Latest news with #FourPawsSouthAfrica
IOL News
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- IOL News
The rise of ethical tourism: Confronting South Africa's captive lion industry
Bone trade is probably the most convenient way of disposing of lions that are no longer big earners as tourism or hunting attractions. Image: Linda Park Sustainable or ethical tourism is growing and, although South Africa relies heavily on Big 5 safari experiences, the sector will soon butt heads with travellers no longer prepared to countenance a captive lion breeding industry riddled with corruption, cruelty and exploitation. According to Coherent Market Insights, the global ethical tourism market is currently worth $273.8 billion and is set to grow at 5.9% to reach $409.28 billion by 2032. Millennials, in particular, spend on tourism experiences that make the world a better place and petting of days old cubs removed from their mothers, walking with captive lions and voluntourism which deceives people into believing they are helping to rehabilitate wild big cats will no longer pass muster. For several years, Blood Lions, Four Paws South Africa, Voice4Lions and other conservation organisations have actively campaigned against the horrors of South Africa's commercial captive lion industry. During the build up to Africa's Travel Indaba, a high profile event that showcases tourism products to international and local buyers, this crusade may ramp up with conservationists like British writer and film maker, Richard Peirce ,author of the book Cuddle Me, Kill Me, revisiting the horrors that continue to be swept under the eco-tourism mat. Four years after the award-winning documentary Lions Bones and Bullets premiered at the Monte Carlo Television Festival, he is back in South Africa investigating what progress, if any, has been made. British conservationist, writer and filmmaker, Richard Peirce, author of the book Cuddle Me, Kill Me, is in South Africa investigating what progress has been made in rooting out corruption, cruelty and exploitation in the captive lion breeding industry. Image: Jacqui Peirce Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ He shared conversations with breeders, hunters and conservationists as well as his own concerns about a burgeoning captive bred lion population that is now the largest in the world. In Lions Bones and Bullets, Peirce and his fellow film makers graphically showed how lions were housed in cramped and filthy cages and ultimately slaughtered for their bones which were sold for traditional medicine in South East Asia. Statistics are shaky at best, but the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment has unwittingly documented the growth of the very industry that it promised to disband. In December 2022, then-Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Barbara Creecy, appointed a ministerial task team to recommend voluntary exits for the captive lion industry. Another next task followed in February 2024 with the Terms of Reference finally published on April 26, barely a month before the national general election. In 2023, Creecy's ministerial task team estimated that there were 7 400 captive lions in 519 facilities across South Africa. By November 2024, when replacement Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Dr Dion George, called on the captive lion industry to voluntarily surrender stockpiles of lion bones and derivatives, this population had apparently grown to 8 000 – more than double the 3 500 wild lions that prop up safari tourism. Officially, an estimated 8 761 lion skeletons have been exported from South Africa since 2008 but there is evidence that bone sales have not only continued illegally but escalated. Image: Jacqui Peirce Lion industry economics As Peirce found during his recent discussions, the smoke and mirrors continue with a cash strapped government unlikely to compensate lion farmers. Already, the so-called captive lion industry has launched a court battle to re-instate the legal export of lion skeletons. This follows a 2019 High Court ruling that prohibited this. Officially, an estimated 8 761 lion skeletons have been exported from South Africa since 2008 but there is evidence that bone sales have not only continued illegally but escalated. Peirce shared how environmental economist and member of the Conservation Action Trust, Dr Ross Harvey, attempted to work out the value of the captive lion industry in 2018. This proved almost impossible given the unavailability of accurate statistics as well as the plethora of 'uses' for these big cats. Captive lions feeding on a carcass. The photo features in Richard Peirce's book Cuddle Me, Kill Me. Image: Richard Peirce He finally came up with an estimate of around $180 million, a figure that includes lion cub petting and voluntourism but excludes taxidermy, hunting and the sale of lion bones. A similar study conducted at the Northwest University put the value at a far more conservative $26 million a year, or R500 million. Sadly, Peirce comments, lion hunting is booming. During a conversation with president of the South African Predators Association (SAPA), he learnt that the hunting fraternity ran out of shootable males in 2024 making the hunting element – canned or otherwise – a significant part of this so-called industry. Peirce shared