The NSPCA has welcomed a decision by the Professional Hunters Association of South Africa (Phasa) to review its policy on canned hunting.

This comes after an uproar over the shooting of Cecil the lion in Zimbabwe.

The NSPCA’s wildlife protection unit manager, Ainsley Hay, on Wednesday said the move was a step in the direction but was disappointed it had taken the association so long to act.

A canned hunt is a trophy hunt in which an animal is kept in a confined area to increase the likelihood of a kill.

“They should have been side by side with us for many years,” Hay said.

She said the association was only considering a policy change because of the fallout in the wake of Cecil’s killing.

She said canned hunting was “out of control” and unregulated.

Nick Chevallier, co-director of Blood Lions a documentary on canned hunting screened at last week’s Durban Film Festival, said he hoped the association would become a watchdog to ensure proper guidelines and ethics were enforced in the hunting industry.

He said he hoped his documentary would make an impact against the canned hunting industry.

Chevallier said: “Even hunters will realise that they are hunting captured animals, not wild ones.”

Chris Mercer, director of the Campaign Against Canned Hunting (Cach), said a total ban without any exception was necessary.

He said hunting should be stopped immediately. Mercer said the conversation was “collapsing” like Eskom and said hunting was a threat to conservation.

“We’ve been warning about widespread public disgust at canned hunting for 16 years. For 16 years Phasa has been putting out propaganda that canned hunting was acceptable, and that the disgust was restricted to a ‘small group of animal rightists’.

“Suddenly Phasa feels that canned hunting is a clear threat to the survival of the hunting industry. So, Phasa suddenly discovers morality, and decides that canned hunting is no longer tenable. What a sordid commercial propaganda machine Phasa is,” Mercer said.

“Cecil (the lion) is the tip of the iceberg. It is very seldom that target lions die quickly or painlessly, especially in bow-hunting. Cecil’s death is the rule, not an exception. This squalid industry sells vicious cruelty to animals as a routine,” he said.

Mercer called for a forensic audit on Phasa to establish where money made from the lion trophy hunting business went.

“There should be a moratorium on all trophy hunting while government establishes a conservation regulatory and enforcement body which is competent and not corrupt,” he said.

Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife spokesman, Musa Mntambo, said the organisation also welcomed the decision to review canned hunting as the organisation was against the practice.

This comes after president of Phasa, Hermann Meyeridricks, said: “From my dealings with the media and the community, it has become clear to me that those against the hunting of lions bred in captivity are no longer just a small, if vociferous, group of animal-rights activists.

“Broader society is no longer neutral on this question and the tide of public opinion is turning strongly against this form of hunting, however it is termed. Even within our own ranks, as well as in the hunting fraternity as a whole, respected voices are speaking out publicly against it.”

At the beginning of July it is believed that American dentist Walter Palmer, paid £35 000 (R688 651) to kill a lion with a bow and arrow. According to The Telegraph, Palmer said: “I had no idea that the lion I took was a known, local favourite, was collared and part of a study until the end of the hunt.”

Twitter reaction

The reaction to Cecil’s killing was full of anger with celebrity Sharon Osbourne saying: “#WalterPalmer is Satan. I don’t know how anyone could go to this man for dental services after this. He is a killer. Beware!”

Katherine Schwarzenegger, daughter of Arnold Schwarzenegger, said: “Do you feel like more of a man after killing a beautiful creature like this?! Heartbroken” and former boxing champion, Lennox Lewis, saying: “What difference does it make if the lion was famous or not? Trophy hunting is a very sick pastime.”

 

Die Suid-Afrikaanse jagbedryf is opnuut deur die internasionale publiek veroordeel nadat ’n dokumentêre film die lelike kant daarvan blootgelê het.

Volgens veteraanjagters staar die bedryf nou erge gevolge in die gesig indien die kwessies rondom leeu-kitsjagbedryf nie spoedig aandag kry nie. In die film, Blood Lions, word die leeu-kitsjagbedryf sterk gekritiseer. Bloedstollende beeldmateriaal van onder meer ’n leeu wat na ’n goeie blad-skoot ’n verdere vyf skote in ’n warboel toegedien word en jong leeus wat te swak of siek is om te loop, word in die film gewys.

