What the captive lion breeding ban means for conservation

Animal activist organisations are overjoyed at the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Barbara Creecy’s announcement last week on the plan to ban captive lion breeding.

The ruling is based on recommendations from a high-level panel appointed to review policies and practices relating to the hunting, trade, captive keeping, management and handling of elephant, lion, leopard and rhinoceros.

The minister’s approval of the panel’s recommendations means permits to breed and trade captive lions will no longer be issued by the government.

The multi-million dollar lion breeding industry is a highly controversial topic, and has received increased backlash from animal rights activists, both nationally and internationally, over the years.

Creecy accepted the panel’s recommendation that “the captive lion breeding industry did not contribute to conservation and was doing damage to South Africa’s conservation and tourism reputation”.

“The Panel identified that the captive lion industry poses risks to the sustainability of wild lion conservation resulting from the negative impact on ecotourism which funds lion conservation and conservation more broadly, the negative impact on the authentic wild hunting industry, and the risk that trade in lion parts poses to stimulating poaching and the illegal trade.

“The panel recommends that South Africa does not captive breed lions, keep lions in captivity, or use captive lions or their derivatives commercially. I have requested the department to action this accordingly and ensure that the necessary consultation for implementation is conducted,” read the statement issued by the minister last week.

Creecy stressed that the recommendations are not against the hunting industry; rather, the ban on hunting captive lions is in the interest of the “authentic wild hunting industry” as it will boost the hunting economy, job creation, as well as the country’s international reputation.

Ban Animal Trading (BAT) said it is excited to see the end of “this vile industry”, although they do understand that effecting this ruling is going to take some time. “It is definitely a step in the right direction – something that should have happened long ago,” said Smaragda Louw, one of the directors of BAT.

However, there is one area of the report that Louw said BAT is a bit concerned about, which is the push to boost lion hunting. “Marketing South Africa as an authentic hunting experience is only going to promote and push the hunting of all animals. This will become problematic for the hunting industry, because there is a very low population of wild lions. If one can’t hunt lions, people will want to hunt other animals,” she explained.

Addressing the attacks from animal traders who are now blaming activists for being the reason “12 000 lions are now going to be killed”, Louw said this is not the case. “The truth is that those lions were going to be killed anyway. Either in canned hunting or for bone trade, or at the hands of abuse and inhumane treatment. We are very happy about the minister’s decision as it will put an end to the inhumane treatment of lions and should also extend to circuses that still use lions, of which we know there is still one operating in South Africa,” she said.