A BOLTON MP is supporting a campaign to ban animal trophies.

Today an international coalition of public figures, conservationists and animal welfare groups will march through London to Downing Street to demand an immediate ban on the import of hunting trophies.

Campaigners will deliver Action for Elephants’ open letter to Theresa May, signed by Bolton North East MP Sir David Crausby, Jane Goodall, Michael Palin, William Shatner and others.

Sir David said: "There is a real risk that the world’s most iconic animals will be hunted out of existence.

"The UK has shown global leadership in suppressing the ivory trade to help protect elephants but we need to go further. Banning imports of hunting trophies would send a clear message to the international community that there is no place for trophy hunting in this day and age.”

Around 2,500 hunting trophies have been imported by British hunters in the past decade, including hundreds of endangered species like elephants, lions, hippos, giraffes and leopards.

These cruel and barbaric practices continue to decimate already endangered species and drive them closer to extinction.

In total, some 1.7 million trophies were legally traded between nations between 2004 and 2014, 200,000 of them from endangered species.

The letter to the Prime Minister calls for UK leadership to tackle this global problem. The key ask is to ban the import of hunting trophies into the UK.