Cowardly Keir Starmer bows to foreign hunting lobby
Keir Starmer has abandoned his pre-election promise to ban trophy hunting imports. Animal rights campaigners are not happy.
Considering the pressure tactics Starmer used against the Tories to ban this disgusting practice, he has, in a political sleight of hand, folded to the US pro-hunting lobby.
Starmer’s spine needs checking
Trophy hunting is a vile sport which needs eradicating. Wankers who, more often than not, are wealthy, pay thousands to kill wild animals to satiate their weird bloodlust.
Once they’ve massacred innocent animals, said wankers keep the severed heads, hides, and feet like some kind of votive offerings. Because nothing says comfort like a stuffed giraffe hanging over you as you watch the TV. Fucking weirdos.
The proposed law, otherwise known as the UK Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Bill, aimed to stop British hunters from bringing animal parts home as if they were souvenirs. It would have ushered in a zero-tolerance police of this archaic hunter-gatherer behaviour which endangers at-risk species.
But Labour quietly dropped the policy, hoping we wouldn’t notice. The issue was also conspicuously absent from the King’s speech, which may suggest it will not feature in the upcoming parliamentary agenda. No timeline, no start date from Labour, in its typical signature U-turn.
Before the election, Labour MPs made a point of attacking the Conservative government for dragging its feet on the issue. But let’s be honest, Labour, under Starmer, has completely folded under international pressure.
The Trump administration leaned on DEFRA and it crumbled
The Trump-led US government heavily lobbied the UK to drop the ban. It should come as no surprise from a man who viciously protected the right to bear arms. US secretary of the interior Doug Burgum wrote to the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, asking Labour to drop the bill.
Burgum claimed the ban would undermine conservation and disrupt cultural traditions. This, I struggle with because how the fuck will stopping rich people having tiger skin rugs undermine conservation? And if your cultural tradition is slaughtering an innocent animal to get your rocks off, I’d say it’s a tradition that belongs in the fucking bin. The US hunting lobby previously spent £1m fighting UK restrictions.
Instead of standing up to Washington and its gun-loving lobby, Starmer’s spine melted into oblivion and he caved.
British hunters import body parts of endangered species
The government is ignoring its own citizens to please foreign billionaires. Over 90% of British people find trophy hunting disgusting. Whilst our so-called ministers stall, our British billionaires are out there slaughtering endangered species.
Eduardo Goncalves, the founder of the Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting, blasted the delay. He stated that the bill is sat there waiting for ministers to get on with it. And yet, they have quietly shelved all plans, much to the public’s dismay.
New research shows that bloodthirsty British hunters brought back 118 body parts from giraffes between 2020 and 2024. They’ve become Britain’s most hunted trophy animal, even as they face a silent extinction.
Many subspecies of giraffe are now critically endangered, such as the Masai and Reticulated giraffe. Yet British hunters continue to murder these defenceless creatures, just so they can display their corpses in their stately homes.
UK imports of lion trophies skyrocketed from two in 2022 to 28 in 2023. It may seem like small numbers, but the fact is it is growing. Now, please tell me how the fuck this is helping conservation efforts? Trophies from 39 endangered species were shipped to our shores in 2023. That’s three times the amount from the year before.
Claire Bass, director at Humane World for Animals UK, slammed the decision, arguing that the US government is attempting to wield power over a UK decision.
The Labour Party has shown it lacks the spine to defend animals from bloodthirsty rich elites. By burying the bill, the government has once again shown its promises mean fuck all when faced with US pressure.
Featured image via the Canary
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Silly, pointless rant by a halfwit – “half” because it addresses only one (imaginary) side of the story. Hunters hunt, and hunting is an ancient and honourable human endeavour. Without hunting for the last 100,000 years, there would be no human civilisation. It is the supply side of civilisation, and every single animal, vegetable and mineral resource used by humans today still comes from nature – without consuming, there would be no consumer society. The only difference between trophy hunters and meat hunters is that trophy hunters keep the inedible bits. The meat is always eaten – organic, free range, low carbon. Natural. Trophy hunting is expensive because visiting hunters have to empty a dedicated team and hire huge swathes of land.
Most UK hunters go to Southern Africa, where the 50 million acre hunting industry is run by farmers, not Americans. It is an excellent, legal, sustainable land use these days that protects the land from traditional farming or settlement. All of the hunted animals are increasing in number because farmers can raise as many as needed. The same animals are becoming extinct elsewhere because without hunting, cows and crops are simply more profitable, so replace the wildlife. People have to eat. The delicious, hunted Southern giraffe is not at all endangered, because hunters buy them, so farmers raise them. There are also 12,000 lions raised on farms in South Africa – they protect the 3500 wild lions locally from poaching for trade parts. The real story is more interesting than a gormless rant.
South Africa’s not a great example. Most of the farms are owned by White farmers who still pine for the days of Apartheid and traditionally only had their own best interests at heart to say the least.
Trophy hunting is beloved of rich tax dodgers and rightwing political manipulators because of it’s macho associations. Sad little, pale faced CEO’s nailing trunks and hooves to the wall (all in the best possible taste of course!)
Absolutely no evidence that it improves diversity or protects species more than forms of conservation that actually protect the animals from being hunted.
As for the hypocrisy of anti-hunting meat eaters – and your point is? Best not to claim slaughtering an animal is better when it’s directed like a two bit vaudeville show by a super rich, sun allergic, Tarzan wannabe.
Us Left’s are such spoilsports, aren’t we? What next? We’ll be trying to ban all forms tax dodging and exploiting workers. Shiver me timbers!
South Africa is an excellent example. The farmers of South Africa are farmers, with or without cheap, superfluous apartheid remarks. Commercial farmers have to pay their bills and wages, and therefore choose the most viable options for land use. The most viable land use for many on marginal African soils is to harvest the wildlife sustainably. That includes live sales, hunting. meat production and photo-tourism. Where there are few tourists, live sales, hunting and commercial game meat production are possibilities. Live sales are made to other farms for restocking, so it is part of the industry. Hunting has two obvious branches: 9,000 visiting “trophy” hunters, who come for the excitement of the hunt and take home some inedible bits, and 200,000 local hunters who may or may not keep a trophy.
All of the animals hunted are subsequently eaten. The conservation dividend is obvious and undeniable – 50 million acres of African bush, filled with wild animals, all of it extra to the National Parks. On that 50 million acres, the numbers of hunted animals is rising because farmers can raise as many as needed. But it is 50 million acres of natural bush, supporting billons of indigenous fauna and flora, especially the soil biota, a remarkable success by any measure, unless, of course, your vegan or pet animal ideology puts your personal ideas above the welfare of the eco-system there.
(Parody response to my post)
“I’m not sure which of your silly mixed metaphors and grammatical mistakes I should deal with first but…”
(the room goes silent. The rhino head has fallen from the wall and incapacitated the figure on the phone below.)
Surely a Netflix series, what?
I’m talking about a Tony Christie (or is it Julie?) murder mystery adaption for Netflix of course.
Sorry, I’m on a cheesy roll. I’ll stop now.
Paul F for President of the upcoming, long awaited Peoples Republic. Not joking…Well said Paul!