Daar is sterk ondertoon in die film wat die jagbedryf in sy geheel veroordeel op gronde van etiese kwessies wat die produksiespan van die film as ononderhandelbaar uitbeeld. Een van die professionele jagters en ’n stigterslid van die Professionele Jagters Vereniging van Suid-Afrika (Phasa), wat ook in die film ’n verskyning maak, mnr. Garry Kelly, is bekommerd dat die aansien wat die leeu-kitsjagbedryf in die publieke opinie opbou, die jag- en ganse toerismebedryf in die land tot niet sal maak.

“Jag en die tradisie wat dit ’n gesogte sport maak is geskoei op die vernuf en geduld van die jagter en die afwagting wat saam met die bekruiping van die dier gaan. Nie een van hierdie aspekte is teenwoordig in ’n kitsjag-situasie nie,” verduidelik Kelly, tans ’n lid van Sampeo (South African Most Proven and Experienced Outfitters) met meer as 40 jaar se ervaring as ’n jag-operateur. Sampea is in 2010 in die lewe geroep toe sewe van Phasa se lede besef het dat ’n sterker stem vir integriteit in die jagbedryf nodig is.

Mnr. Hermann Meyeridricks, voorsitter van Phasa, het op die vereniging se webblad ’n persverklaring vrygestel waarin hy bevestig dat die organisasie se ondersteuning van dieleeu-kitsjagbedryf hersien moet word. “Ons het in 2013 ons standpunt, wat gekant was teen leeu-kitsjag en die teel van leeus in aanhouding, verander juis omdat ons onsself gesien het as ’n middelman wat die leeu-jag en -teel bedryf kan help regruk. Dit is egter duidelik dat ons standpunt teenoor hierdie bedryf nie langer verdigbaar is nie. Ons doen ’n beroep op alle lede van PHASA om hierdie kwessie goed te oorweeg sodat ons by die volgende algemene jaarvergadering ’n beleid kan opstel wat verdigbaar is in die hof van openbare opinie,” lui die persverklaring.

Besoek www.sampeo.co.za vir meer inligting, stuur ’n e-pos mnr. Garry Kelly by gks@gksafaris.co.za of skakel Phasa by 012 667 2048. Klik hier om die Blood Lions-webwerf te besoek.

Going undercover to make a documentary has its risks, especially regarding litigation and personal safety. But sometimes it’s worth the risk, says executive producer of Blood Lions, Andrew Venter.

Blood Lions is a documentary that premiered at this year’s Durban International Film Festival. The movie blows the lid on how vague legislation in South Africa has allowed the practice of “canned lion hunting” to become a multi-million rand industry largely governed by private property holders.

“I’ll kill you. I warn you. Don’t take a photo of me,” said a Benkoe Safari operator captured on hidden camera confronting the Blood Lions’ film crew. The crew were hounded out of the safari lodge, but they had what they wanted. Soon, audiences around the world will view the altercation and all that led up to it.

At the first schools’ screening of Blood Lions to pupils in Durban this week, a child, asked: “Isn’t what you did, filming people without permission, using hidden cameras, illegal?”

The film-makers’ responded that they had needed to go undercover to expose the dark side of captive-bred lion hunting. “Nearly all these lions you have seen here in this movie, even the cute cuddly cubs, end up being shot for a price,” said Blood Lions narrator and journalist, Ian Michler.

He said more than 7 000 lions – more than double the number of wild lions in South Africa – had been bred for one purpose only, the bullet.

The film follows Michler into lion breeding territory, speaking to trophy hunters, operators, breeders, lion ecologists, conservationists, and animal welfare experts. It also documents the two-day trip of America hunter, Rick Swazey, after he selected, on the internet, a lion to kill at Benkoe Safaris. He had been sent pictures of 14 lions to choose from, ranging in cost from $5 400 (R65 000) for a female to $48 000 for a big black-maned lion.

Swazey was granted permission to video his kill, but owner of the lodge, Ben Duminy clearly became suspicious of the intentions of the cameraman, Blood Lions’ co-director, Nic Chevallier.

“Is this for a newspaper or TV?” Duminy asks on camera, confronting Chevallier and slapping down his camera.

Michler said this scene, and all the other glimpses they had got into the operations of Benkoe Safaris were indications of a typical “canned lion hunting” business, albeit marketed under guise of professional hunting. “There is no element of fair chase – the kill is guaranteed, and the packaging of this as a wildlife hunt is pure farce,” said Michler.

The chairman of the SA Predators Association, Pieter Potgieter, spoke on behalf of the owner of Benkoe Safaris. Potgieter said to describe the lion hunts taking place on Benkoe Lodge as canned hunting was a “very wrong assumption”. “These people are beating that canned lion hunting drum when we have long moved beyond that situation. Canned hunting is illegal, and my members do not engage it,” said Potgieter.

