British trophy hunters killing 100 puffins at-a-time then bringing them home as souvenirs
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.
JIMMY McCLOSKEY: ‘Trophy hunters are paying to shoot up to 100 puffins in a single blood-thirsty 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 said: ‘The puffin is now in danger of becoming extinct, and uncontrolled hunting has been identified as a leading cause. There should be an immediate moratorium imposed before it is too late’… 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’…
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…
Sir Roger Gale, chairman of the Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation, blasted the practice, said: ‘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 believe there is much more tourism to be generated by preservation and conservation rather than by killing puffins’.’ SOURCE…
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