BAN LION FARMING AND TROPHY HUNTING

PROTEST LETTER FOR DEMONSTRATIONS, 2015

By: Chris Mercer

Campaign Against Canned Hunting

WHY HAS THE SOUTH AFRICAN GOVERNMENT NOT BANNED CAPTIVE LION BREEDING AND CANNED LION HUNTING?

This toxic industry is a liability in every respect. Even the much touted forex income from hunting is a myth. When one looks at the whole balance sheet of hunting, it causes a net loss of income and employment to the country as farmers turn away from producing food and wool in order to breed hunting targets. It is a wasteful use of land.

And it will contribute to the extinction of wild lions.

EXTINCTION IS FOREVER

We are always told by captured conservation authorities that there is ‘no evidence’ that lion farming in SA is adversely impacting wild lion populations. ‘Scientific authorities’ apparently refuse to recognise evidence which is not contained in a ‘scientific’ paper published by a ‘recognised’ scientific researcher.

To my mind, this sacrifices common sense to dogma. Deliberately blinding oneself to important information, just because it is ‘anecdotal’ seems to be the very opposite of what open-minded intelligent scientific enquiry should be.

So read our case below, then decide for yourself whether or not there is ‘no evidence’ that SA lion farming is contributing to the plight of wild lions in Africa, who are, even ‘scientists’ accept, hurtling towards extinction.

1. 
   

   The Tiger Comparison

   
   

   Even CITES realised that the farming of tigers would cause the extinction of wild tigers.

   
   

   CITES understood:

   
   

1. 
   

   That the tiger trade, being illegal, cannot be measured accurately;

   
   


2. 
   

   That the effect of tiger farms on wild tigers could not be measured;

   
   


3. 
   

   That farming would provide an opportunity for laundering wild specimens that would accelerate poaching;

   
   


4. 
   

   That farming would distract from tackling loss of habitat, loss of prey species and other illicit activities.

   
   

Accordingly, in Decision 14.69 the COP adopted this regulation:

Parties with intensive operations breeding tigers on a commercial scale shall implement measures to restrict the captive population to a level supportive only to conserving wild tigers; tigers should not be bred for trade in their parts and derivatives.

So here is the question that screams for an answer: if CITES has banned tiger farming for trade, why has the farming of lions for commercial purposes not been banned? All the same considerations apply to both species.

THE SMUGGLING INDUSTRY

1. 
   

   Smuggling. Lion farming in South Africa has a sleazy, underworld side.

   
   

   Whistle blowers have come forward in Botswana to explain how they chase wild lion prides to exhaustion in the Kalahari, shoot the adults and capture the cubs for smuggling to SA lion farmers. Lion breeders require a constant supply of wild lions to prevent in-breeding and captivity depression.

   
   

   Here is a report published in October 2013, in the leading daily newspaper in Botswana, Mmegi.

   
   

http://www.mmegi.bw/index.php?aid=2441#sthash.7rBZLeFp.dpufchr

There is the verbatim transcript in that report.

1. 
   

   More smuggling.

   
   

   We have been told by eyewitnesses, who do not wish to become involved, that some lion farmers fly their lions at night over the border in to Mozambique to be shot by canned hunters there on arrival. The trophy is then exported fraudulently as that of a wild Mozambique lion, in order to circumvent the Rowland Ward Trophy Book refusal to recognise trophies of captive bred lions.

   
   

   This practice makes it appear that there are far more lions in Mozambique than there are, and will confuse policy makers in that country.

   
   

    

   
   


2. 
   

   The Lion bone trade.

   
   

   How much proof does CITES need that the exponential growth of the lion bone trade will cause an upsurge of poaching of wild lions. Even CITES knows that Chinese Traditional Medicine practitioners regard the bones of wild lions and tigers as being ‘more potent’ than those of captive bred ones. Join the dots, for Heaven’s sake, it really takes no imagination to forecast an upsurge in lion poaching as the lion bone trade escalates the price of the product.

   
   

    

   
   

    

   
   

   Fortunately for conservation scientists, no imagination or common sense is needed here, because reputable documentary film maker Karl Ammann has done their work for them.

   
   

http://www.cannedlion.org/blog/millions-of-dollars-for-old-bones

So there is no doubt that lion farming for canned hunting in SA is a liability, not an asset, to our national interests, but that it is promoted to a captured conservation service by an endless stream of hunting propaganda.

WHAT IS REGULATORY CAPTURE?

This is where big business sets out to control its own regulatory authority. Just as Wall Street controls Washington, so the hunting industry controls conservation services in South Africa.

Thus, acting as an arm of the hunting industry, Minister Edna Molewa reportedlyresponded to the proposal of the Australian government to ban the import of lion trophies by bringing diplomatic pressure to bear on the Australians NOT to ban lion trophy imports. What a ghastly parody of conservation are SA conservation services.

LET US NOT FORGET THE CRUELTY.

And quite apart from all the socio-economic, environmental and financial threats to the SA national interest, there is the cruelty, something that SA conservation services studiously ignore.

As Ghandi famously observed: ’the moral stature of a nation can be judged by the way it treats its animals.’

By Ghandi’s measure, SA conservation structures are morally bankrupt, run by officials who cannot even understand the revulsion felt by civilised people towards an industry whose whole business model is built around routine, barbaric cruelty to helpless animals.

THE AUSTRALIAN DEBATE

Here, extracted from Hansard, are some memorable quotes from the debate on canned lion hunting, by civilised MPs - in the Australian parliament. Why are these ethical sentiments not expressed in the SA legislature?

Jason Wood MP:

I spoke in this place in May last year about the appalling practice of canned hunting and today I rise with the knowledge that my words back then are resonating increasingly in our community, in our parliament and around the world. People see this practice, as I do, as cruel and barbaric.

Many believe that hunting of endangered species has economic and conservation benefits for countries involved. This is simply false. A report written by Melbourne economist Roderick Campbell from Economists at Large showed that revenue from trophy hunting represented only two per cent of tourism in Africa and that this tourism revenue is only a small fraction, considering that it is $200 million whereas the economy is $408 billion. Sadly, there are only 7,000 to 8,000 lions left in captivity, 160 of these in privately owned canned hunting reserves.

Ms Parke MP:

I believe that canned hunting is another example of animal cruelty in which Australia is currently complicit by allowing the importation of hunting trophies. By not acting to prevent the importation of hunting trophies, we are effectively supporting an activity which is both cruel and unethical, a form of barbarism that has a direct impact on endangered species we have committed to protect.

Mrs Prentice MP:

Frankly, I call this sport un-Australian. Australians pride themselves on living by the creed of a fair go. Where is the fair go for these animals?

Ms Hall MP

Trophy hunters are attracted to a situation where the animal is in an enclosed space and has some level of trust of human beings. I am not a person who supports hunting, but, to my way of thinking, this is quite a brutal and inhumane—

Interjection by an honourable member: Cowardly.

Ms HALL: - and cowardly attack on defenceless animals.

Mr Kelvin Thomson MP;

It is barbaric killing for macabre trophies… and medieval but, if people really want to do it, then at least we should have a level playing field. The lions have teeth and claws; so give the hunter an appropriately sized knife and fire up the lions a bit before the contest by not feeding them for a couple of days. That would be fairer.

http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Hansard/Search?ind=0&st=1&sr=0&q=canned+hunting&hto=1&expand=False&drvH=7&drt=2&pnu=44&pnuH=44&f=12%2F11%2F2013&to=22%2F02%2F2015&pi=0&pv=&chi=0&coi=0