A Poem a Day (567): Trophy

Just been reading the news and about the coming vote on the Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Bill to outlaw the trade. Sir Ranulph Fiennes is quoted as saying: “British trophy hunters are killing lions that have been snatched from their mothers & reared as pets. They are then shot in enclosures.” So I wrote a poem about it. I’m against trophy hunting and this poem is my personal view on that. I know some people reading this might disagree, and I’m not attacking you, but sticking up for endangered species who don’t have a voice.

Trophy

He’s dreaming of the things he should have had.
Freedom.
To think. To be. To roam.
Family.
Peace of mind.
Relative safety.

He would always have stood a chance.
He could always have made a getaway.

But they stole him from his mother
when he was too young to roar.
They took him home, pampered him,
treated him like one of the family,
this human replacement,
but their humanity was just an act.

The cage was built just for him.
It fitted his dimensions exactly.

In silence, he raged against the bars,
trod the edges back and forth,
shook his mane, muscles rippling.
Eyes watched him through the lines,
sized him up,
saw him as the enemy,
easy pickings.

His gut instinct told him
it was all wrong,
yet no one came to free him
until the final hour.

He could have outrun them,
but there was nowhere to run.
He might have beaten them
if the fight had been fair,
and they were all unarmed.
But it was weighted against him.

Cornered.
Shot.
Dead.

His head is on their wall,
above a wooden mantelpiece
filled with family photographs.
Below, there’s a gathering with wine.
They forgot to toast him,
too busy planning their next kill.

Copyright Vickie Johnstone, March 16, 2023.

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If passed, the Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Bill will prohibit the import of endangered species as hunting trophies into Great Britain, helping to reduce the threats that these animals face.

This Bill builds on previous acts such as the Ivory Act.

In the last 50 years, global wildlife has declined by 60%.

An estimated 25,000 trophy animals have been brought into the UK since the 1980s.

Trophy hunting increases the threats endangered species face, with its impact, for example, on African lion populations – which have declined from an estimated 200,000 in the 1970s to less than 20,000 today – found to be the “single most significant effect,” according to Oxford University research.

Other animals shot by British trophy hunters include African elephants, hippopotamuses, black bears, leopards, zebras and chacma baboons.