BLOOD LIONS LATEST NEWS
BREAKING NEWS A Symbolic Lion Bone Burn
On Wednesday morning (10 December 2025), South Africa’s first lion bone burn took place in Johannesburg, destroying 441 kg of surrendered stockpiles of lion skeletons. Forty-two boxes of bones representing 42 captive-bred lions that suffered an untimely death purely for financial gain.
This burn is timely given the recent seizures of rhino horn and lion bones in both Johannesburg and Singapore’s international airports during a period of a zero CITES lion bone export quota, indicating an existing illegal international trade in lion bones from South Africa. Wednesday’s lion bone burn has effectively removed 441 kg of skeletons from potentially entering the illegal circuit.
A small group of people were present at the burn, including the owner of the lion skeletons a well-known South African bone trader based in Gauteng, representatives from the Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Four Paws South Africa, and Lord Ashcroft, who has been part of the fight to close this industry for a number of years.
The voluntary exit process from the commercial captive lion industry, as initiated by Minister Creecy in 2023, was intended by the South African government for owners of captive lions and lion bone stockpiles to exit the industry in order to reduce the captive lion population and the number of farms involved in commercial trade. The voluntary exit process is intended as a precursor to closing the commercial captive lion industry as recommended by the High-Level Panel in 2020.
Anybody who partakes in the voluntary exit process signs a legally binding contract that stipulates their commitment to not keep, breed, or trade in lions, their bones, parts and derivatives on a permanent basis and therefore exit the captive lion industry altogether.
The lion bone trade has always been dominated by a handful of South African traders and one has now been taken out of the equation, as they will no longer be able to get TOPS permits to own or trade lion bones and other body parts.
The voluntary exit process that is underway as the first phase in closing South Africa’s commercial captive lion breeding industry, is potentially in jeopardy with the appointment of the new Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Willem Aucamp.
This voluntary exit process was started under Minister Barbara Creecy’s leadership in 2023, when she appointed a Ministerial Task Team to identify exit options and pathways from this industry, a process that Blood Lions has always supported. The process was continued by former Minister of Environment, Dr Dion George, who recently initiated the setting of a zero CITES lion bone export quota for 2026 with a public participation notice gazetted in September this year.
The burn is a symbol of the fight that many animal welfare and conservation organisations will continue on behalf of our lions, as no lions should suffer cruelty and neglect in captivity purely for profit.
We will hold Minister Aucamp accountable to follow due process and not roll back this existing and democratically developed process that is supported by a growing body of science-based and peer-reviewed evidence. Furthermore, closing the insidious and exploitative lion breeding industry is fully in line with his party’s Resolution, tabled at the DA 2023 Federal Congress.
