Captive Lions /Canned Hunting in SA

[Richprins]

That is the thing, these warriors are funded lavishly as NGOs by other foreign warriors!

It is a bit of an industry, and needs to be self-perpetuating. And of course lots of social media attention and virtue-signalling.

But just my cynical opinion.

[Klipspringer]

Here the update from PMG

https://pmg.org.za/committee-meeting/30059/

[Lisbeth]

Don't worry, you cannot be more cynical than I am

[Lisbeth]

Here the update from PMG

https://pmg.org.za/committee-meeting/30059/

Klippie!

It's a difficult moment to discuss tourism

[Lisbeth]

There were 8000-12000 legal captive lions but there were an equivalent number of illegal captive lions. She said that huge consignments of lion bones destined for overseas markets had been intercepted.

[Richprins]

Thanks, Klippies. But once again it looks as though the "experts" (not mentioned in the roster) were the Blood Lions crowd and nobody from the hunting fraternity? maybe I'm wrong?

[Lisbeth]

Coronavirus is a crisis for South Africa’s captive lions, campaigners warn

by James Fair on 13 April 2020

- Captive lions in South Africa could face starvation or euthanization as tourist revenues disappear amid the COVD-19 pandemic, according to animal welfare groups.

- Conservationists argue that the pandemic illustrates why exploitation of wildlife is risky: in the case of lions, the big cats can carry both tuberculosis and the feline equivalent of HIV.

- Industry representatives say animal rights groups have destabilized the lion-breeding business by misrepresenting it.

Wildlife conservation and animal welfare groups say the COVID-19 pandemic ought to spell the end for one of South Africa’s most controversial businesses: the captive breeding of lions.

It is widely accepted that SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that has precipitated the global crisis, came from wildlife (bats or pangolins are the most likely sources), and campaign groups long opposed to lion breeding on an industrial scale in South Africa argue this highlights the risks that humans face by exploiting wildlife for meat or other purposes.

They also say that many of the breeding centers — of which there were 297 in 2016, according to a paper published last year by researchers Vivienne Williams of the University of the Witwatersrand and Michael ’t Sas-Rolfes from Oxford University — rely on tourist income that has now vanished. These centers will now either allow their lions to starve to death or euthanize them — a charge denied by the industry.


Industry representatives say animal rights groups have destabilized the lion-breeding business by misrepresenting it. Image by Tambako the Jaguar via Flickr (CC BY-ND-2.0)

From cuddled cubs to lion bone wine

Outside of zoos, lions are bred and kept in captivity in South Africa for three main reasons: to provide “cub-petting” and “walk with lions” experiences to visitors at theme parks; to be sold to other operations for “canned” trophy hunting; and, when they die or have been killed, to be sold on to countries in East Asia, where their bones are turned into wines and other products for the traditional medicine market.

Some lions go from being cuddled by tourists to being killed by wealthy big-game hunters, before their skeletons are sold into the bone trade. Many NGOs, both within and outside South Africa, have been arguing for more than a decade that the industry is inhumane and should be closed down.

The EMS Foundation has been at the forefront of this campaign, and in an open letter to Barbara Creecy, South Africa’s minister of the environment, forestry and fisheries, published at the end of March, it accused the government of allowing lion breeding to grow out of control. The country now faces a huge challenge over what to do to protect the welfare of an estimated 8,000-12,000 of the big cats, the EMS said.

“Without tourism revenue, and an already appalling welfare record, thousands of captive lions are going to be left to starve,” EMS director Michele Pickover said in the letter. “This is a catastrophe that could have been avoided.”

Separately, an alliance of groups known as the Lion Coalition requested that the World Health Organization (WHO) advise all governments to close down wildlife markets. In particular, it should “unequivocally exclude the use of wildlife, including from captive bred specimens, in the WHO’s definition and endorsement of Traditional Medicine.” Many significant diseases, such as Ebola, MERS and rabies, are transmitted to humans from wildlife, the coalition pointed out.

“Bovine tuberculosis has been documented among wild and captive-bred lions, posing a substantial risk of zoonosis to consumers and people involved in the lion bone trade, particularly those who work in breeding farms, slaughter and processing facilities in South Africa,” the letter to the WHO said.

