Unfair game
UNFAIR GAME: WIDESPREAD CANNED LION HUNTING INDUSTRY IN SPOTLIGHT
Lord Ashcroft says once he realised what was happening, he had to do something.
The sordid and largely hidden canned lion hunting and lion bone trade is an industry that is as vast as it is deadly. It’s mysterious, unpardonable nature is intimidating and terrifying.
Looking at canned hunting as an outsider, one does not expect there to be an ugly side to petting adorable lion cubs, innocently pawing and gnawing at unsuspecting tourists.
But ugly is putting it mildly, as is described in painful yet necessary detail by Lord Michael Ashcroft in Unfair Game.
The book recounts two undercover operations conducted by Lord Ashcroft, along with a team of British ex-Special Forces servicemen and Humane Society International (HSI) undercover reporters, and the irrefutable proof obtained of just how large and brutal the industry is.
Driven by the apathetic cruelty of the industry, Ashcroft said that once he realised what captive-bred lions go through, he had to do something
And as with most important things of life, learning about canned lion hunting, and the trade of lion parts and bones is challenging, but non-negotiable.
“I decided to use a visit I made to South Africa to make some enquiries about lion trophy hunting and canned lion hunting. Once I realised just how miserable the entire life cycle of a captive-bred lion is, I knew I had to act.
“From birth to death, and beyond, they are sitting targets whether the individual pursuing them wishes to dote on them or destroy them. Many people, it seems, want a piece of a lion and they do not care how they get it.”
Due to its parasitic influence with infinite tentacles reaching as far as Botswana, the industry is almost impenetrable, and influences many activities directly involving tourists.
Examples include lion cub petting, walking with lions, hunting activities and supporting establishments that mask their sinister intentions by “displaying” their healthiest “wild” lions to the general public.
The industry also has an illegal side, with international criminal syndicates similar to the drug trade ruling with fear.
These players, many of whom are named in the book, organise trophy hunts for tourists, in which lions are drugged, confined to a small enclosure and shot at close range, often only dying hours later. Hunters are told that their pursuit is legitimate, and adheres to all regulations. This lie means a guaranteed kill and profit for lion farm owners, and a sick thrill sought by the tourist.
Once a lion dies in a canned hunt, and its head and other parts are cut off to be processed as trophies, it’s bones are harvested and treated, to be sold to East Asian regions as tiger bones.
Old, ragged lions that used to reside at numerous locations are also used for their bones when they can no longer breed or attract the attention of a hunter. And many people profit from this. Ashcroft and his team went behind the scenes, to slaughterhouses reeking of rotten flesh and fresh blood. They visited “facilities” where lions were kept in cramped, deplorable conditions, deprived of food and sunlight, slowly dying so that their bones could be harvested.
The book explains how South Africa’s reliance on income generated from the tourism industry is in danger of being perceived as an unethical and unsustainable practice if canned lion hunting is allowed to continue.
Several countries already boycott the importing of lion parts from trophy hunts, but the trade continues, and shows no signs of slowing down.
It is therefore strongly suggested by Ashcroft that South Africa abandon their unethical ways, and enforce stricter regulations to destroy this industry.
But what is arguably the most important aspect is the fact that the canned lion hunting industry provides absolutely no conservation value. This point has been backed up by experts, and agreed upon ethically by certain hunting associations.
There are only an estimated 3 000 wild lions left in South Africa, but our captive-bred lion population is roughly four times this.
It makes no sense that 12 000 lions live in caged, often terrible conditions; their presence does not contribute to the environment’s ecosystem, and is a tragic waste of a once majestic species.
Due to the inbreeding within captive-bred lions, lion farmers sometimes organise for wild lions to be poached, to diversify their narrow gene pools.
Another sick experiment involves the unnatural breeding of lions and tigers, called ligers or tigons. Ligers grow exponentially faster than lions do, and although they are riddled with defects, their bones are larger and will therefore sell for more money.
All of this is explained in Unfair Game, with a much-needed heartwarming tale to leave the reader with a sense of hope.
“Revelling publicly in the death of a creature in this way is completely alien to me. Frankly, I find it alarming on many different levels, to say nothing of repulsive. I know I am not alone in holding this opinion … I know I am not the only one who finds ‘kill-shots’ abhorrent,” writes Ashcroft.
We can still turn it around and take down all aspects of the canned hunting industry, the book concludes, but much work needs to be done.
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I know I am not the only one who finds ‘kill-shots’ abhorrent