A global animal protection organisation has written to environmental ministers in South Africa and Namibia to urge them to abandon trophy hunting.
The Humane Society International says its sent letters to Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa and her Nambian counterpart Pohamba Shifeta - urging them to abandon what it terms cruel and wasteful trophy hunting - in favour of non-consumptive ecotourism.
The letters come in the wake of global outrage over the recent killing of Cecil the lion by a US dentist on an illegal hunt outside Hwange National Park in western Zimbabwe.
A number of airlines have stepped in and banned the transportation of lion, leopard, elephant, rhino and buffalo trophies outright - most recently the largest US transporter of hunting trophies from South Africa to the US, Delta Air Lines.
Airlines United, Virgin, British Airways and Emirates have also issued a global ban on the transportation of South Africa’s Big 5.
In July, SAA overturned a temporary embargo it had put in place.
