Voters must lobby MPs to ban trophy hunting imports, a former African president says.
Ian Khama, who led Botswana from 2008 to 2018, spoke out ahead of a Commons vote later this month.
The long-promised Tory ban would stop hunters bringing animal skins, severed heads and carcasses back to Britain after shoots.
Mr Khama has sent a video to the Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting, backing its fight.
He said: “There has been an enormous decline in the numbers of wildlife around the world, and a significant contributor to this fast diminishing jewel of nature is the slaughter of many species purely for enjoyment.”
Tory MP Henry Smith’s Private Members Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Bill has its second reading on November 25. Mr Khama urged people to demand their MP supports the Bill to “put a stop to this wholesale destruction”.
Eduardo Goncalves, founder of the Mirror-backed Campaign, added: “We need to remind MPs that nine out of 10 voters want this ban brought in.”
The Government has spent years promising to block hunters coming home with their sick souvenirs, but refuses to say when it will introduce legislation
The long-promised ban on hunters bringing animal skins, severed heads and carcasses back to Britain after shoots abroad was again missing from the Government’s planned legislation announced in the late Queen’s Speech earlier this year - despite ongoing Tory promises to stop the sick trade.
Boris Johnson was blasted for failing to outline plans to ban trophy hunting imports in the Queen’s Speech.
Buried on page 127 of the Queen’s Speech pack was a section saying: “We are … committed to legislation to ban the import of hunting trophies from thousands of species.”
But there was no indication of a timetable.
