Each year, hundreds of thousands of wild animals in the U.S. and around the world are killed by trophy hunting. The hunters’ primary motivation is not to get food, but simply to obtain animal parts (heads, hides or claws and even the whole animal) for display. Trophy hunters use cruel and unsporting methods like baiting and hounding to target native carnivores like bears, mountain lions and wolves. They shoot animals in captive hunts (in which hunters pursue animals who can’t escape) and participate in gruesome wildlife killing contests that target bobcats, coyotes, foxes and other species.
It was the shot heard around the world. An American trophy hunter shot and severely injured Cecil with an arrow after he was lured outside Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe with elephant carcass bait. About 10 hours later, the hunting party tracked him down. A second arrow ended Cecil’s life. The African lion’s death was met with sweeping global outrage over his horrific killing—and trophy hunting more broadly.
American trophy hunters pay big money to kill animals overseas and import over 126,000 wildlife trophies per year on average. They also do their big game hunting for sport domestically: Bears, bobcats, mountain lions, wolves and other domestic wildlife also fall victim to trophy hunting, damaging natural ecosystems.
Hundreds of thousands of wild animals in the U.S. and around the world are killed every year and millions are at risk from other threats. Your generous gift will save wildlife from being killed just for a trophy by supporting our work to ban trophy hunting.
