Trophy hunting is back on Italy's agenda
The European Union is the second largest importer of hunting trophies worldwide, after the United States.
The issue of trophy hunting is back on Italy's political agenda after Member of Parliament Michela Vittoria Brambilla introduced a bill that would ban the import, export and re-export of hunting trophies from animals protected under the CITES Convention (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) to and from Italy.
A bill on the same subject was introduced in 2021 by members of the Five Star Movement, which is currently leading an EU-wide initiative to ban the import and export of certain hunting trophies to and from Europe. The initiative of MP Brambilla is back on the agenda of this new legislative term, although it is often ignored by politicians. This initiative follows a parliamentary resolution calling for an EU-wide ban on the import of hunting trophies from CITES-protected species.
MP Brambilla, who served as chair of the parliamentary cross-party working group on animal rights during the 18th legislative term and continues to serve as president of the Italian League for Animal and Environmental Protection, presented the bill during the first parliamentary session on 13 October 2022.
According to CITES data, the European Union, the world's second largest importer of hunting trophies after the United States, imported more than 20’000 hunting trophies from animals belonging to 79 internationally protected species during the five-year period from 2014 to 2020. Trade data show that 427 trophies from animals such as hippopotamuses, elephants, lions, leopards, polar bears and a critically endangered black rhinoceros were imported into Italy.
The importation of hunting trophies from protected animals remains legal, even when those animals are threatened with extinction. The bill to end these imports enjoys broad support among the Italian public. Surveys show that 86% of Italians surveyed oppose trophy hunting of all wild animals, and 74% are in favour of banning the importation of hunting trophies into Italy.
From 14 to 25 November, 184 CITES member countries will meet in Panama to examine 52 proposals to increase or reduce protection measures for 600 species of wild animals and plants. It is important that Italy plays its role here. At the national level and acting alone, our country can already do a great deal for endangered species, such as by banning the import, export and re-export of hunting trophies from animals such as tigers, rhinoceroses and hippopotamuses. This practice is largely unknown to Italians, but it is not as marginal as one might think. This is not only due to the numbers, which are significant given the imminent extinction of many endangered animal populations, but also to the very nature of trophy hunting, in which an invaluable heritage is sacrificed for the entertainment of hunters. I will work with the utmost conviction to find broad support for this bill in Parliament.
Michela Vittoria Brambilla, President of the Italian League for the Protection of Animals and the Environment
Martina Pluda, HSI/Europe Director for Italy, said: «It is intolerable and irresponsible that our country is still involved today in this type of colonial practice, which is cruel and threatens the future of so many species. Since trophy hunting is a competition, the animals with the most impressive physical characteristics – thick manes, long tusks and pronounced horns – are hunted from adult animals of reproductive age, who often hold the role of leader and protector. They are therefore of critical importance to the survival and genetic integrity of their species. A ban on the import, export and re-export of hunting trophies of protected species in several EU member states would effectively help to stop the killing of these animals. It is time for the Italian government to act responsibly, as other European countries are already doing and as the European Parliament has called for. We thank Congresswoman Brambilla for her political commitment to this issue.«
Opposition to trophy hunting is growing rapidly and is crystallising in many initiatives across Europe:
- The Belgian Federal Parliament unanimously passed a resolution calling on the government to immediately cease issuing import permits for trophies of species protected under certain international trade regulations.
- This year, alongside Italy, the governments of Spain and Poland are also actively considering policy options for a ban on the import and export of certain hunting trophies, backed by strong public opinion polling; according to a representative survey from 2021, the majority of citizens in each country support an import ban on hunting trophies.
- Prior to these developments, the Netherlands and France were the pioneers of this paradigm shift in Europe. In 2015, France introduced a ban on the import of trophies from lion hunting. That same year, the Dutch government decided on an import ban on trophies from over 200 animal species, which was implemented in 2016.
- A statement of principles recently signed by around 170 non-governmental organizations from the fields of nature conservation and animal protection from around the world also calls for an urgent end to trophy hunting. Several of these organizations come from major source countries for hunting trophies.
