00:00I think a lot of people thought it was a one-off, that it was just maybe something done every
00:05now and again by Americans.
00:08And what the documentary and indeed the books that go with it show that firstly, it's a
00:12massive industry.
00:13So since Cecil was killed in 2015, 10,000 more lions have been shot by trophy hunters.
00:20And indeed, tens of thousands of endangered animals are shot every year by trophy hunters.
00:24And it also shows that British people are shooting lions.
00:28They're shooting elephants, giraffes, cheetahs, leopards, et cetera.
00:32So some of the most endangered animals in the world.
00:36Now, some trophy hunters are killing literally hundreds of animals.
00:40Indeed, in some cases, thousands.
00:42Indeed, there was one British man that we met.
00:45He had 500 trophies.
00:47And we also found that there are British companies that are selling these trophy hunting package
00:52holidays where you can shoot 10, 20 animals.
00:56Some of the most endangered animals like lions and elephants.
01:00Well, public opinion is certainly against this sort of behaviour, but it continues.
01:04What does that tell us about the current system?
01:08It's very interesting that since the story of Cecil came out, there have been a lot of moves
01:15to try to stop trophy hunting.
01:18And indeed, several countries in Europe have gone ahead and implemented bans on hunting trophies.
01:24And indeed, in 2015, the British government, Liz Truss and then Rory Stewart, who are the
01:29different ministers, they said they would ban lion trophies.
01:32And then the Conservative government in 2019 said it would do a comprehensive ban.
01:38And yet here we are still, you know, 10 years after Cecil.
01:41And we still have the situation of not having a ban, despite the fact that public opinion
01:46is absolutely behind a ban.
01:48And indeed, virtually all parties are behind a ban as well.
01:52So what action are you calling for right now?
01:55So we want the government to implement an immediate moratorium on imports of hunting trophies of
02:01endangered species.
02:03It is absolutely unthinkable that we're still allowing British people to shoot cheetahs for
02:08fun and bring their bodies home when there's only six and a half thousand cheetahs left in
02:12the world and they're Africa's most endangered big cat.
02:15Similarly, African elephants are now considered as endangered by IUCN, the World Conservation
02:20Body.
02:20And yet British hunters are still bringing home their bodies, their skins, their tusks,
02:24even their ears and feet and so on and so forth.
02:27This is something that the government can do right now, today.
02:30It's exactly what many European countries have done, in fact.
02:33So there's no reason why we can't just go ahead.
02:37Opinion poll after opinion poll suggests that the British public are massively against this
02:42sort of hunting.
02:42Do you think legislation should go further to prosecute British citizens who kill endangered
02:48animals when they're abroad?
02:50There is, in fact, already a bill that's been written by DEFRA, the Environment Ministry,
02:55and indeed the government was going to bring it forward in the last parliamentary session.
03:00But then it said it ran out of time and it asked a backbencher, the Conservative MP for
03:04Crawley, Henry Smith, to take it forward.
03:06And indeed it passed in the House of Commons unanimously.
03:10And it was only when it got to the Lords that it was held up by a couple of unelected peers.
03:17And then it came back to the Commons.
03:19Again, it passed unanimously.
03:20And then we ran out of time because the general election was called.
03:24So there is already a ready-made bill that's there that can be brought to the House straight
03:29away.
03:30Now, some would argue that trophy hunting supports conservation and also local jobs.
03:35How do you respond to that argument?
03:37Trophy hunting does very little for conservation and it supports very, very few jobs.
03:42So if you look, for example, at Tanzania and Kenya, which are side by side and have many
03:47of the same populations of wildlife, very, very little money goes towards conservation
03:52in Tanzania.
03:53Whereas in Kenya, 15% of the country's GDP is now as a result of photo safaris.
04:01And it's now the one country in Africa where lion populations are going up, elephant populations
04:06are going up, and black and white rhino populations are going up too.
04:09The Labour government pledged to ban hunting trophy imports, but a year on, no legislation
04:15has been introduced.
04:16Ministers say a wider animal welfare strategy is on the way, but campaigners argue progress
04:22has stalled.
04:23For now, the promised ban remains on hold, with no date confirmed for when it might return
04:29to Parliament.
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