Page 59 - BBC Wildlife Volume 36 #04

AGENDA NEWS

YOND

THE
headlines

SEPARATING FACT FROM FICTION

THE BBC’S remove their horns – they
DOCUMENTARY ON are there for a purpose.
TROPHY-HUNTING
Rabbitscan'tbe DID NOT PROVIDE Hunters say they put
farmed in the UK, ALL POSSIBLE VIEWS money into wildlife
but their fur can ON THE IMPORTANCE conservation.
be imported.
OF WILDLIFE AS PART It’s a multi-million pound
OFAN ECOSYSTEM, business, but very little of
MPs’ COMMITTEE TO SAYS CATHERINE it goes into conservation.
BEARDER, MEP. It sends a message that
SCRUTINISEFUR TRADE these animals are only
What was the worth something if a
Fur farming is banned in the “Our inquiry will determine documentary? strange white man comes
UK, but imports are permitted, where responsibility lies for It’s called Trophy: The Big to kill them. Imagine how
leading to illegal practices. the increase in illegal fur sales, Game Hunting Controversy, it would go down in the
and identify the steps that need and while it is quite Virunga Mountains if a
MPs are to investigate the fur to betaken to stop it in its interesting, it only gives hunter came in and took
trade and, in particular, the tracks,” Parish says. one side of the argument. out one mountain gorilla a
practice of selling real fur as if Fur from species such as foxes, It’s a film about
it wereartificial. rabbits, mink,coyotes, raccoon hunting, not Hunters say they
Announcing the inquiry,the dogsand chinchillas is legally conservation or put money into
chair of the Environment, Food imported and sold in the UK. the issues facing conservation.
and Rural AffairsCommittee Fur farming takes places conservation.
(Efra), Neil Parish, said fur in a wide range of countries,
farming had been banned in including the USA, France, What’swrong
Britain since 2000, so importing Poland and China, whilewild with that?
of fur products should be more species such as coyotes are It’s a very small
tightly regulated. caught in traps and then shot. part of the
whole picture.
For instance, it
didn’t talk about
1,920 black-tailed godwits on migration how viable it is tobreed year? The people who live
The number of km flown by two
there understand that the
animals for hunting. Asa
from Cambridgeshire to the Tagus
gorillas bring money into
story about people who
Estuary in Portugal. They were
part of the group of 26 birds that were hatched in captivity hunt it was interesting, the whole system.
and reared by hand before being released into the wild. but there should be a
balancing point of view. So, what’s the answer?
Nobody said that solving
Was there anything human-wildlife conflict
else you didn't like? was going to beeasy,
There was quite a lot but hunting is not the
about the farmer [John answer. Hunters need
Hume] who is breeding to start understanding
ORANGUTAN DEATH
thousands of rhinos for how ecosystems work.
An orangutan found alive (but their horns–what it And we need ecotourism
later died) in eastern Indonesian didn’t say is that that’s to properly pay its way
Borneo had 130 airgun pellets
in its body, according to the monoculture, and the – where that happens
Centre for Orangutan Protection. countryside aroundhis it doeswork and it will
An autopsy found palm-fruit farm should have trees, protect wildlife.
kernals and pineapple in its gut, with birds and other
suggesting it had been feeding wildlife like tortoises. CATHERINE BEARDER is a Stuart Abraham/A amy
on commercial crops. Plus, it’s not natural to Liberal Democrat MEP.
O Want tocomment? Email
breed rhinos like that orto wildlifeletters@immediate.co.uk
April 2018 BBC Wildlife 59