Saskatoon African hunting show finds new home at the Travelodge

An African hunting show has found a new home in Saskatoon after being booted from its original spot late last year.

Listed on its events page online, African Events Canada says they’ve booked the Travelodge Hotel on Circle Drive North to host the two-day hunting expo in January. The event is meant to connect Saskatchewan hunters with African safari outfits who also participate in trophy-hunting expeditions.

In December the Saskatoon Inn came under tremendous fire from an online petition that called African trophy hunting cruel, unsustainable and inhumane. Public pressure forced the hotel’s hand and they eventually pulled the show from its calendar, leaving the show without a location weeks before it was scheduled to arrive.

With the Travelodge now stepping up, a second online petition calling for the show’s cancellation has surfaced. The petition started by Saskatoon’s Kris Williams cites many of the animals targeted for sport hunting in Africa are endangered species, and it should be stopped.

The petition also takes a shot at pressuring the Travelodge in the same way the first petition pressured the Saskatoon Inn.

“Airline Hotels, owner of the Travelodge Saskatoon Hotel, touts its commitment to respect and integrity, yet their support of the unethical, exploitative, cruel and unsustainable trophy hunting industry flies in the face of these values,” the petition states.

“It’s time for Travelodge Hotel and parent company, Airline Hotels, to live up to their self-proclaimed values … and cancel their booking of the African Hunting Events expo. Please call on the Travelodge Hotel to cancel the expo and help protect African animals.”

At the time of publishing this article the petition collected 6,332 signatures, which are accepted from people all over the globe, not just locally.

The hunting expo is set for Jan. 23 and 24.