The government is ready to issue a notice banning the opening of new captive lion breeding facilities in South Africa, the latest manoeuvre in the 20-year battle over hunting lions raised in captivity — a struggle that is far from over.
The notice forms part of a plan by Dion George, the minister of forestry, fisheries & the environment, to eventually shut down the industry on the grounds that it is unethical. The move is opposed by the South African Predator Association (Sapa) and the Sustainable Use Coalition of Southern Africa, a coalition of hunting and wildlife ranching organisations whose members believe they have a right to continue operating their businesses, which have been legal for two decades.
“Sapa maintains unequivocally — the captive lion industry cannot close,” its president, Hannes Wessels, says. “A blanket prohibition on establishing new breeding facilities undermines a well-regulated, sustainable industry. Sapa finds the process incomplete and biased.”
An estimated 8,000 lions are held in about 350 captive breeding facilities in South Africa. Since 2008 more than 11,823 have been shot as trophies. There are about 2,800 wild lions in the country.
It costs about $25,000-$30,000 to shoot a large captive-raised male trophy lion. These animals are kept in captivity until they are big enough, then released and shot within days.
Those opposed to the industry, including a range of NGOs, conservation organisations and some hunters, say the raising of predators in captivity for hunting is cruel, unethical and serves no conservation purpose. They say promoting the economics of the industry misses the point.
The National Council of SPCAs (NSPCA) and similar organisations have detailed animal abuse in those facilities, including overcrowding, inbreeding, lack of shelter and poor diet. Cubs are often taken from their mothers before they are fully weaned for “cub petting”, though this is frowned upon by most tourism bodies.
An estimated 8,000 lions are held in about 350 captive breeding facilities in South Africa. There are about 2,800 wild lions in the country
“Carnivores are fed substandard diets — often just chicken carcasses — with no supplements, resulting in serious medical conditions such as metabolic bone disease,” the NSPCA’s wildlife protection unit manager, Douglas Wolhuter, told parliament in June. “Their bones are so weak, they can be cut through with a knife.”
In addition to the captive-bred lions that are hunted, the skeletons and bones of thousands of others have been sold into the traditional medicine market in the Far East. The NGO Blood Lions, which works towards closing down the industry, says 8,761 lion skeletons were exported from South Africa between 2008 and 2018. Some predator breeders say a complete male lion skeleton is worth about R65,000.
In 2019 the high court in Pretoria in effect prohibited the export of lion bones, by declaring lion skeleton export quotas unlawful and constitutionally invalid. Sapa is seeking to overturn this decision.
Blood Lions also notes that between 2008 and 2017 South Africa exported 1,895 live lions, all bred in captivity, to zoos and other facilities overseas.
It has taken nearly 17 years for the government to get to its current position. In 2008 then environmental affairs minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk pushed through regulations that he said would ensure that “the days of captive breeding of listed species for any purpose except science and conservation are over”. (At that time lions were listed as threatened or protected species.)
In 2009 predator breeders had these regulations overturned in court, and since then the government has enabled the growth of the industry by issuing permits to breed and hunt lions. In 2008, there were about 3,500 lions in breeding facilities.
Many opposed to the industry had hoped for swift change after the initiation of a colloquium on lion breeding and hunting in 2018, and the subsequent formation of a high-level panel that eventually recommended shutting down the industry.
“This has been dragging on for nearly two decades; two decades of extreme cruelty and wellbeing issues,” says Linda Park of Voice4Lions, an NGO opposed to lion breeding and hunting. “In 2018 we thought the wheels were finally turning towards a responsible resolution, but now we are in exactly the same space — the industry has grown, breeding continues and a small number of wealthy individuals mount legal challenges at every turn to drag things out.”
One proposed step towards the closure of the industry is to persuade lion farmers to voluntarily quit and place their lions in bona fide sanctuaries, a suggestion rejected by Sapa.
In June, during a review of his first year in office, George conceded that there is a long way to go before he can persuade the breeders to surrender their lions.
“That’s where it’s going to get sticky,” he said.
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