Captive lion industry breeds concerns
Learners from Danville Park Girl's High School in Durban North are among 2000 learners who have signed the Youth for Lions campaign pledge.
ON Tuesday, 26 November, the eThekwini Municipality’s Durban Natural Science Museum hosted a biodiversity seminar to highlight the issues around captive lion breeding and canned hunting in the country.
“The eThekwini Municipality is joining in the conversation to better understand the different views that exist in this regard,” said acting head of communications for the municipality, Mandla Nsele.
Guest speaker for the event was Pippa Hankinson of Blood Lions, an organisation that campaigns to raise global awareness, empower tourists to make informed decisions when visiting South Africa, and ultimately to end captive lion breeding. A sub campaign of Blood Lions is Born to Live Wild, a tourism campaign and pledge which is supported by about 190 key tour operators, representing close to 3000 members world wide,” said Hankinson.
Also read: City hosts seminar on plight of lions bred in captivity
The Youth for Lions campaign run by Cath Jakins offers presentations to junior schools, and film screenings to high schools and universities.
“There is a pledge running at the moment that’s been signed by close to 2000 students, mostly around KZN,” said Hankinson, who added that learners from Danville Park Girls High School in Durban North are among those who have signed the pledge.
The commercial lion industry
Speaking to the Northglen News, Hankinson said the industry commercially markets lion cub feeding and petting, lion walking and canned hunting.
“When the cubs are tiny, they are used for the cub petting industry. This is where tourists can visit lion farms and pay a certain amount of money to feed the cubs and pose for selfies with them. The owners take the cubs away from their mothers soon after birth so the lionesses will immediately go back into estrus. This practice enables them to breed four to five times faster than they would in the wild. There, the cubs would stay with their mothers for 18 months to two years , but on these farms they are taken away within the first seven to 10 days,” she said.
As they grow, young volunteers from abroad can pay up to R50 000 a month to raise the cubs which they have been led to believe are orphans, said Hankinson.
“At around nine to 10 months, some of the sub-adults are used for the walking industry. Visitors who wish to do this will pay up to R750 to walk with these lions. They are trained like circus animals to stand on rocks, climb trees for bits of meat and to pose for selfies with the tourists. Most go into the canned hunting industry, and from there the bones are sold,” she said.
According to Hankinson, South Africa has a legal export quota of 800 skeletons a year and lion bones are exported to South East Asia where they are used to supplement the tiger bone industry, as it is illegal to kill tigers in China.
Also read: CROW calls for volunteers as busy season approaches
How it all started
She recalled her first time on a lion farm in the Free State in 2011. It was this visit which inspired her to produce a film to shine a light on the industry.
“The first thing that shocked me when I went to the farm was how many lions were being kept captive in rows upon rows of cramped enclosures. There were close to 100. It was very clear they were being mass bred, and that it was a commercial operation. I noticed a lot of stress amongst the lions, and the inbreeding was also very apparent as some of the lions had deformities such as crossed eyes and elongated faces. The carer also pointed out one little sub-adult white lionesses which was mentally retarded. Those kind of things come with severe inbreeding,” she said.
As Hankinson did research, she realised that very few people knew anything about it. She decided that a documentary would be the most expedient way to create awareness. The feature documentary that resulted has been screened all over the world, having made its debut at the Durban International Film Festival in 2015. Blood Lions has since gone on to win several international awards.
To find out more, visit the Blood Lions Facebook page or website www.bloodlions.org.
To set up a school visit or film screening, contact Cath Jakins via email: info@bloodlions.org.
You can also sign up for news alerts on Telegram. Send us a Telegram message (not an SMS) with your name and surname (ONLY) to 060 532 5532. 
Here’s where you can download Telegram on Android or Apple.
