‘Canned hunting: the lions bred for slaughter I Environment I The Guardian
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starch
‘Canned hunting’: the lions bred for
slaughter
Canned hunting is a fast-growing business in South Africa, where
thousands of lions are being bred on farms to be shot by wealthy
foreign trophy-hunters
Patrick flarkham
the G,,:,rdian, Sunday
2
Juuie
21)13
They are adorably cute, with grubby brown fur so soft it seems to slip through my
fingers like flour. It is only when one of the nine-week-old cubs playfully grabs my arm
with its teeth and squeezes with an agonising grip that I remember this is a lion, a wild
animal. These four cubs are not wild, however. They are kept in a small pen behind the
Lion’s Den, a pub on a ranch in desolate countryside 75 miles south of Johannesburg.
Tourists stop to pet them but most visitors do not venture over the hill, where the ranch
has pens holding nearly 50 juvenile and fully-grown lions, and two tigers.
—
Moreson ranch is one of more than iSo such farms legally breeding big eats in South
Africa. There are now more lions held in captivity (upwards of ,ooo) in the country
than live wild (about 2,000). While the owners of this ranch insist they do not hunt and
kill their lions, animal welfare groups say most breeders sell their stock to be shot dead
by wealthy trophy-hunters from Europe and North America, or for traditional medicine
in Asia. The easy slaughter of animals in fenced areas is called “canned hunting”,
perhaps because it’s rather like shooting fish in a barrel. A fully-grown, captive-bred lion
is taken from its pen to an enclosed area where it wanders listlessly for some hours
before being shot dead by a man with a shotgun, hand-gun or even a crossbow, standing
safely on the back of a truck. forile pays anything from £5,000 to £25,000, and it is all
completely legal.
Like other tourists and daytrippers from .Jo’burg, I pay a more modest
to hug the
lions at Moreson, a game ranch which on its website invites tourists to come and enjoy
the canned hunting of everything from pretty blesbok and springbok South Africa’s
national symbol to lions and crocodiles. After a cuddle with the cubs, I go on a “game
drive” through the 2,000 hectarc estate. Herds of blue wildebeest, red hartebeest and
eland run from the truck, then stop and watch us, warily: according to the guides, the
animals seem to know when visitors are not carrying guns. At the far end of the property
is an abandoned farm, surrounded by pens of lethargic-looking big cats. One pair mate
in front of us. Two healthy looking tigers tear at chicken carcasses rapidly rotting in the
African sun.
—
—
The animals look well cared for. But Cathleen Benade, a ranch assistant who is studying
wildlife photography and is devoted to the cubs, reveals that they were taken away from
their mothersjust an hour after birth and bottle-fed by humans for the first eight weeks
of their life. After dark, as the lions roar in the cages below’ the pub veranda, Ma’ke STan
Der Mence, the manager of Lion’s Den and daughter of the ranch owner, explains that if
the cubs weren’t separated from their mother by blowing a horn to scare the adult lion
away the young lions would starve to death, because their mother had no milk. She
—
—
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/201 3/jun/03/canned-hunting-lions-bred-slaughte... 9/18/2014
Canned hunting: the lions bred for slaughter Environment The Guardian
Page 2 of 4
says the mother is not distressed: “She’s looking for the cubs for a few hours but its not
like she’s sad. After a day or two I don’t think she remembered that she had cubs.”
Animal welfare experts disagree, however. They say breeders remove the cubs from their
mother so that the lioness will quickly become fertile again, as they squeeze as many
cubs from their adults as possible five litters every two years. For an animal that is
usually weaned at six months, missing out on the crucial colostnrm, or first milk, cao
cause ill-health. “These breeders tell you they removed the cubs because the mother had
no milk; I’ve never seen that in the wild,” says Pieter Kat, an evolutionary biologist who
has worked with wild lions in Kenya and Botswana. “Lions and tigers in captivity may
kill their young because they are under a lot of stress. But the main reason breeders
separate the young from their mother is because they don’t want them to be dependant
on their mother. Separation brings the female back into a reproductive position much
faster than if the cubs were around. It’s a conveyor-belt production of animals.”
