Trophy hunting often targets animals like this mountain lion

Lisa Dearing / Alamy Stock Photo

Trophy hunting

Thrill-seekers kill vital wildlife for trophies, display, photos, bragging rights and prizes, and pay big money to kill rare, often endangered, animals abroad and take home their body parts.

Did you know?

Supporters claim trophy hunting helps communities and wildlife by putting money in local people’s hands and culling weak or old animals. But in reality, very little money — as little as 3% of trophy hunting revenue — reaches the areas where hunting happens, and trophy hunters often seek the biggest, strongest animals to kill.

*Species listed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) are currently threatened by overexploitation through trade or may become so if trade isn’t regulated.

Inside the problem

Trophy hunters kill for bragging rights and animal parts. In importing countries, restricting the import of hunting trophies takes away these motivations. In exporting countries, state and federal policies can reduce or stop the trophy hunting of native carnivores.

Wild gray wolf standing in the snow.

Glenn Nagel/Alamy Stock Photo

Legal challenges

We petition governments to protect vulnerable animals under national laws from harmful international trade. In the U.S., we litigate to protect species listed under the Endangered Species Act, like gray wolves and grizzly bears.

Mother bear with cub taxidermy for sate at Circle M's fall auction

The HSUS

Airline bans

We collaborate with airlines to prohibit the transport of hunting trophies. The top five of the world’s largest airline groups have banned the transport of certain or all hunting trophies on their carriers, and travel companies, such as Booking.com and Expedia, have banned the sale or promotion of trophy hunts on their sites.

lynx taxidermy trophy on display at Safari Club International's annual convention in Reno, Nevada

N/A/The HSUS

Government action

We support and win bans around the world on the import of hunting trophies from imperiled species, and work at the U.S. state and federal level to reduce and end the trophy hunting of native carnivores. 

Trophy hunter standing with rifle over body of dead wild giraffe

Stuart Abraham/Alamy Stock photo

Public awareness

We campaign globally against trophy hunting of vital and imperiled species and the international trade in hunting trophies. This work reminds people that trophy hunting is still happening and contributing to wildlife population decline. 

David Keith Jones/

Animals are not trophies

In the U.S. alone, trophy hunters kill more than 100,000 native carnivores every year. Take action to stop this cruel and unnecessary practice.

The Impact of Trophy Hunting on Endangered Species

"The killing of animals for trophies and trinkets threatens not only the survival of threatened and endangered species, but the populations of iconic species overall and it demands the strongest possible deterrence." —Jennifer Hillman, vice president, wildlife protection

Take Action

No animal deserves to be killed for bragging rights. Take action to stop these cruel operations.

Petitions
Stop trophy hunting in the UK

Show your support for a ban on hunting trophies.

Urge the European Union to stop importing hunting trophies

Nearly 15,000 hunting trophies of species at risk like elephants, lions, giraffes, polar bears and black rhinos were imported into the EU between 2014 and 2018. 

Cecil and his cubs
Sign the pledge to end trophy hunting

Every year, hundreds of thousands of wild animals are killed solely to obtain "trophies"—heads, hides or pelts and even whole animals—to stuff, skin and hang on a wall.

Latest News

Black bear at Yellowstone National Park

Wendy Keefover/Humane World for Animals

Newly compiled data: Over 1 million black bears have been killed for trophies by hunters in America in the last 25 years
WASHINGTON—Newly compiled data by Humane World for Animals, formerly called the Humane Society of the United States, reveal that more than 1 million bears (1,014,773) have been legally trophy hunted
United States
Protecting elephants from trophy hunting: “Tuskers” receives a special mention at the Italian Pet Carpet Film Festival
The documentary “Tuskers: Saving the last gentle giants”, from animal charity Humane World for Animals, formerly called Humane Society International, has received a special mention at the Pet Carpet
Italy
Cecil the lion died 10 years ago. The killing didn't.

BRUSSELS—Ten years ago on July 1, 2015, an American hunter seeking a trophy shot an arrow at an African lion named Cecil just outside the boundaries of Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe. The senseless

Europe

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John Amis/AP Images for Humane World for Animals