World Lion Day yesterday (August 10) was a day to celebrate one of Africa’s most iconic species and to raise awareness on conservation issues globally.
Lions are recognised worldwide for their importance not only from a nature conservation and ecological perspective, but also symbolically, culturally and in terms of tourism.
Currently, 8 000-10 000 lions and thousands of other big cats are bred and kept in captivity in about 350 facilities in South Africa. They are bred for commercial purposes, including cub petting, voluntourism, ‘canned’ hunting, the lion bone trade and live exports.
In honour of World Lion Day, a short video clip was produced by Blood Lions to highlight one stage in the exploitative cycle, namely the cub petting, where thousands of tourists and volunteers pay to play with, bottle feed and hand-raise captive-bred predator cubs.
These unsuspecting tourists and volunteers are made to believe that their money will contribute to the conservation of wild lions and that the cubs they interact with will be returned to the wild.
Despite the announcement in May 2021 by Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Barbara Creecy, that South Africa would no longer breed captive lions, keep lions in captivity, or use captive lions or their derivatives commercially, the captive lion industry is reportedly still thriving.
This legislative process is ongoing and in June 2021, a draft Policy Position paper was gazetted for public participation on the conservation and ecologically sustainable use of elephants, lions, leopards and rhinoceros.
Last month, a Draft White Paper was released for public comment on the Conservation and Sustainable use of South Africa’s Biodiversity. Although both documents have the potential to make a positive impact to reverse the domestication and commercialisation of the country’s wildlife, it will take time to amend and promulgate national legislation based on these documents.
“In the meantime, the commercial captive lion breeding industry is allowed to continue. You can, however, be part of creating change,” says Dr Louise de Waal, Campaign Manager of Blood Lions.
“What would our children say if they knew the truth? You can stop supporting the exploitation of wild animals and help us to #CancelCaptivity,” she says.
Blood Lion recommends not supporting facilities that have the following red flags:
- If you are allowed to touch, hold or feed any cubs or adult predators.
- If the place always has cubs for people to play with.
- If there are always cubs, but hardly any adult predators living there.
- If you know that they are breeding predators.
- If you know that they are buying or selling predators from/to other places and/or people.
Watch the video produced by Blood Lions below:
