophy hunters to bring these sick souvenirs into the country. I find it equally staggering that it allows foreign hunters to come to the UK to shoot animals here and take their trophies away with them. We need a blanket ban. We need to put an end to this grotesque barbarism.

Dr Jane Goodall DBE was a longstanding supporter of the Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting. We at the Institute are committed to continuing that legacy in her name. As Dr Goodall said: ‘Trophy hunting is not only cruel but it is having a negative effect on endangered and threatened wildlife. Each one of these animals is an individual, with a personality, a mind, and emotions.

We have a common responsibility to care for our planet. To think that animals are hunted for fun, when their death serves no other purposes than the provision of a ‘trophy’, is frankly offensive. Trophy hunting is cruel, meaningless, and a cowardly plundering of our animal world.

Trophy hunting is an abomination masquerading as a means of 'conservation'. CITES have found that trophy hunters have killed thousands of individuals that belong to species threatened with extinction. Killing animals whose numbers are declining is antithetical to conservation.

At a time when the number of wild animals has declined across the world, it is madness to allow tens of thousands of them to be killed for trophies. Trophy hunting is cruel and unethical, and does evolutionary damage to the species affected. Many of the targets are keystone species in globally important ecosystems.

The workers on South Africa's wildlife ranches are often exploited as deeply as they were during apartheid, and perhaps even more so in some cases. Trophy hunting is the quintessential expression of a colonial endeavour. Switching in an organised fashion from trophy hunting to nature tourism could create many times more jobs in South Africa in poorer rural areas.

The entire premise of trophy hunting as conservation is based on a quicksand foundation of false promises. LionAid’s 2025 assessment reveals an estimated total of 13,014 lions in eastern and southern Africa, and a critically low figure of 342 lions in western and central Africa. This underscores the alarming decline in lion populations and the urgent need for robust conservation measures, including the need to tackle the impact of trophy hunting

Trophy hunting continues to target species that are threatened and endangered, including CITES Appendix I animals that should only be traded in “exceptional circumstances”. With the majority of trophies imported by just a handful of countries, this is a policy failure, not a conservation success. Protecting wildlife means ending this trade, not managing its decline. Conservation policy must catch up with reality and end the hunting of threatened species.

Trophy hunting is not an African tradition. The whole world needs to come together and stop these hideous acts to make sure that we do not lose species out of human greed. Western governments need to ban the importation of trophies.

I believe that the pastime of trophy hunting is one of the vilest and cruellest so-called sports that there is. The idea that a person can go out and for pleasure shoot and maim a proud wild animal is wholly unacceptable. To then allow the importation of the product of that slaughter is worse.

I believe that the pastime of trophy hunting is one of the vilest and cruellest so-called sports that there is. The idea that a person can go out and for pleasure shoot and maim a proud wild animal is wholly unacceptable. To then allow the importation of the product of that slaughter is worse.

As a conservationist, and as someone directly involved in working to save persecuted species, I can say from first-hand experience that hunting for ‘sport’ is putting tremendous pressure on our wildlife. Trophy hunting is simply inexplicable and inexcusable, and those who practice it need to take a long, hard look at themselves and what they’re doing. Frankly, they are absolutely despicable in my view.

The numbers are simply appalling. Advocates for Trophy Hunting are often blind to its long-term impacts on the hunted species, especially those threatened with extinction.

Elephants are remarkable, intelligent, sentient beings and are a lot nicer than us. They mourn, and killing one of them disrupts the herd, and the only person happy is the wealthy American hunter posing on his kill. The argument of money for conservation is a myth. Elephants have been going to Botswana from other countries because they know it is safe. We must keep it that way!

People in the future are going to look back at us and say – what the hell were they thinking? There’s a wildlife extinction crisis going on, and we let people go on killing sprees and shooting endangered animals for fun. Worse still, we’re breeding and killing some of them in enclosures. How stupid and sick is that?

Trophy hunting isn’t just appalling for the beautiful creatures concerned; it also does something terrible to our common humanity.

Trophy hunting is utterly cruel, utterly unnecessary and utterly disastrous from a conservation perspective. It inflicts pain and suffering on animals for no other reason other than to boast of some ephemeral ‘prowess’. There is no material human need met by it: it is a hobby, pure and simple, and a deeply wrong one at that.

Trophy hunting should be banned across the world and that ban should be enforced very strongly. It’s completely wrong that we’re allowing people to kill animals, particularly endangered species. The argument that it’s good for local communities is completely bogus. The money goes to the rich people and we could actually help communities far better by promoting nature tourism. There’s an alternative to this slaughter. We need the ban.