Paul Funston, regional director of southern Africa for Panthera, the big cat conservation group and one of the partners in the coalition, said the mass breeding of wildlife species in captivity was risky. Disease-causing viruses and bacteria, he argued, had evolved to knock back populations that had become too numerous, and intensive farming of lions could lead to a greater chance of “mutation and transmission to humans.”

Not only are captive lions well-known for harboring bovine tuberculosis, which can be passed to humans, but wild lions across Africa are also infected with the cat equivalent of HIV (known as feline immunodeficiency virus, or FIV). “I’m not saying it is likely to mutate in lions and jump to humans, but it did in gorillas, and they were free-ranging animals that were likely to be as healthy as possible,” Funston said. “We should be taking more care.”

Conservationists also argue that breeding of lions to sell their bones to East Asia is increasing demand, leading to poaching of wild populations. There is evidence that killing of lions for body parts has increased; a study published last year found that the targeted killing of lions in parks on either side of the South Africa-Mozambique border accelerated in the period 2011-2018 (and especially since 2014), but the data show it was mostly for heads and paws, not whole skeletons.


Severely cross-eyed captive male lion in South Africa: the disability is as a result of intense inbreeding. Image courtesy Blood Lions.

Future of the industry

But ’t Sas-Rolfes, a research fellow at the Oxford Martin Programme on the Illegal Wildlife Trade, told Mongabay in an interview that he did not believe the bone trade was driving the illegal killing of lions in a significant way. “The current threat to large wild felids is killing them for claws and teeth, which are used in jewellery in the Far East, not for their skeletal bones,” he said.

It was possible, ’t Sas-Rolfes added, that some, or indeed many, captive lions might be at risk as a result of the lockdown in South Africa, but that there were also farmers who had other sources of income from which they would be able to cross-subsidize the costs of feeding and keeping their lions.

The South African Predator Association (SAPA), whose stated aim is to establish and maintain “a healthy and profitable predator breeding and hunting industry,” told Mongabay that the threat to the country’s lions was created by animal rights campaigners who, over a number of years, have given a misleading picture of both the conditions in which animals are being held and how they are hunted.

“The end result was a decline in bookings and a severe blow to the conservation-based industry in South Africa,” said chief executive Deon Swart. Captive-breeding of many species of wildlife, including lions, contributes to the economy by supplying them for both consumptive and non-consumptive use, he added.

Read more: U.S. adds lions to endangered species list, makes it harder to import lion trophies (2015)

Mongabay contacted five ranches with captive lions, and received one response, from Christa Saayman of Mystic Monkeys and Feathers. Saayman said the absence of visitors did not pose any risk to her 30 lions because she had other income streams and that she had never, and would never, sell any of them into the bone trade.

Despite the calls from the EMS Foundation and the Lion Coalition, the government has its own plan for dealing with captive lion breeding. Since last year, it has suspended the annual quotas for the international bone trade while a high level panel conducts a policy review. The panel’s recommendations, which are expected by the end of this year, will be crucial in determining the industry’s long-term future.

[Lisbeth]

Open letter calls on the World Tourism Organization to ban wildlife interactions

Posted on June 4, 2020 by Team Africa Geographic in the NEWS DESK post series.


Consumable lion commodities meet their tourist sponsors

Animal protection groups, NGOs and tourism organisations call on the United Nations World Tourism Organization and the Global Tourism Crisis Committee to use the process of recovery from COVID-19 to phase out all captive wildlife in tourism entertainment. In an open letter penned to the Secretary-General of the UNWTO, Nick Stewart of World Animal Protection calls on the tourism sector to embrace a part of the responsibility to prevent future pandemics and, in doing so, exclude all exploitation of wild animals. It was signed and endorsed by several animal protection groups including Blood Lions, as well as significant travel and tourism organisations such as Airbnb and Booking.com.

The open letter goes on to point out that visits to wildlife tourist attractions may account for between 20-40% of internal tourism globally, and that most involve close contact, hands-on interaction with animals that could pose dangers to human health, especially through the spread of zoonotic disease. The addendums to the letter highlight the fact that most of these animals are exposed to poor welfare conditions and bad treatment, without the practices making any substantive contribution to conservation. Captive wildlife tourism is a known driver of both legal and illegal wildlife trade and often involves the removal of a wild animal from its natural habitat, contributing to significant biodiversity loss.

