WILDTHINGS
lion conservationSay no
to
lion cub
petting!
DID YOU HEAR?
Earlier this year, Lord Ashcroft revealed
how bad the captive-bred lion industry is in
South Africa. He called on the South African
government to do something to protect the
lions and asked the UK government to ban
the imports of lion trophies. Read more about
it at https://prn.to/2VZ2xQ9.More and more captive lions
There seems to be more and more cases of lions kept in
disastrous conditions and canned lion hunting in South Africa.
Why do we hear about so many cases?T
here do seem to be more and more cases coming to light about
lions being mass bred and kept in appalling conditions across
South Africa. Although we have been told that the number of lions killed
in canned hunts have dropped, we believe that the number of captive
lions killed for their bones have risen dramatically as the demand
from South East Asia has increased. As the shooting of wild tigers
is prohibited in Asia, the skeletons of lions bred in South Africa are now
being exported to supplement the ‘tiger bone trade’. These bones are
utilised for medicinal and aphrodisiacal purposes in the production of
what is called ‘tiger wine’ and ‘tiger cake’, and also for use as ‘tiger
bone jewellery’.
From a welfare perspective, the lion bone export industry is extremely
concerning, as animals shot for their trophies in canned hunts are at least
required to be in a reasonably good condition, whereas nobody cares
about what lions bred for the bone export trade look like, and many are
bred in shocking conditions on private farms hidden from the public eye.
As more and more people are becoming aware of this awful industry, so
more and more cases are now being publicly exposed.
Pippa Hankinson, Director, Blood Lions