He said he deplored the use of hidden cameras to tell the Blood Lions story. “We are often victims of these techniques. Even Carte Blanche did it. We think it is a low-level form of journalism.”

The president and the chief executive of the Professional Hunters Association of South Africa, (Phasa) Herman Meyeridricks, and Adri Kitshoff flew to Durban to view the documentary on Thursday evening. Meyeridricks said he had no issue with the use of hidden cameras to tell the story, describing it as modern day investigative journalism.

“I thought it was a well-made documentary,” said Meyeridricks. “Blood Lions gives us a lot to ponder as far as lion hunting is concerned, but I do not agree with everything in the movie… There are arguments for hunting, and substantial evidence of how it contributes to conservation and community development.”

He said hunting was recognised by Cites, the World Wildlife Fund, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature as a legitimate conservation measure that raised massive revenue for game reserves.

In a letter sent to all Phasa members on Friday, Meyeridricks said: “Our position on lion hunting is no longer tenable. The matter will be on the agenda again for our next AGM and I appeal to you to give it your serious consideration, so that together we can deliver a policy that is defensible in the court of public opinion.”

THE head of South Africa’s professional hunters’ association has warned that the survival of the country’s wildlife hunting industry could be at risk as local and international public opinion turns ever more strongly against “canned” lion hunting.

Elaborating on a statement he issued last week, Profession- al Hunters Association of South Africa (Phasa) president Hermann Meyeridricks said this week that pressure was mounting steadily against the hunting industry especially hunts involving captive-bred lions.

“I don’t want to pre-empt the debate at our next annual general meeting in November, but we have to relook our posi- tion on captive-bred lion hunting and upping the standards further.”

Last week, soon after the Durban screening of a new documentary on the country’s captive-bred industry titled Blood Lions, Meyeridricks warned: “Phasa has to face the fact that the lion issue is put- ting at risk not only the reputation of professional hunting in South Africa but its very survival.

“Phasa’s current policy on the issue is, broadly speaking, that it recognizes the legality of and demand for captive-bred lion hunting, and is working with the predator breeders and government to improve its standards and conditions to a generally acceptable level.

“We have made little demonstrable progress on this front,” he said,

In a letter e-mailed to Phasa members, Meyeridricks says the campaign against trophy hunting has intensified.

“From my dealings with the media and the community it has become clear to me that those against the hunting of lions bred in captivity are no longer just a small if vociferous group of animal-rights activists.

“Broader society is no longer neutral on this question and the tide of public opinion is turning strongly against this form of hunting.

Voices

“Even within our own ranks, as well as in the hunting fraternity as a whole, respected voices are speaking out publicly against it.”

Some airlines and shipping lines were also refusing to transport hunting trophies.

‘Against this background, I have come to believe that, as it stands, our position on lion hunting is no longer tenable.

“The matter will be on the agenda again for our next annual general meeting and I appeal to you to give it your serious consideration, so that together we can deliver a policy that is defensible in the court of public opinion.”

According to a recent report to the government by predator researcher Dr. Paul Funston, there are now just 2 300 truly wild lions left in the country’s large national parks, along with another 800 “managed wild lions” living in 45 smaller parks around the country.

By contrast, there were now about 6 000 captive lions in 200 facilities, that were bred exclusively to raise money.

Funston and fellow re- searcher Minnelise Levendal of the CSIR suggest that unlike most other countries in Africa, the local lion population has grown by about 30% over the past three decades.

In a draft biodiversity management plan prepared for the national Department of Environmental Affairs, Funston and Levendal record that nearly 800kg of lion bones, 314 lion skulls and 626 lion skeletons were exported from South Africa to China, Laos and Vietnam between 2011 and 2012.

“The controversial trade in lion bones for the Asian market appears to be supplied by bones obtained as a legal by-product of the trophy hunting industry where the lions are almost exclusively captive bred.

“It would appear that wild lions in South Africa are safe from the body parts trade for as long as captive-bred lions are the source of the derivatives.”

Funston and Levendal suggest that of all the lion hunts in South Africa, only 1% could be considered to be wild lions.

The overwhelming number of hunted lions came from predator breeders.

These animals were mostly hunted on smaller areas of land.

Captive-bred hunts were also considerably cheaper than wild lion hunts, and 99% of these hunts were “successful”, compared with 51 %-96% success rates with wild hunts.