BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, Hunting for trophies
"‘We have to base our decisions on science and the evidence here, it is clear that trophy hunting is not a major threat to lions, elephants, giraffes, rhinos, all the species that we hear about, but they are threatened primarily by by habitat loss, conflict with people and poaching. And those are actually the threats that are reduced by well regulated trophy hunting...
Poorly regulated treaty hunting can be a minor threat to certain populations. We've seen that for lions. But that's why it's very important that we don't have blanket restrictions, we have targeted restrictions and conditions on imports. Because if you have blanket bans or restrictions, you penalize the good operators, as well as the bad and you are likely to lead to more killing and negative impacts on conservation and welfare rather than improve the situation’...
‘I do think at the end of the day, it boils down to a moral issue. We cannot tell countries to practice trophy hunting, Tanzania, Botswana, etc. what to do with their wildlife. But here in the UK, we can take action. And I think it would be action supported by the great majority of British people to prevent the import of trophies, thus helping choke off the demand.’
‘But what people might say to that is, what matters is what works and if by allowing trophy hunting, albeit putting pressure on them to do it in a civilized way as possible, clearly, assuming it can be civilized, but by allowing it at least to the extent that Amy Dickman was just talking about, if that saves certain animals, it has to be with gritted teeth approved, doesn't it?’
‘Well, Amy says that one of the the pressures on wild species is land, land issues. I would refer and she knows this very well to the work of the Northern Rangerlands trust in Kenya, which has brought in over 40,000 square kilometers of land into conservation status at not the National Park level, but at the community level, and Kenya has no trophy hunting, I think we can come up with innovative important strategies and in fact I would, I would ask Amy and all the people who've signed her letter to let's get together, let's look for those innovative solutions to this but not on the basis that animals, wild animals whom we admire worldwide are killed for the purpose’...
‘I'd love there to be a halfway house but there isn't one when it comes to the killing of animals for fun. I don't think it can be argued just on those, those issues that I raised earlier’
‘Even if it helps in the end save some animals. I mean, it may be repugnant, obviously this is repugnant to you and to many other people of course, but if it helps save animals?’
‘If some animals have to die in order to save some other animals I don't see how that can be an acceptable solution and particularly when they're shot for for fun. This isn't people who rely on those animals, the meat from those animals to survive’
‘Well, they die the same way don't they?’
‘The trophy hunter comes from America or the UK and the UK is not completely innocent in all of this. Lion trophies, leopard trophies, elephant trophies - all imported into the United Kingdom. We're not innocent in this and I think therefore we must take responsibility and if that means we have to find alternative ways of financing the opportunities that local communities living alongside wildlife deserve then we have to come up with those solutions if we're going to turn off the tap of trophy hunting’
Basically 'screw what will help save more animals, killing some to help the population feels icky so we can't do it'