https://www.telegraph.co.uk/ne..._scoop_topic=2477469

Cecil the lion: legal hunting can help conservation, says Rory Stewart
Illegal killing of Cecil the lion was "disgusting", environment minister says, but people must understand why legal hunting takes place

Hunting lions legally can help conservation, the environment minister Rory Stewart has said, as he condemned the “disgusting” illegal killing of Cecil the lion.

Mr Stewart said it was “important for people to understand” why hunting big game was legal in some African countries, where it was used to help raise money for conservation efforts.

He also declined to endorse calls from campaigners to ban hunters bringing big game “trophies” such as animal heads or skins back to the UK.

Wildlife groups say import bans would help reduce the demand for big game hunting and several US airlines have voluntarily stopped carrying the trophies in the wake of the outcry over Cecil the lion.

Mr Stewart said the UK was “looking very carefully” at whether it needed to do more but rejected a “short term response”.

He said: “The key thing above all is protecting the lions in Africa. This is about working with African governments. Some of those governments, the South African government for example, is making significant money - which is then reinvested back into lion conservation and parks – from legal hunting.

“Whatever the British government does or the American government does has to be about keeping African governments on side.”

About 60 licences to import hunting trophies to the UK were issued in the past 12 months, which Mr Stewart contrasted with the estimated 25,000 lions alive in Africa.

Only 16 of the 61 licences had been used, and none of them for lion parts, a spokesman for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs later added.

New rules introduced in February already give the UK the right to ban the import of trophies that were legal but not deemed to have been hunted “sustainably”.

Mr Stewart acknowledged concerns about the relationship between legal hunting and the illegal trade in endangered wildlife, including concerns that poached animals could be passed off as legal ones.

But he said he could see the arguments “on both sides” for legal hunting.

He said: “Whether I’m happy with it or not, this practice is legal in certain countries and it’s important for people to understand why it’s legal. It’s legal because conservationists in those countries have long believed that one of the best ways of engaging local populations with conservation and protection is through this practice... they are going to earn incomes and help our big aim here, which is conservation.”

Mr Stewart said the killing of Cecil, a famous 13-year-old lion in Zimbabwe, by an American dentist was a “tragedy” and a “completely horrifying” situation. “That is an illegal action, a disgusting action and one we completely condemn,” he said.

However, he said the death had also had a positive effect because it had “reengaged millions of people in the issue of conservation”.

Mr Stewart was speaking at London Zoo as he announced a new competition to award £5 million of funding to help tackle the trade in rhino horn, elephant ivory and other illegal wildlife products.

Prof Jonathan Baillie, director of conservation at the Zoological Society of London, said: "Trophy hunting is a very complex issue and there has to be very set conditions for it to work. You need very good governance, very good wildlife management, and in reality those conditions are rarely in place.

"So while there is an opportunity for legal hunting to be an asset, a benefit for conservation, there are very specific conditions under which that can happen and those conditions we simply don't see in many of the countries where we have some of these wonderful iconic species."

He added: "I am very sceptical about having trophies shipped around the world and I am very worried about the current state of things and where they are being shipped, and the degree of scrutiny and the extent to which it is actually legal or not."

ZSL would like to see a wider review of the issue of legal hunting, he said.

He urged people upset over the death of Cecil the lion to look at the wider issue of the illegal wildlife trade.

"While this is one animal, you have got over 1,000 rhinos being illegally killed, over 30,000 elephants being killed, 100,000 pangolins being killed [each year]. So we really hope the public focuses on this bigger issue," he said.

Nice to hear a government official support and understand the conservation aspect of legal hunting.

I was under the impression that Cecil was taken legally, if not popularly.

I guess I need to reread about this issue.

Just wait to see what the so called "sick media" idiots will have to say.

Common sense means nothing to them.

quote:

Originally posted by fairgame:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/ne..._scoop_topic=2477469

Cecil the lion: legal hunting can help conservation, says Rory Stewart
Illegal killing of Cecil the lion was "disgusting", environment minister says.....

Wasn't aware the taking of "Cecil" was illegal, otherwise good article.

quote:

Originally posted by 86thecat:

quote:

Originally posted by fairgame:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/ne..._scoop_topic=2477469

Cecil the lion: legal hunting can help conservation, says Rory Stewart
Illegal killing of Cecil the lion was "disgusting", environment minister says.....

Wasn't aware the taking of "Cecil" was illegal, otherwise good article.

As far as the stupid idiots so called “animal lovers” it makes no difference!

I see in the news today that some of them held a demonstration inside a supermarket, trying to stop people buying turkeys for Christmas!

They had loudhailers and accusing shoppers of being murderers!!