—
-
Alionbredonafarm
in South Africa for commercial use. Photograph: Stephane Dc Sakutin/AFP/Gctty
Images
South Africa has a strong hunting tradition but few people express much enthusiasm for
its debased canned form. It is still legal to bring a lion carcass back to Britain (or
anywhere in Europe or North America) as atrophy, and much of the demand comes
from overseas. Trophy-hunters are attracted by the guarantee of success, and the price:
a wild lion shot on a safari in Tanzania may cost £o,ooo, compared with a £5,000
captive-bred specimen in South Africa. Five years ago, the South African government
effectively banned canned hunting by requiring an animal to roam free for two years
before it could be hunted, severely restricting breeders and hunters’ profitability. But
lion breeders challenged the policy in South Africa’s courts and a high court judge
eventually ruled that surh restrictions were “not rational”. The number of trophy hunted
animals has since soared. In the five years to 2006, 1,830 lion trophies were exported
from South Africa; in the five years to 2011, 4,062 were exported, a 122% increase, and
the vast majority captive-bred animals.
Demand from the Far East is also driving profits for lions breeders. In 2001, two lions
were exported as “trophies” to China, Laos and Vietnam; in 2011,70 lion trophies were
exported to those nations. While the trade in tiger parts is now illegal, demand for lion
parts for traditional Asian medicine is soaring. In 2009, five lion skeletons were
exported from South Africa to Laos; in 2011, it was 496. The legal export of lion bones
and whole carcasses has also soared. “It’s definitely a rapidly growing source of revenue
for these canned breeding facilities,” says Will Travers of the charity Born Free, “The
increase and volume are terri’ing.”
Breeders argue it is better that hunters shoot a captive-bred lion than further endanger
the “lid populations, but conservationists and animal welfare groups dispute this. Wild
populations of lions have declined by So% in 20 years, so the rise of lion farms and
canned hunting has not protected wild lions. In fact, according to Fiona Miles, director
of Lionsrock, a big cat sanctuary in South Africa run by the charity Four Paws, it is
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/20 I 3/jun/03/canned-hunting-Iions-bred-slaughte... 9/18/2014
Canned huntingt: the lions bred for slaughter J Environment I The Guardian
Page 3 of 4
fuelling it. The lion farms’ creation of a market for canned lion hunts puts a clear pricetag on the head of every wild lion, she says; they create a financial incentive for local
people, who collude with poachers or turn a blind eye to illegal lion kills. Trophyhunters who begin with a captive-bred lion may then graduate to the real, wild thing.
“It’s factory-farming of lions, and it’s shocking,” says Miles, She began working to
protect lions after watching a seminal documentary about canned hunting. “The lion all
around the world is known as the iconic king of thejungle that’s ho” it’s portrayed in
advertising and written into story books and yet people have reduced it to a
commodity, something that can be traded and used.”
—
—
An alternative use for the captive-bred lions might be tourism. We go for a “lion walk”
with Martin Quinn, a conservation educator and lion whisperer. This involves strolling
through the veld with three adolescent white lions, which have been bred on Moreson
ranch and trained by Quinn and his assistant, Thompson. These striking white lions
(which tend to be very inbred, say animal welfare groups) bound around us, rush on,
and then lie in the grass, ready for an ambush. Armed only with sticks, Quinn and
Thompson control them, while warning us that they are still wild animals. It is an
unnerving experience, but Quinn hopes this venture “ill persuade Moreson ranch that a
live lion is worth more than a dead one.
He claims that since he began working with lions at the ranch in January, the owners
have not sold on any lions to be hunted. He hopes the ranch will eventually allow the
offspring of its captive animals to grow up in the wild. (Breeders sometimes claim their
lions are for conservation programmes but examples of captive-bred lions becoming
wild animals again are vanishingly rare; even the most respectable zoo has never
established a successful programme for releasing captive-bred lions into the wild.)
Pieter Kat, who founded the charity Lion Aid, says the lion walks are simply another
income stream for breeders before their lucrative charges are sold on. Van Der Menve is
doubtful that Quinn’s lion walks could replace the income the farm receives from selling
its lions: “We keep them up until six months for attractions for the people so they can
play with them and then we sell them to other lion parks,” she says. She insists her
ranch’s website is wrong, and it does not hunt lions: “We sell them to other people who
have the permit for lions. What they do with the lions is up to them. So we don’t know
what they do with the lions, but we don’t do the canned hunting.”
