On the 25th November, Anna Firth, MP for Southend West, spoke in the Trophy Hunting Bill debate in the House of Commons.
The Southend MP spoke passionately about this bill becoming law, which would reduce the amount of innocent and endangered animals being killed for the sake of a ‘souvenir’.
She mentioned the killing of Cecil the Lion, which sparked huge media attention to the issue of trophy hunting. The banning of trophy hunting imports would reduce the demand for these killings of innocent wildlife to be made, therefore letting these wonderful creatures live their lives in the wild.
Anna’s predecessor, Sir David Amess, was a passionate animal rights activist, supporting various bills, namely being one of the first Conservative MPs to support the ban of fox hunting. Sir David was also a patron of the Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation (CAWF), and worked with them to help turn their campaigns into legislature. Anna has subsequently joined the CAWF team as a Patron and is now providing another useful voice in the House of Commons for the protection of animal rights.
Anna said,
“I'm sickened and disgusted when I see these pictures on social media of trophy hunters grinning beside magnificent creatures that we all know deserve to live in their natural habitat without the fear of being hunted as a commercial sport by people exploiting them.”
“Earlier this year, I attended a reception held by the Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation in memory of their late patron and the MP, whose constituency I am proud to now represent, Sir David Amess. This was a campaign he felt particularly passionately about, and it would be remiss not to acknowledge his years of work to see the subject of today's debate become a reality.”
