There is still time to #GetTheBanDone on trophy hunting imports
Sonul Badiani-Hamment, Country Director
| FOUR PAWS UK
The British public’s patience is ‘up to eleven’ as the nationally backed Trophy Hunting (Import Prohibition) Bill is derailed.
MP Henry Smith’s widely backed Trophy Hunting (Import Prohibition) Bill is still being held hostage in the House of Lords and looks set to remain there despite MPs being ready to discuss the Bill this coming Friday.
Over 80% of the British public, cross-party MPs and the Government itself had supported, nay demanded, this popular Bill, which had promised to protect over 6,000 at-risk species across the world. Whilst not actively stopping British hunters from being free to take part in gruesome hunts overseas, this Bill would have stopped their spoils from being transported into the United Kingdom. It offered a solid step towards a future that could see an end to the needless and barbaric cruelty of trophy hunting.
However, during the latest stage in its political journey in the House of Lords, a handful of just 11 backbencher peers took a metaphorical shotgun to this Bill, tabling dozens of ‘amends’ that have destroyed the progression of the Bill and derailed its purpose.
Their myriad of 64 tabled amendments was a wasteful course of action, politically unprecedented and wilfully taken by a minority of peers to prevent the Bill from becoming law.
And this, tragically, is where this landmark Bill has stalled and fallen into political purgatory. In limbo and unable to progress, despite the overwhelming support of cross-party MPs, the Government and British public who want to see a fairer future for animals.
Thwarting the wishes of Parliament and impacting at-risk and endangered animals around the world, this move will impact at-risk and endangered animals around the world.
With such widespread support, we hope the Government can now seize control of the agenda in the House of Lords and deliver this legislation as a Government Bill in the next Parliamentary session.
If they act fast, with power and certainty, there is still time for them to deliver on their promises and finally #GetTheBanDone.
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