Belgium Announces Ban on Trophy Hunting Imports of Endangered Species

​worldanimalnews.com/victory-belgium-announces-a-ban-on-trophy-hunting-imports-to-protect-save-endangered-species/

This past Friday, Belgium approved a legislative proposal for a ban on the import of hunting trophies from endangered species. The proposal was put forth by the country's Climate, Environment, Sustainable Development, and Green Deal Minister, Zakia Khattabi. The proposal would ban the import of trophies from protected species such as hippos, Savannah elephants, Southern white rhinos, and polar bears, among others and adds to a current resolution regarding the issuance of hunting trophy permits and the ban of issuing permits for endangered or protected species.

Not my photo. Photo link copied from World Animal News.

As long as trophy hunting has existed, it has been a divided & heated topic, one that ignites anger on both sides of the division. For those who participate and the communities that benefit monetarily from the sport, they argue that trophy hunting helps to generate revenue for local communities that is also funneled in to conservation efforts. They argue that the money spent on these excursions helps to feed their communities, provide resources, and in the long run, protect and rehabilitate endangered species.

As someone who is vehemently against trophy hunting, I would like to point out that endangered species are as their name suggests, endangered. To try and use the "logic" that shooting and killing these animals for sport is somehow helping to protect their future is both ignorant and self serving. It's a malignant cycle where wealthy people shoot, kill, pose proudly with corpses, and return home with body parts to put on display. There's something unsettling about someone who is hanging an elephant's entire head on their wall, believing that in some sickening way, they've somehow helped protect elephants. There is also something rather unsettling about wealthy white people, heading to predominantly poorer countries to take advantage of the country's animals. The whole thing from start to finish is gross and weird.

Endangered species have found themselves on these lists as a result of humanity. Whether we've taken their habitat, killed them for interfering with our livestock or villages, or killed them for fun, they've been put in peril by humans. If we're truly going to prevent the extinction of these species, we have to stop pandering to hunters and protecting this ideology that these animals are here for us to shoot and kill for fun. These animals are losing the battle and extinction is something we cannot come back from. I've said this before, but, every single species on the endangered list was at one time, abundant on our planet until we decimated them. Whatever we're currently doing is not working, and has never worked as more species plunge towards extinction. It's quite obvious that the things we're doing are failing endangered species on our planet. We must change our approach if we're going to commit to preventing extinction and permitting trophy hunting is simply not the way to do that.

Learn more about Belgium's ban on imports by visiting the link at the top of this post. Here's to a world where trophy hunting is buried in our history.

HAPPY VEG