Book blows lid off industry
EXPOSE: ASHCROFT HIGHLIGHTS CRUELTY
Those engaged in practice are compared to serial killers.
South Africa’s brutal canned lion hunting industry has been dealt yet another public relations blow, with the contentious breeding of captive-bred lions and the horrors they endure detailed painfully in Lord Michael Ashcroft’s new book, Unfair Game.
The book is the latest in a series of exposes seeking to convince government to scrap its quota on lion bones and parts allowed to leave the country.
Unfair Game follows Ashcroft and his team as they risk their lives completing two covert operations – Operation Simba and Operation Chastise.
Along the way, the team, made up of British ex-special forces servicemen and Humane Society International (HSI) undercover reporters, begins to uncover the sinister operations of canned lion hunting and the trade of lion bones and parts.
Comparing the workings of lion farmers and buyers, both local and international, to a drug ring, the criminal elements involved in the industry and the millions it generates in under-the-table deals not only exposes the dangers in stopping the trade of lions, but also the lack of empathy and concern for the welfare of lions, and animals in general.
Part of the book compares those engaged in canned hunting to serial killers, exhibiting the same lack of emotion when witnessing the traumatic and disturbing deaths.
The canned lion industry is the depressing circle of life that lions are born into. Cubs are ripped away from their mothers hours after birth, to be petted and bottle-fed by tourists, explains HSI-Africa wildlife director Audrey Delsink.
When the cubs grow up, they are forced on walks with tourists. And when they reach maturity, they are put on display to be killed by hunters, mostly from the US.
These hunts involve the lions being drugged beforehand and placed in an enclosure.
After the lion is killed and the hunter is given his prize, the rest of the lion’s carcass is stripped and the bones are treated to be purchased by buyers.
Bones are destined for Asia, where they are used in medicine and jewellery.
Delsink said unethical “voluntourism” venues that partake in canned lion hunting, rob legitimate conservation efforts in the country, as well as the much-needed funds to conduct ethical research, fund antipoaching activities and support local communities.
“Voluntourism facilities offering physical animal interactions also pose a significant threat to human safety,” she said.
Delsink added that captive carnivore interactions are potentially deadly for tourists, too.
As of May 2018, the department of environmental affairs said that since 1996, 40 people were either injured or killed at captive carnivore facilities in SA.
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