further comments from Harvey who agrees, based on the sheer volume of canned hunts being sold: 'You get an email advertising discounted hunts. Of course, they don't say that these are canned hunts because these same outfits ostensibly support the move away from this. Nonetheless, they say South Africa is about to shut down the trade, so you need to respond if you still want a shot at their inexpensive rate. Current prices are about $50 000 for a hunt plus shooting a lion which costs anywhere between $8 and $14 000 depending on the type of lion.' Harvey also tried to work out the average earnings per year from selling lion bones. Based on estimates of around 1100 skeletons sold each year for an average of $65 dollars per kilogram and each skeleton weighing about 15 kilograms, this comes to $2 475 per skeleton and $ 2.7 million dollars per year. Hence the bone trade is probably the most convenient way of disposing of lions that are no longer big earners as tourism or hunting attractions. Peirce says the flip side is that it costs very little to breed lions. However, he also believes that the value of the lion breeding industry - at just four to five percent of the value of entire tourism sector - is not worth the bad press that it gleans as conservationists ramp up their efforts to expose the cruelties of captive breeding. He suggests that Creecy's department had not fully thought through the ramifications of making lion breeding illegal. Peirce and Harvey say lion breeders can calculate an audited value for their businesses as part of a strong legal challenge against Creecy's legislation and George's attempted implementation. They point out that a cash strapped government cannot take on the court battle let alone compensate farmers for lost earnings or surrendered bones and body parts. Peirce warns that, should government be taken to court by breeders, the case would remain in court for a protracted period. He likens this to the British government trying to legitimise the slave trade. 'This could be in court for five, six, seven years. If pockets are deep enough to keep it there, the misery goes on, the trade goes on.' For most conservationists, the only solution is the complete eradication of captive lion breeding. However, some sort of compromise will probably be the eventual outcome. Instead of going the legal route, Peirce suggests that some of the bigger businesses are looking at cleaning up their acts and pushing out the smaller players who have given this so-called industry a bad name. 'What they're trying to do now is introduce better husbandry laws, stricter requirements, better licensing, better record keeping, and try to squeeze out the smaller people and the petting businesses.' Harvey agrees but does not necessarily see a positive outcome. 'We are talking about a government that has struggled to regulate this industry in the past. There's not a lot to suggest that it will do any better in the future, especially given that from province to province, operators seem to do whatever they like. Whenever we put in a request to find out how many breeding facilities are operating in the country, we are referred to the provincial authorities who don't have a clue what's going on.' Somewhat reluctantly, Peirce concedes that a solution could be based on supply and across what has evolved into an entire lion supply chain. 'I think it may come back to scale. The big boys with large farms may consider getting involved in eco-tourism. If you close off smaller operators doing cub petting and lion walks, less lions need to be bred. Although many conservationists and animal welfare campaigners will not like this, I think they should consider going for what they can get as a start,' he suggests. Harvey is not convinced that highly regulated lion ranching where big cats could still be hunted under fair chase rules offers a long term solution. He says this would be bitter pill given that captive bred lions do not have the instincts of a wild lion and wouldn't naturally run away from a hunter, especially one with a powerful rifle and scope. Conservationist and former national inspector for the NSPCA, Karen Trendler, notes that authorities dragging their heels when they should have closed the industry years ago gave it time to strategize and fight back. Currently, there are no standards or regulation and lion farmers are required to pay as little as R50 to R100 for a permit to operate. 'They should be paying for the permit application, administration, a pre permitting inspection. It's little steps like that, that are going to enable us to push standards and costs up to make it too difficult and expensive for so many to operate. 'We all acknowledge that what is happening is appalling, disgusting. We know it's cruel. By bringing in high standards, you have something against which to measure someone in court. From a wellbeing perspective, cub petting, the removal of cubs, walking with lions will be easy cases to win. The intensive breeding of lions, where you've got large numbers in very small cages can be challenged,' she suggests. Trendler concedes that allowing regulated and pared down lion ranching may be the only chance to get a better deal for lions. 'This will require full time veterinarians and infrastructure, qualified trained managers and lion breeders. Breeders will have to ask themselves if their businesses are sustainable and if it is financially viable to continue,' she says. Linda Park, director and co-founder of Voice4lions Image: Supplied Linda Park, director and co-founder of Voice4lions says that while conservationists and the public world-wide want to put an end to the industry, there might be a need for compromise: 'We need to be pragmatic. Dithering around and futile arguing is getting us nowhere and certainly not helping the very animals for which we are fighting.' SUNDAY TRIBUNE
