By REBECCA BILLS
RHINO parts are banned from entering the country as LaTrobe MP Jason Wood fights the practice of canned hunting.
The Federal Government issued a ban last week on all rhino parts being imported into the country after Mr Wood tabled the issue in Parliament in a bid to stop the barbaric practice.
Mr Wood described the ban as a great breakthrough but only the first step.
“I’m committed to pushing for further action,” he said.
Minister for the Environment Greg Hunt described canned hunting as unacceptable and horrific, saying he is committed to taking action on the issue using appropriate domestic and international avenues.
“I’ve signed an order, we’re taking action – it’s going to stop,” he said.
Canned hunting is the practice of capturing, breeding and raising animals like lions, of which only 4000 remain in the wild, for cashed-up thrillseekers to shoot and take home parts of the animal as trophies.
Mr Wood said many young Australians, even those in LaTrobe, travelled to South Africa to work in what they thought were conservation parks, paying upwards of $700 to experience and nurture orphaned lion cubs into the wild not knowing one day they would be cruelly slaughtered.
According to data collected by the Australian Parliamentary library, 72 African lion (Panthera leo) claws have been imported into Australia as hunting trophies since 2012, one stuffed animal in 2012 and a staggering 22 skulls since 2010.
Donalea Patman, the woman who first brought the issue to Mr Wood’s attention, said canned hunting was an industry that had been operating over the last 20 years.
Ms Patman said she has travelled to Africa four times and it was when she visited South Africa and went to the White Lions Protection Trust that she was educated about the barbaric practice.
“I was so enraged, we saw footage of an actual hunt and since then I have seen numerous other clips,” she said.
“The only way to describe it is as horrific.
“These hunters want to protect the head of the animal so it can take up to 12 shots to kill the animal, and as they have been brought up around humans they are shocked and in so much pain until they die.”
Mr Wood was a guest speaker at the ‘Global march for Lions’ in Melbourne where he said he was doing all he could to raise awareness in not only his own electorate, but around the country.
“The reality is that people over there want to make a living,” he said.
“We need to stop Australians from going over there – they pay for the privilege to care for the animals with all the right intentions, but are subsequently aiding in the slaughter of them.”
Mr Wood said anyone who was travelling to South Africa thinking they were going over there to do good in these orphanages should contact World Wildlife Fund (www.wwf.org.au) to ensure there was no connection to canned hunting.
For more information about canned hunting or to join the petition to stop canned hunting, visit JasonWood.com.au/StopCannedHuntingNow.
