Campaigner prepares to name and shame 100 hunters in his new book

For most families, a vacation includes a kid-friendly resort, a good book, and plenty of activities to keep the kids busy.

But a Center Parcs-style break wouldn’t do for a retired businessman from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. Instead of taking his nine-year-old son to an instructor-led archery class in the woods, he took him to Africa — to shoot wild animals.

“He had a great time,” the father boasted to me. “He earned the nickname ‘sniper’.” Father and son shot antelope, warthogs and monkeys and even brought back animal heads and skins as trophies.

This is not unique. It’s not even unusual. Numerous British hunters travel overseas to slaughter exotic animals both in the wild and in captivity, and many take their children with them.

This is all perfectly legal and there are some who genuinely advocate hunting in the wild. They say that if done responsibly, it can be an important factor in conservation, encouraging good habitat management by local people. And there’s no doubt that it provides jobs and tourist revenue in some of the world’s most underprivileged areas.

Numerous British hunters travel overseas to slaughter exotic animals both in the wild and in captivity, and many take their children with them

However, I, a longtime campaigner against this bloodthirsty pastime, will never believe there is any benefit to killing an animal when instead it could be photographed and left alive for the next group of tourists to enjoy. This month there is a parliamentary vote to ban the import of ‘hunting trophies’ – for example an impala’s skin to be used as a rug or a stuffed lion’s head to be hung on the wall.

To get MEPs’ attention, I am taking the extraordinary step of naming (and hopefully shaming) 100 British hunters in a forthcoming book, some of which I have featured here. There is no evidence that any of these individuals acted illegally, and no doubt they join the argument that hunting can be beneficial if done responsibly.

Many people believe that trophy hunting is an American obsession. You remember Cecil the lion, who was killed in Zimbabwe in 2015 by a Minnesota dentist named Walter Palmer.

You don’t know the Scottish dairy farmer who hunts elephants and calls Africa his “drug”. You haven’t heard of the Sussex gunsmith comparing hunting to the “staple fodder for heroin” or a real estate developer, also Scotsman, calling the African savannah his “sweet shop”. Adrian Cawte is a Ministry of Defense dog handler from Somerset who has written gory reports online of his kills, speaking of “the satisfying thump of bullet hitting home” and tracking a wounded animal on the trail of “bright red blood with bits”. Tissue mixed in”.

There is no evidence that any of these individuals acted illegally, and no doubt they join the argument that hunting can be beneficial if done responsibly

Many of these people weren’t hard to find. They brag about their forays on hunting forums and social media

London lawyer Abigail Day has been voted the world’s top trophy hunter. Gloucestershire businessman Malcolm King has killed more than 650 animals and won an award for shooting specimens of 125 different species.

Pest exterminator Ricky Clark has around 50 trophies at his home in New Malden, south west London, including body parts of lion, buffalo, leopard, hippo and zebra.

Many of these people weren’t hard to find. They brag about their forays on hunting forums and social media. Asif Wattoo, a customer service manager at Thames Water, until recently had a Facebook page where he shared 20 photos of himself posing with dead animals. I found others by calling hunting companies in Africa and inquiring about their services. These people would send me price lists, like restaurant menus, stating how much or how little I would pay for each type. When I asked for testimonials, they were only too happy to put me in touch with other clients – who in turn were eager to brag about their kills.

A similar ploy tricked the safari companies into uncovering their own dirty tricks. I pretended to be interested in doing business with them and pretended to have wealthy backers. Ruthless with greed, they told me how South Africa became the center of the trophy hunting industry.

Calling it an “industry” is no exaggeration. Big cats are bred in factories for tourists to kill. South Africa has more lions in captivity than in the wild. There are 10,000 lions, tigers and leopards in cages waiting for hunters to come and shoot them in enclosures.

Killing a lion in the wild, like Cecil, costs at least £50,000 in fees and accommodation. Killing a tame lioness during a trip to a ‘canned hunting’ facility is much cheaper, costing just £3,000.

This month there is a parliamentary vote to ban the import of ‘hunting trophies’ – for example an impala’s skin to be used as a rug or a stuffed lion’s head to be hung on the wall

These animals are usually hand-reared as they were separated from their mothers when they were only a few weeks old. Tourists then have the opportunity to sell the skeleton back to the breeder, who in turn sells it to one of the country’s many bone dealers.

They buy lion and tiger bones for the Chinese market, where they are valued in powder form as high-level medicine – scientific nonsense. A bottle of “tiger wine” with a pinch of bone is said to be an aphrodisiac and cost hundreds of pounds.

With other activists and investigators, I visited some of these young animal farms. It was not our intention to save individual animals: there were so many that it seemed hopeless. But while we were secretly filming, we saw a tiger in imminent danger of being killed. Her name was Sally.

We spontaneously suggested that the breeders give them away – as a “gesture of goodwill” for our imaginary supporters. While we were negotiating, the merchant got restless. He threatened to go into Sally’s cage and kill her on the spot with a 9mm pistol. Finally we were able to bring the tiger to safety. She is now in a sanctuary in a secret location and gives her name to my book Saving Sally: Trophy Hunters – Secrets and Lies.

With a slaughter this extensive, it seems impossible to stop. But if the law on hunting trophies (ban on imports) is passed on March 17th, it will be a big step

Many people believe that trophy hunting is an American obsession. You remember Cecil the lion, who was killed in Zimbabwe in 2015 by a Minnesota dentist named Walter Palmer

With a slaughter this extensive, it seems impossible to stop. But if the law on hunting trophies (ban on imports) is passed on March 17th, it will be a big step. It won’t ban hunting abroad, but it will stop one of the main reasons these people do it – to boast before other hunters by bringing home their prized trophies. (It’s not clear if the trophies pictured here took home.)

Most MPs support the law. But there is a real danger that it could fail for technical reasons if too few MPs are present for the vote, which falls on a day between two days of train strikes and a Friday when most would normally be back in their constituencies .

That means there’s one really powerful thing Daily Mail readers can do to make a difference: write to your MP and urge them to vote there. Show that you care. Don’t let the carnage continue.