The body parts of lions killed in gruesome hunts are being bought and imported into our country as ‘hunting trophies’. To hunt these beautiful animals for fun is inhumane and wrong - but it’s also contributing to the rapid decline of lion numbers. That’s why I’m calling on lion trophy hunting imports to be banned immediately.

I lived and worked for two decades in several African countries to help the conservation of lions there and I’m now the director of Lion Aid. It pains me that their numbers continue to drop. The number of lions in Africa has decreased from over 200,000 to less than 15,000 within the past 50 years.

Most of the ‘trophies’ are male lions. This has a disastrous knock on effect, pride structures are disrupted, reproduction almost grinds to a halt as cub survival is severely affected, and mortality among females increases as they attempt to protect their cubs during encounters with more and more displaced males.

We must immediately stop our involvement in this cruel trade of lions killed for fun, like others around the world have. Australia, France and the Netherlands have already banned lion trophy imports. Why have we not yet joined them in doing so?

In 2010 and 2015 promises were made by British MPs about introducing a ban, but years later nothing has happened. Every single day we delay makes it more and more likely that we push lions towards extinction.

Please sign my petition calling on the UK to immediately ban imports of Lion trophies.