Three hours’ drive from the ranch is Lionsrock, a former lion breeding farm
transformed into a sanctuary for more than So abused big cats since it was bought by
Four Paws. Some come from local breeding farms, but Four Paws also rescues animals
kept in appalling conditions in zoos in Romania, Jordan and the Congo. Unlike in the
lion farms, the animals here are not allowed to breed, and instead live within large
enclosures in their natural prides, family groups of up to 10 lions.
Lionsrock can rehouse another 100 lions but does not have space for every captive-bred
lion in South Africa. Four Paws and other charities working in South Africa want a
moratorium on lion breeding because they fear that if lion farms were abruptly outlawed
thousands of lions would be dumped or killed. After its high court defeat, there is little
sign that the South African government “ill take on the powerful lion breeders again
any time soon. “If we can stop people supporting those industries in the first place and
make them aware of what’s actually going on and what the life of a [captive-bred] lion is
actually like, I believe there will bean outcry,” says Miles. “There’s far more value for a
live lion long-term.”
Lion breeders such as \‘an Der Menve are not so sure. She says her caged lions have
little to do with canned hunting, but admits that if the authorities banned canned
hunting, “it would probably not be good for us There’s a lot of people from overseas
coming to shoot lions. All the people know you come to Africa to shoot the lion or have a
...
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2O1 3/jun/03/eanned-hunting-lions-bred-slaughte... 9/18/2014
Canned hunting: the lions bred for slaughter Environment The Guardian
Page 4 of 4
mount against your wall to say ‘I’ve shot a lion’. They surely bring some money into
South Africa.
She sees nothing wrong with hunting lions or keeping them in captivity. In fact, she
says, she is part of a family of animal lovers: “We grew up with them, so it’s nice. It’s like
babies in your house when they are really small they walk around in your house and
they follow you.”
—
121
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Opinion: Why Are We Still Hunting Lions?
Page I oft
Shoot better photos
National Geographic Nets
Opinion: Why Are We Still Hunting Lions?
How can we save lions when .4 utericans are killing them for span?
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ThL’ United Stales ginenment is ciansidering whether to
add lions to the list ofspccics protected by the Endnngered
Species Art. Such protection would bun the importation of
dead Iroph? lions in to the U.S.
Share
Uk•
The proposed move, supported h’ a coal lion of wildi jib
UrOUpS that includes m\ ow. the International Fund fr
Anirnat \Velfi,re. raises an oh’ ious question: \Vh on Earth
are we stiTT aTTo’ inc this animal to he kitted fir fun’ shcn
its in dancerofdisappeodng from the wild in our lifeumes7
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s:
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The most recent stud’, Ted h a scientist from Duke
L[niversit, shows that as tbw as 32.01)1) lions are left in the wild, Mans e>perts
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2Ol3/08/l 30802-lions-trophy-hunting-extinction... 9/18/2014
Opinion: Why Are We Still Hunting Lions?
Page 2 oft
say there could he fr lëwer. (Sec an interactive eperienee on the Serengeti
lion.)
While habitat loss and human—wi Idi ic con II ict (o len in the inn of retal iaton
killings after lions kill livestock and sometimes even humans) are the primat
causes of thc lions’ disappearance from Africa’s forests and savaonahs, trophy
hunting adds to the problem. Approimatel’ OUt) lions are killed every yearon
trophy hunts, including lions in populations that are already declining from
other threats. These hunts are unsustainable and put more pressure on the
species.
Unfortunately. Americans arc primaril to hlame. Approximately 60 percent of
all lions killed forsport in Africa are shipped to the U.S. as trophies.
There are se cral reasons why trophy hunting is so had Cr lion,. hey iind the
obvious one that it kills health’ members olan imperiled species. The adult
male lion is the moss soughi-alier trophy by sseaith’ li’reign hunlers. And
when an adult male lion is killed, the destabilization ofiltut lion’s pride can
lead to morn lion deaths as outside mates compete to take 05cr the pride.
Once a ness male is in the dominant position, he “ill i,flen kill the cubs sired
by the pride’s pres ious leader, resulting in the toss ofan entire lion ger,eration
ssithin the pride.
Trophy hanting is also counter-evolutionan as it’s based t,n selectively taking
the large, robust, and healthy males from a population for a hunters troph
room. 1 hese are the same crucial indis duals that in a natural sy stens would
live long, lUll lives, protecting their mates and cuhs and contributing their
genes to future generations.
