Party calls for end of captive lion industry

THE IFP’s Chief Whip in Parliament, Narend Singh MP, together with the Conservation Action Trust, represented by Francis Garrard, co-hosted the South African première of Lions, Bones and Bullets at an in-person screening at Parliament in Cape Town on August 30.

Lions, Bones and Bullets is an award-winning documentary made in South Africa, which follows the journey of Penguin South Africa author, Richard Peirce, as he investigates the captive lion breeding industry. The film offers a valid appraisal of this “industry”, based on an informed, fact-based investigation.

In his recorded introduction, Peirce said he believes South Africa has a special responsibility as a key guardian of many of the world’s iconic species.

The screening was attended by several MPs across portfolios, who share a deep concern for, and belief in the need to protect South African wildlife.

Apologies were received from the Office of the President, and from the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment, Barbara Creecy.

After the screening, Singh summed up the film, explained IFP policy in this area, and urged Honourable Members to support Minister Creecy’s policy position, which calls for the abolition of captive breeding.

The IFP’s official policy towards any form of captive-bred lion farming and/or hunting is that the practice remains an abhorrence and a stain on Brand South Africa and must be abolished with all due haste by government.

The film not only underlines the validity of this policy but demonstrates the need for it.

A question-and-answer session ended the evening, which Singh hopes will help catalyse and lobby additional support for new wildlife legislation.

Such legislation must not only satisfy wildlife conservation challenges, but incorporate animal welfare considerations, and help protect animals that have no voice.

The great freedom fighter, Mahatma Gandhi, whose formative years were spent in South Africa, once famously declared, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”