https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/...asts-stupid-28612110


Top wildlife expert blasts 'stupid' trophy hunters as imports ban gathers pace

The world's leading chimpanzee expert, Dame Jane Goodall, hit out at hunters who travel the world to shoot animals and bring their body parts back to Britain to mount on their walls and show off to their friends



By Ben Glaze Deputy Political Editor
17:00, 29 Nov 2022 UPDATED17:01, 29 Nov 2022



Leading wildlife conservationist Dame Jane Goodall has launched a blistering attack on trophy hunters as she hailed a looming ban on imports of their sick souvenirs after a Mirror-backed campaign.

Marksmen who target endangered species may be “mentally diseased” or “stupid”, the top chimpanzee expert told a Westminster reception.

Dame Jane, 88, was speaking after a parliamentary Bill aimed at banning hunters bringing their sick souvenirs back to Britain cleared its latest hurdle.

She held a placard paying tribute to Cecil the lion, whose killing in 2015 in Zimbabwe by American dentist Walter Palmer shocked the world and shone a light on trophy hunting, which she branded “a very black mark on humanity”.

“I have tried very, very hard to get into the mind of a trophy hunter … I have struggled to get into the mind of someone who can behave like this,” revealed Dame Jane.


“We are supposed to be a nation of animal lovers and yet we have these people, so what is motivating them? How can they feel pride?”

Highlighting how hunters used powerful long-range rifles to kill their prey from distance, she stormed: “Where is the courage? There’s no courage at all.”

She added: "The people who do it, I find whether they are mentally diseased or they are stupid, I don’t know. Maybe some of you can work it out, but I can’t.”


Dame Jane warned it was not just wildlife killed which suffered, but also other animals in their pride or herd.

“All of these animals who are being hunted by these people who just want bragging rights and the biggest heads on their walls, to boast to their friends who come and visit them - these animals all have personalities, they all have minds, they are all intelligent and they can all have emotions,” she said.

“They can all feel happiness, sadness, fear, pain and they can grieve.

“It’s not just trophy hunting - each individual animal is suffering.”


Foreign Office Minister Lord Zac Goldsmith said: “People who relish in killing these extraordinary animals, dismembering them, putting pieces on their walls and decorating their houses - I think there is something psychopathic about it.

“Who would want to shoot a gorilla? Who would want to shoot a lion? Who would want to shoot an elephant?”

Blasting the “moral debauchery that leads someone to want to kill one of nature’s great creatures”, he said the “kind of person who would derive pleasure from such a thing is someone who is so far removed from any normal person”.


Conservative backbencher Sir Roger Gale, who chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Trophy Hunting, lashed out at the “bizarre, perverse, perverted, self-gratification of going to Africa and murdering Africa’s animals”.

Tory MP Henry Smith is leading the fight to block hunters from bringing animal skins, severed heads and carcasses back to Britain after shoots abroad.



Mr Smith said: “We can really lead the way in consigning trophy hunting to the history books.”

Backing the Bill, former Shadow Environment Secretary Baroness Sue Hayman urged MPs and peers to help “bring an end to this really disgusting practice that I simply can’t get my head around”.

She said: “This has wide, cross-party support so there’s no reason why we can’t get it through.”

She needs to stick to monkeying with her monkey!

Reports I have seen say there was a lot of hanky panky going on with her time with the monkeys.

Things she definitely does not want to see in public.

No idea if it is true.

But, she is just another glorified Bimbo!

Some people just Can't Understand Normal Thinking.

Crying for attention!

Note that as a scientist her entire argument is emotional.

Maybe instead of separation of religion it should be separation of emotion and government.

Nothing about hunting being a threat to the existince of those species.

quote:

“They can all feel happiness, sadness, fear, pain and they can grieve.

“It’s not just trophy hunting - each individual animal is suffering.”

If something can feel happiness it should never be killed? Should the highest to strive for be to make sure no one and nothing ever suffers? I'm all for treating others as you want to be treated yourself, but that's very different from from making sure no one ever suffers. I cause suffering by just being in a Western country with western consumption habits. To humans, and to animals. Maybe we should also realize that animals also have coping mechanism, something some people quickly seem to try to eliminate from our societies these days.

She needs to get down off her moral high horse and face facts.

Hunters are conservationists.

Anti-hunters are all nasty talk and no action.

It's sad, really.

I think they actually get off on the name-calling.

On a lighter note, she is 88 years old so the clock is ticking...

quote:

Originally posted by larryshores:
Some people just Can't Understand Normal Thinking.