Stewart writes that a move to phase out captive wildlife attractions and promote responsible wildlife tourism is essential to signalling the pro-active and precautionary approach espoused by the Global Tourism Crisis Committee and that it is the only way to ensure a more resilient, sustainable and equitable tourism sector for the future. He calls on the UNWTO to send a strong message that would “strengthen the image of the sector as a force for good whose benefits will be shared by all sectors of society”. He argues that recovery post-COVID-19 is an opportunity to “grow back better”.

The full open letter and list of signatories can be accessed here.

[Lisbeth]

phpBB [video]

Unfair Game: shocking new revelations on lion farming in South Africa - WARNING: distressing content

Presented by Lord Ashcroft KCMG PC, to accompany his new book "Unfair Game", this film discloses details of a second major investigation into captive-lion breeding, whereby thousands of Africa's most iconic animals are killed either for the bone trade or as hunting trophies.

Visit http://www.LordAshcroftWildlife.com for more information and to order the book.

Follow Lord Ashcroft on Twitter and/ or Facebook: @LordAshcroft

[Lisbeth]

Lion cubs to bones – we interview Lord Ashcroft about ‘UNFAIR GAME’

Posted on July 8, 2020 by Team Africa Geographic in the OPINION EDITORIAL post series


A lion carcass being slaughtered for the final stage of its usefulness to humankind – as bones for sale into the traditional Chinese medicine industry.

Q&A with Lord Ashcroft about the captive lion trade and his book ‘UNFAIR GAME.’

There can never be any reason or justification to breed lions for tourist cub petting and adolescent lion walking, canned/other hunting or the bone trade. This ugly, cruel, morally bankrupt and biodiversity-destructive industry has to be shut down. One man who is out there fighting to stop this industry is Lord Ashcroft – international businessman, philanthropist, author, and pollster.

Lord Ashcroft instigated a covert operation to investigate the captive lion breeding industry in South Africa, and this shocking video reveals some of his findings. WARNING: the video contains harrowing footage that made our stomachs churn. Proceed with caution – you have been warned. Also to emerge from this exposé is Lord Ashcroft’s recently-published book ‘UNFAIR GAME – an exposé of South Africa’s captive-bred lion industry’ – a must-read for any serious wildlife eco-warrior. All author royalties will be donated to relevant charities in South Africa.

We spoke to Lord Ashcroft about the journey leading to this book.

How did you come to be involved in investigating lion breeding farms and canned lion hunting?

L.A: I have always loved nature, and South Africa is one of my favourite countries in the world. In 2018, during a trip to South Africa, I was told by various conservationists and experts about the scandal of lion farming and the horrors of canned lion hunting. I decided I had to find out more about this, so I launched an undercover operation shortly afterwards and then a second undercover operation – which my new book UNFAIR GAME details – to try to break it open.

What is your response to the claims by the proponents of lion breeding and canned hunting that, as farmed animals, these lions are essentially livestock and that the cruelty they are subjected to is no worse than that suffered by cows, sheep, pigs and goats when they are farmed throughout the world?

L.A: Lions are not livestock. They have never been and never will be livestock, whatever proponents of lion breeding and canned lion hunting claim. If lions were mere livestock, as opposed to being a creature revered throughout human history, why on earth does the South African state adorn South African banknotes with their image? Everybody knows that the lion is an internationally recognised symbol of strength and beauty. It has been acknowledged in this way for centuries in heraldry. Lions are indeed being farmed now on an industrial scale in South Africa, but this is a very new development. It’s mushroomed in the space of a generation. That doesn’t mean anything has changed regarding the status of lions in the minds of decent human beings. The willingness of unscrupulous people to farm lions doesn’t mean lions are anything like poultry or pigs or goats. Only somebody with a vested interest in exploiting a lion would try to justify their activities in this way and reduce a lion to the status of an organism that rolls off a production line.



Regarding the wild lions removed from Botswana to be used as breeding stock for the captive lion breeders, do your sources indicate that this is a widespread practice, or is it isolated to a few specific operators? Have you informed the relevant authorities of these goings-on, and has that resulted in any action on their part?

L.A: The information my team and I received suggests that removing wild lions from Botswana is now fairly commonplace. It is done out of necessity to widen the gene pool of the captive-bred lion population, which is often sickly. Because it is an underground industry, it is hard for anybody to be precise about this, but the poachers and hustlers seem to operate with relative ease. As to the second part of your question, my team did present a senior police officer in Pretoria with an extensive dossier of findings. He refused to read it and instead threatened to put at least one of my team in prison.

