Trophy hunters are paying to shoot up to 100 puffins in a single bloodthirsty killing spree before bringing the carcasses home. Trips to Iceland, where it is legal to hunt puffins, are being sold for up to $3,450 (£3,000) a time, even though the birds were classed as endangered in 2018.
The Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting shared photos of hunters posing with scores of dead puffins. They are now calling on Environment Secretary Theresa Villiers to stop any puffin trophies being imported into the UK. Spokesman Eduardo Goncalves told the Sunday Telegraph: ‘The puffin is now in danger of becoming extinct, and uncontrolled hunting has been identified as a leading cause.
Conservationists and anti-hunting groups are pressing new Environment Secretary Theresa Villiers to ban the import of puffin trophies to try and protect the birds (Picture: Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting)
‘There should be an immediate moratorium imposed before it is too late.’
Speaking to Metro.co.uk, he added: ‘Puffins are one of the best-loved birds in the world.
People travel the world to photograph them. Now it seems trophy hunters travel the world to shoot them too.
‘Scientists say they are in serious trouble.
Populations are falling, and far fewer are coming to Britain’s shorelines.
The last thing they need is for trophy hunters to shoot them in huge numbers just for fun.
‘Britain should implement a total ban on the import of hunting trophies.
We should have nothing to do with this disgusting so-called ‘sport’ and should be doing everything we can to consign it to history.’
Goncalves also called on CITES, the international animal trade regulation body, to add puffins to its list of protected species during its conference next month.
Figures show that the puffin population of Iceland has slumped from seven million to 5.4 million in just a decade.
And the Shetland island of Fair Isle has seen its puffin population plummet from 20,000 birds to just 10,000 birds in the last 30 years.
The UK supports around 600,000 pairs of puffins – equivalent to a tenth of the world population.
Hunting puffins is legal in Iceland, but the local population of the birds has plunged from seven million to 5.4 million in just a decade (Picture: Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting)
An Atlantic Puffin pictured on the Shetland Islands.
The puffin population of Fair Isle has halved from 20,000 to just 10,000 in the last 30 years (File photo/Getty) Sir Roger Gale, chairman of the Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation, blasted the practice, telling the Telegraph:
‘Personally I regard the whole practice as abhorrent.
‘I don’t believe in trophy hunting at all for any species.
I don’t think there is any excuse for it.
‘I happen to be at the moment at least the leader of the UK delegation for the council of Europe where there are two at least Icelandic representatives and I will be discussing the issue with them and see what if anything can be done in Iceland.
‘I believe there is much more tourism to be generated by preservation and conservation rather than by killing puffins.’
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Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2019/07/28/trophy-hunters-killing-100-puffins-a-time-then-bringing-them-home-as-souvenirs-10475528/?fbclid=IwAR1kFbhWrLCTKebj2cSkZKzewyEMffgQxl8Cbo7V6JzMjp-OZE9f0lfeFZo?ito=cbshare
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