SA’s ‘factory farmed lions’ shock top conservationist
RENOWNED British wildlife conservationist, writer and author Richard Peirce says he was left shocked and horrified during his visit to South Africa, when he visited various lion farms to shoot his latest documentary film Lions, Bones, and Bullets.
“It was very difficult to accept that the king of the animal world was being factory farmed like a cow or pig. We often witnessed lions being kept in really dismal circumstances, and it was clear that the main motivation was financial, and there was very little interest in the animals’ welfare as long as they could be kept alive until they became an adult bag of bones, and then could be cashed in for profit.”
Peirce and his two film-making partners, Anton Leach and Jasmine Duthie, recently released the gripping wildlife documentary.
It was completed after nearly three years of investigation and filming in South Africa, Vietnam and Laos.
The film features interviews with local lion breeders as well as facilities in which big cats are housed before being shot for the trade in lion bones.
Peirce and his team have also revealed their outrage during their visits to the Far East.
“We had to try to strip emotion out of our reaction and just do our job as investigative reporters. Seeing a vast array of wild and domestic animals all under one roof being sold for consumption was a novel and upsetting experience.
“Many of the species being sold in these Far Eastern wet markets are actually being sold illegally because the countries in which the markets exist have signed up to a treaty called Cites which lists endangered species, and countries in the treaty have theoretically agreed to be bound by its terms and not sell these endangered species.
“Equally depressing were the products on open sale in shops which were also being sold illegally according to Cites listings. We found tiger products (which may have been lion), ivory, pangolins, rhino horn, and many other species on open sale.”
The documentary, which has already been seen by South Africa’s parliamentarians before its international screening release, was received with shock and horror.
Parliamentarians at the screening included the IFP’s Narend Singh, the DA’s Dave Bryant and members of the Portfolio Committee on Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment.
The documentary is a follow-on from Peirce’s book Cuddle Me, Kill Me, an investigation into the captive lion breeding industry.
“Originally the main reason the lions were bred in captivity was to satisfy the demand for canned hunting. Cubs are taken away from their mothers at only a few days old for various reasons all of which were related to profit ... Most of the time the end of the exploitation chain was a bullet from a canned hunter’s gun.
“However, in recent years various bans on importing lion trophies have greatly reduced the demand for canned hunting, and most of the bones now end up in the bone trade and are sent to the Far East and China.
“This is because it is impossible to tell a lion skeleton apart from a tiger skeleton, and due to the high demand for tiger products in the Far East lions are now substituted. Many products such as tiger wine and tiger cake are all made from skeletons, and quite simply it’s cheaper to import a lion skeleton from South Africa and pretend it is a tiger than it is to rear a tiger.”
Peirce added that he, Leach and Duthie set out to make a genuinely neutral investigative documentary, and present the facts involved in lion breeding to people so they could make up their own minds whether it is an industry that is morally and economically defensible or not.
“It has taken three years to make the film and there were many challenges. All three of us are proud of the finished product, and although there are continual developments involving this industry, the film remains as relevant as it was on the day we started making it.
“We hope this factual investigative work will help to inform the government process led by Minister Creecy that is currently considering the future of this industry.”
Peirce has also opened up about their visits to the various lion farms in South Africa, with some farms keeping lions in “appalling” conditions.
“In the film we tell the story of two lions rescued from this industry by the NSPCA, and in such bad condition that although they have now recovered and are safe in a sanctuary, they will never be fully functioning animals and able to live normal lives even in a protective sanctuary location.”