We were very pleased to be invited to participate in an event held in the European Parliament in Brussels last week, organised by the Finnish MEP, Sirpa Pietkainen and the UK MEP Catherine Bearder. This event was primarily designed to raise awareness of the canned hunting of lions in South Africa.

Taking part were 4 charities: LionAid, Eurogroup for Animals, Born Free and FourPaws, together with Ian Michler, an investigative journalist from South Africa and Gael de Rotalier from the European Commision. Ian made a presentation about lion trophy hunting, similar to one he had shown in Australia before they took the exemplary step to ban all lion trophies from entering their country, and this was followed by a short presentation from each of the charities invited to participate in the event. There followed a lively question and answer session between the panel and the audience of MEPs, staff and interested visitors to the Commission, not least of whom were two representatives of the hunting industry who sought to support the practice of lion trophy hunting. LionAid will be launching a big awareness campaign over the coming days and weeks to highlight the facts about this hideous and cruel multi million dollar industry. This campaign will continue to run until we have succeeded in closing down this terrible trade. We invite everyone – be it private individuals, businesses, sports personalities and entertainment celebrities - to join us and we hope that many wildlife and animal welfare charities will also add their support to this initiative. The more we all work together, the bigger the impact we will have!!

Watch our website for further details.... Picture: From left to right – Gael de Rotalier (European Commission), Dr. Pieter Kat (LionAid), Christine Macsween (LionAid), Ilaria di Silvestre (Eurogroup for Animals), Catherine Bearder (Liberal Democrat MEP for South East England), Ian Michler ( South African photo-journalist), Sirpa Pietkainen (Finnish Christian Democrat MEP), Flavia Marisi (Four Paws) and Will Travers (Born Free).