Cuddle Me, Kill Me
by Richard Pierce Penguin Random House, R200
The explosion in lion “sanctuaries”, where tourists can walk with lions and cuddle cubs, is a disgraceful business that Pierce attacks in this moving book.
Most so-called big-cat sanctuaries do zero for predator conservation. They are money-making schemes, funded by gullible tourists who are easily bamboozled by greedy operators, he says.
Pierce also takes aim at canned-lion hunting operations. Despite continued negative publicity, both here and overseas, hunters still come to South Africa to hunt lions under conditions that clearly pervert the principles of fair chase.
My feeling? If you really want to hunt a lion — if somehow killing a lion will make you a manly man — then hunt it the way the Maasai do: on foot, with a spear, and in a place where the lion can escape.
That way the playing field will be somewhat levelled, and if you get chowed, so be it. Anything else is just murder. —