South Africa ponders how to handle 12,000 lions bred for the gun
7 May, 2021 11:59 PM
3 minutes to read
South Africa said on May 6, 2021, it will end its captive lion industry in a major move for conservation. Photographer Aaron Smale travelled to South Africa as the winner of the Cathay Pacific Travel Photographer of the year competition to capture them in the wild. Video / Aaron Smale
South Africa said on May 6, 2021, it will end its captive lion industry in a major move for conservation. Photographer Aaron Smale travelled to South Africa as the winner of the Cathay Pacific Travel Photographer of the year competition to capture them in the wild. Video / Aaron Smale
South Africa to ban captive lion industry, including canned hunting
SHARE Link The new policy will prohibit the keeping and breeding of lions in captivity and the use of any captive lion parts for commercial purposes.
Photo: AP
South Africa says it will end its captive lion industry in a major move for conservation that would outlaw the heavily criticised canned hunting of the big cats and sale of their bones, as well as popular tourist experiences like petting cubs.
The policy, which still needs to be made into law, would effectively end the world s legal lion bone trade. South Africa is the only country given a special dispensation by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species to sell and export lion bones, claws and teeth, and they have to be from captive lions. None of those parts from wild lions can be sold or traded anywhere.
South Africa bans canned lion hunts
Policy change brought in after fears that practice was damaging South Africa s reputation
Lion cubs at a captive tourism facility in South Africa
Credit: Pippa Henkinson
South Africa is to ban canned lion hunts, ending a trade long opposed by conservationists but raising questions over what will happen to thousands of lions purpose-bred for shooting.
The policy change follows a year-long review which concluded that letting hunters to shoot lions in captivity had a “negative impact” on South Africa s reputation. The move was welcomed last night by conservationists, who say many of the lions are kept in inhumane conditions and suffer in-breeding.
Watershed decision to save South Africaâs Lions
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Four winters ago my family and I were in the Kruger National Park, mesmerized by the sighting of five black maned male lions lying in wait on a sandy bank overlooking the Crocodile River.
There they were - Africaâs Apex predator in all their glory, and nothing could compare with coming so close to such majestic beasts. That day in the Kruger store we found a CD called Blood Lions, which piqued my curiosity, only to be horrified by the story it told.
The renowned conservationist and Director of Blood Lions Ian Michler narrated the award winning documentary film which exposed the horrors that captive bred lions endure on farms across South Africa - lions just like the ones we had just seen, which are bred for the bullet.