Voluntary exit options for live lions
Voluntary Exit Options involving live lions
Once the two mandatory prerequisites have been carried out, the panel identified six viable voluntary exit options involving healthy lions. Basically, lions can be surrendered or they can stay with the owner. Under each of these two options there are three additional possibilities (see figure below).
Each option can be standalone or can be used as building blocks to create a variety of options to suit each personal set of circumstances. For example, some lions could be surrendered to a lion safe haven, while the owner keeps some lions to phase out through trade.
Option 1 – The surrender of healthy lions to lion safe havens
A small number of healthy lions, that are surrendered by the owner, can be placed into the life-long care of an existing lion safe haven, where animal welfare is a top priority. However, all protocols developed by the panel, such as the Transport and the Best Practice Guidelines for the Keeping of African Lions in Controlled Environments, are still applicable to any lion safe haven. In addition, no tactile animal interaction is allowed, including but not limited to cub petting, walking with lions and using lions as photo props.
This voluntary exit option was considered one of the more viable options, as it results in the permanent removal of some lions from the commercial captive lion industry without the need for humane euthanasia or commercial trade. However, as stated in “Why the need for mandatory prerequisites?” the overall capacity for lion safe havens to rehome captive lions is limited and has a significant price tag attached in terms of relocation, health checks and the life-time care of lions.
Option 3 – Humane euthanasia of all lions and permanent exit from the industry
This voluntary exit option involves the humane euthanasia of all lions (including healthy lions) with the owner’s consent, if the owner wants an immediate and complete exit from the captive lion industry.
Even though this exit option may not be the most palatable for most people, it does mean that the lions can no longer suffer in a cruel and exploitative commercial environment. This exit option also provides opportunities to repurpose the facility for other economic activities that do not promote the domestication of wild animal species, such as for biodiversity conservation.
Option 4 – Phase out through trade opportunities for a period of 24 months
All healthy and sterilised lions remain the property of the current owner, but can be utilised under the currently legal activities for a limited period of preferably no longer than two years. Trade in this instance can include captive lion hunting, and the domestic trade in live lions and/or lion skeletons, parts and derivatives.
International trade is excluded from this voluntary exit option and no tactile animal interaction is allowed, such as cub petting, walking with lions and using lions as photo props. Animal welfare needs to be guaranteed during the phase-out period through adhering to the various protocols developed by the panel.
The main strength of the exit option is that it provides an opportunity for a gradual phase-out with a short to medium-term income stream from the legal trade in lions, and the employees can remain at the facility.
Option 5 – Repurposing of an existing facility to a lion safe haven
All healthy and sterilised lions remain at the facility and the property of the current owner, but the facility will be repurposed to a lion safe haven, where the animals stay for the remainder of their natural life. The facility will need to adhere to no breeding, no human-wildlife interaction and no buying, selling, loaning or exchange of animals in their care. Support will be available from existing lion safe havens in terms of staff (re-)training in animal care and husbandry, design and building specifications of enclosures, feeding regimes, etc.
The main strength of this exit option is that the existing infrastructure can remain, including the lions and the employees, while at the same time it creates a potential income stream from tourism. However, to repurpose a commercial lion facility to a lion safe haven does not only require a change in mindset and ethos, but also a substantial investment to upgrade the infrastructure to meet suitable welfare requirements, health checks and the long-term care for the lions. Furthermore, the need to adhere to best practice guidelines to ensure long-term care without exploitation and/or compromising animal welfare.
Option 6 – Repurposing of an existing facility for biodiversity conservation and sustainable use
Once the captive-bred lions have been removed, the existing facility/farm can be repurposed through ecosystem restoration to one that supports biodiversity conservation and/or sustainable use. The future enterprise will ultimately contribute to bona fide conservation and can support an ecotourism-based business model.
Captive-bred lions will be replaced with surplus wild lions from private reserves and employees can remain at the facility with some retraining. This option will also open opportunities to join land and drop fences between neighbouring farms.
In theory this option looks very beneficial as it can even contribute to South Africa’s 30 x 30 goal, but its weaknesses are the substantial costs involved with dismantling existing infrastructure, creating an adequate predator perimeter fence, and the need for land acquisition (considering there is a lack of suitable and available habitat for self-sustaining, free roaming lions), the need for ecosystem restoration, and the time to achieve its objective is long-term. These challenges ultimately make this option less viable.
What are the unintended consequences of voluntary exit from the captive lion industry?
The unintended consequences resulting from the voluntary exit have also been identified by the panel. One particularly worrying outcome is the indisputable potential shift of commercial trade towards other indigenous and non-indigenous predators, like tigers, cheetahs and leopards. This is a trend that Blood Lions and World Animal Protection already identified in their research on the industry.
In addition to the nearly 8,000 lions, the panel identified a large number of other carnivores already part of the commercial captive predator industry, namely 2,315 other captive carnivores with 626 tigers and numerous cheetahs, caracals and servals. These figures show that this unintended consequence is indeed already a reality and we therefore need to push to have ALL carnivores included in the closure of the captive lion industry.