-
Despite (he wild claims that troph’ hunting brings millit,ns of dollars in
resenue to local people in otherss se poor communities, there is no primfof
this. Even pro-huntine organizations like the International Council for Game
a. d Wildlil Consenation ha’e reported that only 3 percent of resenue from
trophy hunting e’er makes it to the communities affected by hunting. The rest
goes to national
governments or
foreign—based outtitters,
The money that dues come into Africa from hunting pales in comparison to tile
billions and billions generated from tourists “ho come just (5’ statch “ itdlife. If
lions and other animals continue to disappear from Africa. this sisal source of
incnrnenonconsumptive tourism will end. adsersely impacting people all
over Africa.
Attempts to introduce sustainabte methods for sport hunting of lions base been
discussed for decades. But the lion population continues to decline, and reform
ofihe hunting industry appears to he Ur oil, Esen a new, much-hyped method
of targeting aging lions, so that the animals are killed after contributing to the
genetic pool, are’diftieult It, pull off and rely on age seritieation after Ihe lion
has already been killed.
African lit,ns are the only big eat not currently protected under the Endangered
Species Act.
listing African lions as an endangered species and banning troph imports to
the U.S. would send an important message: The African lion is disappearing.
and the global community needs to act to sttsp the trend before it is too tale or
too costly to reverse.
It’s a message that won’t be beard as long as it is common and legal to kit I lions
for sport. Why should any one spend money to protect an animal that a wealthy
American can then pay to go kill?
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/20 13/08/I 30802-lions-trophy-hunting-extinction... 9/18/2014
Canned hunting of white lions is despicable
—
its time we marched to stop it I Jerome Fly...
tiieguardian
Page 1 of 3
Scrch
ENVIRONMENT
4LUt
ThE WORLD’S LEADING GREEN JOURNALISTS
ON CLIMATE, ENERGY AND WILDLifE
‘Canned hunting’ of white lions is
despicable and it must stop
—
South Africa’s president must put an end to this
cold-blooded slaughter, says Ripper Street star
Jerome Flynn
r.w!VZ
White ion
iii
South Africa. lliotogn,pli: jGIobal \hitc t.ioos l’r,,tectic,ii Inist
The survival of white lions a free roaming species is hanging by a thread. There is an
abominable, growing, legal industry that threatens all the lions of South Africa, both
tawny and white, a practice that is so despicable it makes one’s stomach shudder at how
disconnected from his heart man can be.
It is known as “canned hunting.” This practice involves taking cubs from their captive
mothers at birth. That means the mothers can go into oestrus and breed again within a
few months, rather than every 2 or 3 years as they would in the wild.
Actor .lcn,nie FInn,: If this is a cause that tugs at
U ons’ ‘hot, graph: Na on Riven,!) Rex Features
3001
heart, as it has mine,join the Global March for
http://www.theguardian.com/environmentJblog/20 14/mar/Il /canned-hunting-white-Iions-d... 9/18/2014
Canned hunting of white lions is despicable
—
its time we marched to stop it I Jerome Fly...
Page 2 of 3
The cubs ;il1 then be used in the cub-petting ‘industry aimed at unsuspecting tourists
and celebrities. Then, when they grow too big to be cuddled, if they are very lucky, they
end up in a zoo, but most likely they sill be drugged and then gunned down in captivity
by a wealthy foreigner, paying up to £50,000 for the right to do so.
These helpless young lions, by now are not even a shadow of their natural selves, with
no fear of humans and nowhere to escape to even if they wanted to. There is no hunting
involved here; it isjust cold blooded slaughter of a tame animal.
An animal, that since human culture began, has been revered as the King of all animals.
A beautiful, supremely majestic creature ‘hose name, nature and image “e have used
through the millennia as symbols of strength, divinity, courage and grace.
The Lion is surely mankind’s ultimate power animal, and yet here we are in the 21st
century, ‘ith a legal industry that strips away all their power, respect and freedom,
recking their genetics through interbreeding so that reintroduction into the ;‘ild
becomes impossible, and then gunning them down for the sake of what?