In your video, you touch on the justification used by lion breeders that they are supplying the existing demand in Asia for bone and that to remove the farmed supply would result in a massive upsurge in poaching incidents in wild lion populations to feed that market. Can you explain in more detail why you disagree with this reasoning?

L.A: I do disagree with the justification used by lion breeders that if they didn’t exist, there would be more poaching. Lion breeders always say their industry protects wild lions. In fact, the bone trade has done the opposite: it has established a market and a demand that has already harmed the wild population through poaching. This could, in future, have significant conservation implications. A market has been developed, and it must be fed, whatever the cost, even if that means plundering some of nature’s most precious species. This is a trade with links to criminals. It is indefensible.

The bone trade is appallingly grim. It’s also absurd. Who in their right mind would genuinely believe that consuming the bone of a big cat would improve their love life or their overall health? A major re-education programme is urgently required throughout Asia to root out this claptrap. It’s the only way to stamp it out.

You presumably went to considerable expense to rescue Simba and ensure his future. Research suggests that wild lion populations are declining at an alarming rate, not just in South Africa but throughout their remaining range in Africa – and many organisations devoted to protecting these wild lions are underfunded. Is there an argument that the money spent on saving one captive-bred lion could have been spent on efforts to save wild lions – or do you believe these causes to be separate issues, each as deserving as the other?

L.A: In deciding to save Simba, I reacted to a set of circumstances at the time. Simba was part of an undercover operation. Saving one out of a possible 12,000 captive-bred lions from certain death felt like a small but crucial victory in the war to end the captive-bred industry. This industry has been my focus, though I know that others focus on the wild population, and I applaud their efforts. In fact, as UNFAIR GAME makes clear, I believe that some tough choices lie ahead of us when it comes to what to do with the captive-bred population. Ultimately, it should not exist as a breed of lion. Some people will be shocked at this but euthanising all, or most captive-bred lions might be one solution. These are sad animals, bred to live miserable lives and then be killed. They can’t be re-wilded; they are often sickly because of inbreeding, and the expense of putting every captive-bred lion in a sanctuary would be prohibitive. There’s also a considerable risk that the trade would start again if this happened.



Lion breeding and hunting have been the subject of several shocking media exposés and reports, yet the practice continues. How can the average person help?

L.A: The lion trade starts as soon as cubs are born and taken from their mothers. These cubs are used as tourist magnets. So, a vitally important thing that people all over the world can do is cease having anything to do with cub-petting. Make it clear to anyone you meet that it is socially unacceptable to see lions anywhere other than in the wild and you should certainly never touch a lion either because they bite, scratch and carry all sorts of diseases. Lion cubs are often beaten or drugged to get them to behave in front of humans. When you think of all this, it doesn’t sound very attractive, does it?

Apart from the above, another way to help would be to buy my book (purchase details below) – 100% of the author royalties will be donated to relevant charities in South Africa. Reading and thinking about Unfair Game will empower you to know more and to be a better warrior for the cause as you spread accurate information to your networks.

Please feel free to offer further insights into the situation.

L.A: Lion farming is a terrible business. Behind the veneer of respectable tourist establishments, lions are being exploited at every stage of their lives for profit. The lion trade has clear links to international crime syndicates. All of this is appalling. But so is the risk of disease to humans that the lion trade poses. Farmed lions have weak immune systems. As they get older, they are subjected to a poor diet. All of this heightens their risk of bacterial infection. Anyone who goes near a lion is exposing themself to sarcoptic mange, ringworm, toxoplasmosis, babesiosis, giardiasis, cysticercosis, E. coli and echinococcus hydatid cysts – potentially fatal tapeworms.

But there is more. It is widely understood that Covid-19 originated in a Chinese wildlife market and spread around the world. Because of the big cat bone trade in Asia, of which South Africa is now a considerable part, experts quoted in my book say a major public health incident will occur in Asia as a result of its people’s rampant consumption of lion bones. It could be the infectious disease brucellosis, or botulism, or a new disease, like Covid-19. TB is also a massive risk.

I hope this, if nothing else, persuades everybody of the evil of lion farming.