There is anger that the NEC will play host to several trophy hunting tour businesses at the forthcoming Great British Shooting Show. The NEC (National Exhibition Centre) in Birmingham is a large exhibition centre which hosts, for example Crufts, the well-known dog show.
A petition has gathered almost 20,000 signatures (and climbing fast) on the change.org website which demands that the NEC does not host trophy hunting companies.
The show is scheduled for next February at which shooters can buy package holidays where they will have the opportunity to shoot a giraffe for $3,000, a warthog for $450 and a baboon for $200. These are canned hunts. The animals are kept in fenced areas. They are confined to relatively small areas with no escape. It is a ‘turkey shoot’. The paying customer is guaranteed to kill the animal. It is just blood lust madness. And the NEC are encouraging this behavior.
“Britain is facilitating the boom in canned lion hunting…” – Eduardo Gonçalves (Campaign to Ban Trophy hunting founder)
An organiser of a march in Birmingham’s centre for endangered animals, Jenny Nolan, said to Birmingham Live:
“Birmingham does not welcome companies who promote the senseless killing of innocent animals and our aim is to get this barbaric and cruel event cancelled. When I heard the news this was taking place at the NEC I was shocked. How can such an event be allowed to take place in the UK, let alone in my home city?”
A spokesperson for the NEC said:
“The NEC hosts a vast variety of exhibitions and events every year and is open to permitting all content types, providing events are safe for those attending and are legal according to UK law. We are aware that some of these events will be deemed by the wider public to be more controversial than others, and completely understand the viewpoints that can be associated with them.”
Michael Gove the Environment Secretary in the UK is not against trophy hunting because he believes that it creates jobs and he allows the importation of trophies into the UK. He could stop it. It is a growing business in the UK. In short and in effect the UK government is encouraging trophy hunting. Everyone knows that although it is ‘legal’ (despite endemic corruption on the ground where the animals are shot) it is immoral. Where is the moral fibre to put an end to this? It is about big businesses lobbying governments and corrupting governments to maintain this unholy habit beloved by a small segment of British society. Americans are the most common trophy hunters. I guess because there are more guns per head in America.
UPDATE: SEVERAL DAYS LATER IT WAS REPORTED IN THE TIMES NEWSPAPER THAT THE EXHIBITION CENTRE HAD BANNED THE TROPHY TOUR OPERATORS.
