Iceland: Trophy hunters kill 100 puffins per hunting trip
Recreational hunters take part in special trips costing up to £3,000 to shoot puffins in the Atlantic.
According to animal welfare activists, trophy hunters on hunting trips to Iceland kill up to 100 puffins at a time, even as efforts are made to protect the endangered bird .
Puffins are among the most beloved birds in the world. People travel across the globe to photograph them. Now trophy hunters also appear to be travelling the world to shoot them. Eight Icelandic bird species were added to the endangered species list in 2015, including the puffin — the popular clown of the seas. Iceland is one of the largest breeding grounds in the world, yet recent figures show that the puffin population in Iceland has declined sharply within a decade. Since 2018, Iceland's beloved puffins have been officially classified as endangered. Despite warnings, hunting of puffins has not been stopped — quite the contrary. The more endangered an animal is, the more trophy hunters will pay to shoot one.hunting
Killing, injuring or capturing puffins and their nests is already prohibited by law in England, but the iconic birds are not yet protected in Iceland.
On websites advertising the trips, images show recreational hunters in camouflage clothing holding rifles, grinning stupidly as they stand beside dozens of blood-smeared puffin carcasses.
Just how cruel trophy hunters can be is made clear by the hunting of puffins. In England, animal welfare advocates are now seeking a ban on the import of trophies and launched a petition following the publication of the disturbing images: Stop the Trophy Hunting of Puffins
Populations of the popular seabirds are declining across their habitats, with numbers in Iceland falling by approximately 1.5 million in recent years.
Since 2015, the birds have been classified as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, meaning they face a high risk of extinction in the wild.
Eduardo Gonçalves of the Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting said: «The puffin is now endangered and uncontrolled hunting has been identified as one of the main causes.»
«An immediate moratorium should be imposed before it is too late.»
«I personally find the whole practice abhorrent. I simply do not believe in trophy hunting for any species. I don’t think there is any justification for it.»
«I believe there is far more tourism to be generated through conservation than through killing puffins.»
Tory MPs, including Henry Smith, have also championed the campaign.
«We have seen an enormous decline in puffins, particularly along the west coast, and it is deeply troubling to see a beloved bird being killed as a trophy in Iceland», said Mr Smith to a newspaper.
More on the subject of recreational hunting: In the dossier Poaching and hunting crime in Switzerland we document cases, legal questions and recurring patterns. The scientific evidence is presented in the overview Studies on the Effects of Recreational Hunting.
The position of IG Wild beim Wild: IG Wild beim Wild rejects recreational hunting. Our model is the canton of Geneva, which has managed without recreational hunting since 1974: without hunting seasons, without hunting dogs, without driven hunts, without high seats, without the animal cruelty and crime that go hand in hand with hunting season elsewhere. What has worked there for over fifty years disproves every position paper by JagdSchweiz. An association that bases its policy on claims it refutes in its own documents is not a professional organisation, but a factory for misinformation.