Wildlife can’t wait for any more. Every year that goes by without this ban in place means hundreds more animals are killed by British trophy hunters just for kicks. We’ve just had the COP summit in Glasgow where politicians were discussing how to save wildlife such as polar bears that could go extinct as a result of climate change. Yet trophy hunters are still allowed to shoot polar bears and bring their bodies back to Britain. It’s utter insanity. This is a bill that enjoys wide cross-party support and is backed by 85% of voters. This Christmas, the government can give innocent wild animals the gift of life by throwing its support behind this bill.

There’s no doubting the government’s commitment to the ban. However, having built up expectations, they now need to see it through. It’s a policy that has tremendous support around the country. The government is understandably trying to get through a lot of legislation and dealing with the Covid crisis at the same time. But it can’t let this ban fall by the wayside. By adopting this bill, the government will be showing its determination to ban animals from being senselessly slaughtered just for a sick souvenir.

British trophy hunters are among the most ruthless of the lot. They joke about having a few beers and shooting monkeys. They laugh about shooting cats out of trees. They brag about luring leopards with bait so they can shoot them at point-blank range. They celebrate blasting big holes out of zebras and killing some of the world’s biggest lions, elephants, and rhinos. All trophy hunting needs to stop. It’s just as wrong to kill a reindeer for kicks as it is to kill a rhino. We don’t have the right to murder living creatures for entertainment.

I simply cannot understand what pleasure someone can get from killing an animal for kicks. It seems we are condemning wildlife to not just a cruel death but also to a needless and senseless extinction. We must halt the slide while there is still time. We should do everything we can to persuade the government to act swiftly.

Wildlife faces many serious threats. Unregulated trophy hunting adds extra pressure on vulnerable species. It is unethical and unnecessary. It is right that Britain stops the trade-in trophies.

Trophy hunters are shooting some of the world’s most vulnerable wildlife. Virtually all animals targeted by the industry are seeing dramatic falls in numbers. I hope the government acts against all forms of trophy and canned hunting. It’s a disgraceful activity and needs to be banned now.

I’m against trophy hunting because our planet’s wildlife faces unprecedented threats through habitat destruction, climate change, and crucially from trophy hunting. You’ve got bears, cheetahs, elephants and hippopotamuses who are killed for so-called sport. There’s nothing sporting about animal cruelty, suffering and death.

I’m appalled and disgusted by this so-called ‘sport’. I have been lucky enough to visit Africa many times and see these beautiful wild animals. I would like my grandchildren to be able to do the same someday.

I have always considered trophy hunting the lowest of the low: contemptible, hollow triumphalism which we would laugh to scorn if the consequences weren’t so utterly grim and cruel. Weasel words and twisted evidence will try to show the benefits of this hateful past-time; but the truth is as plain as can be: killing animals for fun is just disgusting.

Some of the world’s most extraordinary wildlife has been decimated by persecution and habitat loss. Elephants, lions, leopards, cheetahs and rhinos are all fighting for their lives. We could see all of them go extinct within a generation. Letting people kill them because they think it’s entertaining is just insane, especially when you’re talking about wildlife with such a vulnerable status. Trophy hunting has always been senseless cruelty.

Trophy hunting has had its ugly day in the sun. It’s not a sport, in sport, there is fair competition, here the animals die and the humans sit on their corpses for a selfie. Trophy hunting is about killing wildlife and when more and more species are heading toward the brink of extinction it’s no longer ethically or morally acceptable.

Trophy hunters are not conservationists. They are people who kill animals for fun. They then make up excuses to try and justify their so-called ‘sport’. If trophy hunting was good for conservation, why have lion populations fallen from 450,000 in the 1950s to just 20,000 today? Why have elephant numbers fallen from over 1 million in the 1980s to just 400,000 today? Why are rhinos, cheetahs, leopards, hippos and giraffes ALL in serious trouble?

It is a fallacy propagated by advocates of trophy and canned hunting that they are acting altruistically for conservation and indigenous communities, when the truth is, that the majority of fees go to line the pockets of governments and the local capitalists involved., and the continued poverty of the inhabitants is mainly due to Government corruption.

Who in their right mind flies halfway around the world to kill a rare and beautiful animal that’s been bred in a cage just so they can shoot it for fun? Trophy hunting is utterly despicable. We need a ban, and we need it now.

I feel very strongly about this, as does the British public. There is no justification for trophy hunting. There is even less justification for killing endangered wildlife for entertainment. I am totally and utterly against trophy hunting. We must ban this vile practice from the UK. We should all do everything we can to rid ourselves of this disgusting so-called sport.

The numbers don’t lie: trophy hunters are slaughtering thousands of animals every year, and wildlife populations are plummeting. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that the hunters’ claims that it’s good for ‘conservation’ are illogical. We need action by the government to stop this terrible trade and to help bring a worldwide end to all trophy hunting.