Rebecca attended the Animals Matter stand at this years Conservative Party conference to discuss ‘The Hunting Trophies (import prohibition) bill’ with experts, including record-breaking explorer, Sir Ranulph Fiennes.

Animals Matter is a multi-disciplinary campaign comprised of multiple charities including, Compassion in World Farming, Four Paws UK, the Humane society and the RSPCA. They do valuable work and came along to discuss the important measures laid out in the Bill.

Rebecca Harris MP commented:

“I am very pleased to back this Bill which delivers on our manifesto commitment to ban the import of hunting trophies from endangered animals abroad. The ban will be among the strongest in the world and is a testament to Britain being a nation of animal lovers that takes animal welfare very seriously.

This landmark piece of legislation has the backing of the Government as well as from UK wildlife and animal welfare groups. I met several of these groups at Conference this week at an event led by Sir Ranulph Fiennes to express my support.”

Rebecca has been a supporter of the bill since its first introduction by Conservative MP Henry Smith. The Bill will ban the import of trophies hunted from around 6,000 species including lions, elephants, rhinos, and polar bears which will combat increasing levels of extinction.

This Bill builds on previous measures such as the Ivory Act, which Rebecca also voted for.  Brought forward by the Conservative Government this is one of the toughest bans on ivory in the world which came into force in June 2022.

An estimated 25,000 trophy animals have been brought into the UK since the 1980s. Trophy hunting increases the threats endangered species face, for example, in Africa 96 elephants are killed everyday for their ivory whilst their lion population has decreased by approximately 42% in the last two decades.

It is clear that this government needs to act quickly, and that is exactly what they have done.

You can keep up to date with the stage of the Bill and its publications at: https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3202