Man’s twisted ego that somehow believes he can claim that power for himself. Its head
may end up as a trophy on a wall, and yen likely its bones “ill find their way mb
another a’panding Chinese industn’ that sells lion bone as a tonic to boost our sex drive.
How low we have fallen?
‘[‘crc rc r:ci rixi:ccap’k c bins ii s4Egh Añca th;m ,‘ild (gus. ax1 Pant olthcsc aiuniai’ arc rt,rccI
pctituuI ii lie slic,t inil owrinl liv ocaHln- o::risls frum Eunipe and North Anrric;i. I’atrick t$irkl;;ti;i
a Iuiii—irccdiiig farm iii N,,rd lslvni [ice Sigic. Sc,:ith Africa. In invcstigatc [lit
ltliiiisldp
twtccii he rcminia if l:iins in (;i1giv:tv iit] thc sifrealic,: canned lunling i:idtrstn
There are now over twice as many captive lions in South Africa as there are running wild
and these shameful industries mean that poaching of the free lions is increasing.
Recent environmental studies have put lions firmly on the endangered list. However,
the rare White Lions, known as the sacred animal of Africa, are even more prized as
trophies, so those few of them that are free are acutely endangered, to say the least.
If this is a cause that tugs at your heart, as it has mine, there’s something coming along
soon that we can all show up for, to help our lion friends, and in so doing help ourselves.
On 15 March, there is a Global March for Lions taking place in over 55 cities across the
world, to put pressure on the South African president to ban canned and trophy hunting
for good, to demand that our governments ban the importation of all lion parts and
trophies (why on Earth would this be legal)? and to demand that China ban all products
containing lion bone.
I’ve been to visit these white lions for myself. Wordsjust don’t get close “hen trying to
sum tip what it is to sit in their majestic presence. We should roar our support for these
beautiful regal cousins, who have given us so much, especially here in the UK. From
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/blog/20 I 4/mar/I I /canned-hunting-white-lions-d... 9/18/2014
Canned hunting of white lions is despicable — it’s time we marched to stop it I Jerome Fly...
Page 3 of 3
Richard the Lionheart to the British Lions, these Great Cats are etched deep into our
nation’s psyche.
Now it is our turn to be lionhearted, to stand up for them and demand that the King of
animals live the life of majesty and freedom that nature intended.
The Global March for Lions takes place in Trafalgar Square in London and 54 other
cities on 15 March. ,lerome Flynn is an actor and an ambassador for the Global White
Lion Protcction Trust
I’1
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‘Pets (http:Hwww.peta.org/issues/animais
Exotic
Canned hunts are becoming big business There are an estimated I 000 game
preserves in the U S. Ted Turner, the counts iargest private iandowner. aicws
hunters to pay thousands of dollars to kit bison, deer. African anteiopes. and turkeys
in-enteatainment!exotic-animais
pet s-fl
on his 2 miiii:on acres
(http;Hwww. peta.orgRss ues/a ni mai 5-
Animai Actors
in-ente rtainmenUanimal-actors
Most of these ranches operate on a -no kit, no pay’ policy, so it is in owners
financiai interests to ensure that dien:s get what they came for. Owners do this by
offering guides who are famihar with animais iocations and habits! permitting the use
of dogs, and supplying feeding stations’ that iure unsuspecting animals to food whiie
hunters iie in wait.
Ony a handftjt of states prohibit canned hunting and there are no federai iaws
reguiating the practice, but Congress has considered an amendment to the Captive
Exotic Animai Prctection Act that wou!d prchibit the transfer, transportation or
possession of exotic animais br enter’sinment or the cotection of a trophy
Games, Rides. Contests, and Exhibits
(http-,flwv.peta.org/issues/anima is
in-entertainment/animal-games-rides
contests!)
Horse Racing
(http://www.peta.org/issues/animals
in-ente rtainmenUhorse-racing
-2}J
Cruei Sports
(htipJ/vaws.peta.org/issues/anima isin-entertainment/cruel-sports!)
Bullfighting
Oonate Now
(http://wwwpeta.org/issues/animais
in-entertainmenUcrue
ports/bullfighting!)
Cockflghtlng
(http:Hwww,peta.o rg!lssues/a nima is
in-entertain me nt/c rue i
spo fts/cockfighting,fl
http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-in-entertainment!cruel-sports/hunting/canned-hunting!
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