IOL News
26-04-2025
- IOL News
Urgent reforms needed in South Africa's captive lion industry following cruelty conviction
The NSPCA discovered lions in various stages of starvation on a farm in the Free State. The owner has been convicted on charges of animal cruelty. Image: Supplied Animal welfare organisation Four Paws South Africa is urging the government to expedite the implementation of the phase-out plan of the captive lion industry following the conviction of Professor Thabo Masihlelo for starving the lions on his farm in the Free State. The National Council of SPCAs (NSPCA) issued a statement this week announcing that Masihlelo had been convicted of animal cruelty and sentenced to a R5,000 fine or 10 months' imprisonment, half of which is suspended for five years on condition that he does not re-offend. In 2023, the NSPCA's Wildlife Protection Unit (WPU) conducted an inspection at Masihlelo's farm in Tweeling, where they discovered several lions in varying stages of starvation. 'Although Masihlelo claimed to breed captive lions under the guise of supporting conservation efforts in South Africa, he had failed to meet even the most basic requirement of feeding the animals. Lions, severely emaciated with visible ribs, spines, and hip bones, were left to endure prolonged starvation,' said the NSPCA. Four Paws said South Africa has been a significant player in the global big cat industry, with an estimated 8,000 lions held in captivity across approximately 300 facilities. These lions are often bred for profit-driven activities, including cub petting, trophy hunting, and the export of body parts for traditional medicine. In 2021, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) announced its intent to phase out the captive lion industry. Daniels said while this was a commendable step, progress has been slow, and the lack of swift action continues to endanger the welfare of thousands of lions and other big cats. She said this conviction emphasises the urgent need for comprehensive reform in South Africa's captive lion industry. 'This case is not an isolated incident but rather a symptom of systemic issues within the commercial breeding and exploitation of big cats. None of these captive-bred animals will be released into the wild to help wild populations; therefore, they are not a true conservation effort,' she said. This case serves as a stark reminder of the consequences of inadequate oversight and the importance of genuine conservation efforts that prioritise animal welfare and animals in the wild, she warned. 'While this conviction is a significant step in acknowledging the gravity of animal cruelty in South Africa, we believe the penalties imposed do not yet reflect the serious nature of the suffering endured by these animals,' stated Daniels. She said the discovery of starving lions in such conditions is not only a breach of ethical responsibility but a blatant violation of South Africa's animal protection laws. 'We call for stricter penalties and the consistent enforcement of the Animal Protection Act to ensure that such cruelty is met with consequences that act as both a deterrent and a form of justice for the animals affected,' she said. Describing what these lions had to endure, Daniels said the level of starvation indicated their prolonged suffering. 'In cases of extreme malnutrition, lions experience significant muscle wasting, weakened immune systems, and organ failure. The physical deterioration is accompanied by immense psychological distress, as these sentient beings suffer from hunger, pain, and the inability to engage in natural behaviours,' she said. The NSPCA discovered lions in various stages of starvation on a farm in the Free State. The owner has been convicted on charges of animal cruelty. Image: Supplied Four Paws advised that if circumstances prevent proper care, there are established avenues to safeguard the lions' welfare, including voluntary exit from the captive lion industry, surrender to legitimate sanctuaries, as well as collaboration with authorities and NGOs. 'Neglecting the care of captive lions is unacceptable. Four Paws urges all individuals and facilities to proactively seek assistance and utilise available programmes to ensure the humane treatment of these animals.' Daniels said the organisation continues to urge the government to implement meaningful reform, including the full phasing out of the commercial captive lion breeding industry, as announced in the 2021 Ministerial report, and to include all big cats in the phase-out. 'The protection of South Africa's wildlife heritage must go hand in hand with animal welfare. Only through stronger legal frameworks and enforcement, as well as stricter penalties for cruelty, can we hope to see real change for animals in South Africa,' she stated.
