Lion Bones export Approved/Blood Lions

[Lisbeth]

Exclusive: Inside a controversial South African lion farm

BY RACHEL FOBAR
PHOTOGRAPHS BY NICHOLE SOBECKI
PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 21, 2019

LICHTENBURG, SOUTH AFRICAThirty-four lions were crammed into a muddy enclosure meant for three. Rotting chicken carcasses and cattle body parts littered the ground. Feces piled up in corners. Algae grew in water bowls. Twenty-seven of the lions were so afflicted with mange, a painful skin disease caused by parasitic mites, that they’d lost nearly all their fur. Three cubs lay twitching in the dirt, one draped over the blackened leg of a cow, its hoof visible. Mewling, they struggled—but failed—to drag themselves forward. A fourth cub looked on, motionless.

“Soul destroying.” That’s how Douglas Wolhuter, senior inspector with South Africa’s National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA), describes the scene at Pienika Farm, in North West Province, on April 11, 2019. The NSPCA is responsible for enforcing the country’s Animals Protection Act, and Wolhuter was conducting an inspection of Pienika, one of the more than 250 privately owned lion farms in South Africa.

“Ever since I’ve been a young kid, a lion has been known as the king of the jungle,” Wolhuter says. “And then you see it reduced to basically an intensively farmed animal—you’ve removed everything regal and noble about the animal.”

https://youtu.be/dRY9xOtDlDE

It is quite a long story and full of photos. If you want to read it all and see the pics, click on the title. The whole thing is rather dramatic and orrido. Before reading this I could only imagine what many of those farms were like, but now I feel sick and horrified

[Flutterby]

[Richprins]

Last year's court case, very long and technical:

LION CASE.pdf

(8.23 MiB) Downloaded 104 times

[Klipspringer]

‘Gold rush’ as Botswana meets appetite for lion goods
by Oxpeckers Reporters
Data shows that over a 10-year period South Africa received most of the live lions and their products exported from Botswana – including 16 live lions in 2019.

https://oxpeckers.org/2021/01/botswana-lions/

[Richprins]

There is not much that can be changes unless it is found to break laws.

[Lisbeth]

If there is a need to import lions, it means that the trade is flourishing. Disgusting!

[Lisbeth]

TRADING IN MISERY: SOUTH AFRICA’S RECENT LION EXPORTS

BY EMS FOUNDATION - 14TH JULY 2021 - EMS FOUNDATION

Official information obtained by the EMS Foundation from the South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries
and the Environment via the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) about lion exports from the Oliver
Tambo International Airport (Johannesburg, Gauteng), reveals that:

• Primarily in 2019, 217 live captive lions were exported from the Free State, North West, Gauteng and
  Limpopo provinces.
   Between April and November 2019, the Free State province exported 79 captive lions to the
  following countries: China, DRC, Indonesia, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United States of America.
  Forty-two of which went to China (53%).
   The North West province, between December 2018 and November 2020 sent 54 live lions to
  China, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Vietnam and Zimbabwe, of which 43% went to China alone.
   In July and August 2019 alone, Gauteng province sent 40 captive lions to China and 5 captive
  lions to Indonesia in February 2021.
   Limpopo province sent 36 captive lions to Armenia, Benin, China, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Malaysia,
  Niger and Turkey. Most of these exports occurred between April and December 2019.
   In June 2018 Kwazulu-Natal province sent 8 wild lions from Mkuze to Mozambique most likely into
  hunting Coutadas.
  Between August 2018 and 7 April 2021 there were, 907 trophy hunted body part related
  shipments/exports, consisting of 1864 items (including full bodies, bones, skulls with teeth, claws and
  skins). These included:
   827 shipments/exports of captive lion body parts
   80 wild lion body part shipments/exports
  USA – 13
  Poland – 7
  Canada – 6
  Russia – 6
  Switzerland – 6
  Belgium – 6 (3 from Sudan)
  Germany – 6
  Mexico – 5
  China – 5
  Spain – 5
  Romania – 3
  Argentina – 1
  Austria – 1
  Bulgaria – 1
  Denmark
  France – 1
  Hungary – 1
  Italy – 1
  Japan – 1
  Luxembourg -1
  Mongolia – 1
  South Korea – 1
  Zambia – 1

Permit number 171120 for the “skull and full skin” of the lion known as Skye exported on the 24thAugust 2018. Interestingly it was not a “full mount” − was this a deliberate act to continue to cover up his killing? Countries which imported body parts from captive lions only included: Australia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Kazakhstan, New Zealand, Norway, Serbia, Slovakia, Sweden, Thailand, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. The countries which imported the biggest number of lion body parts for this period were:

• Spain – 109

• Canada – 101

• Hungary – 82

• Poland – 58

• Mexico – 55

• Denmark – 57

• Russia – 46

• USA – 41

• Germany – 35

• Austria – 27

• China – 26

• Slovakia – 26

• Italy – 25

• United Kingdom – 21

• Czech Republic – 19

• Argentina – 16

• Sweden – 13

3. Six permits for 52 lion skeletons and carcasses were issued and exported in 2019. This despite the
announcement by the Minister, and given the High Court Judgement, that there was no lion bone quota
established or approved for 2019. All these shipments went to Vietnam and the permits were issued by
the following provinces: Gauteng, Free State, Limpopo and North West provinces. In addition to these
permits and shipments, another 142 lion skeletons and carcasses were exported in 2019 to Vietnam
with permits issued in December 2018 by the Free State and North West provinces. Thus, in 2019, according to DFFE, 194 lion skeletons and carcasses were exported from South Africa through the Oliver Tambo International Airport to Vietnam. According The CITES Trade Database South Africa claims that 156 lion skeletons were exported from South Africa: 13 as hunting trophies to an unknown destination, 1 to Thailand and 142 to Vietnam.

Original report:
https://emsfoundation.org.za/wp-content ... 072021.pdf

[Richprins]

Lion teeth and claws seized as wildlife squad swoops on Vietnamese suspect

14 August 2021 - 15:19 -Philani Nombembe - Journalist

A Vietnamese national has been arrested for illegal wildlife trade and illegal possession of a firearm.


Authorities have recovered lion teeth and claws from a suspected illegal wildlife trader.

The Vietnamese man was arrested during raids in Bela-Bela and Pretoria after a four-month probe by analysts and wildlife investigators. The suspect was also arrested for illegal possession of a firearm.

A joint team comprised of the Green Scorpions from the department of environment, forestry and fisheries (Deff), the Limpopo department of economic development, environment and tourism, the Gauteng department of agriculture and rural development and SANParks conducted the raid on Thursday.

In a statement on Saturday, Deff said search and seizure warrants were “executed simultaneously at a Vietnamese-owned farm near Bela-Bela in Limpopo and at two storage units in Pretoria”.

The Vietnamese man who was arrested appeared in the Bela-Bela regional court on Friday and the case was postponed due to the need for an interpreter.

“The man has been charged with illegal possession of a threatened species in terms of the National Environmental Management Biodiversity Act,” said the statement.

“The joint investigation team seized 4.19kg of lion teeth, 680g of lion claws and more than 60kg of processed animal products believed to be lion gelatin. An illegal firearm was also confiscated.

“The collaborative nature of this operation has once again proven the importance of an integrated approach to investigations. The valuable assistance of the private sector in this matter is also highly appreciated.”

TimesLIVE

https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/sout ... e-suspect/

[Lisbeth]

Imagine how many lions must have been killed to arrive at that amount of teeth and claws

[Peter Betts]

Imagine how many lions must have been killed to arrive at that amount of teeth and claws

The Bye Products of manly Canned tame lion hunting