With the shooting of Cecil, the Zimbabwean lion still fresh in the mind, the Lowveld also remember the killing of Batian

As the world celebrated International day of the Lion on August 10, people were remembering Cecil the Zimbabwean lion, that was killed by an American trophy hunter.

Lion expert, Mr Gareth Patterson spoke to Lowvelder about facts and figures of trophy hunting with the impact it had on the lions themselves.

He also talked about the one killing that affected him directly in the Hectorspruit area in 1998: a lion killing on the farm of Mr Roy Plath.

He also talked about the one killing that affected him directly in the Hectorspruit area in 1998: a lion killing on the farm of Mr Roy Plath.

It was his Batian, the last of the Adamson lions, with his two sisters, which Patterson rescued and rehabilitated back into the wild, after the murder of legendary lion man, Mr George Adamson. Batian was only three years old and just like Cecil, lured by artificial means out of the safety of the park he was in, and shot dead.
The killing was arranged by Plath, a banana farmer in the area.

“There are amazing and even chilling similarities between the recent killing of Cecil and that of Batian 17 years ago. The sad thing is that this way of killing a lion is common to trophy hunting. We are currently losing about 900 lions a year. Up to 60 per cent of the killers are trophy hunters from the United States and 40 per cent are from Europe.” Patterson has done a lot of research into the lion-hunting industry. “What the trophy hunters want is the largest lion with the biggest mane, and what many people don’t realise is that with this unnatural killing, not only one lion dies. The new males coming into the pride would kill all the cubs of the previous alpha male. So sometimes up to 15 cubs will be killed.”

Patterson told Lowvelder that the cost for a canned lion today is between $50 000 and $55 000. “There is a lot of sentiment that this kind of killing is actually paying for conservation. I need to see the proof of this before I would support this in any way. Figures identified by the International Fund for Animal Welfare stated earlier that a mere three per cent of the money goes to nature conservation and parks.”

Thanks to the Internet, there was a huge outcry over the killing of Cecil. This was not possible 17 years ago. “We made a documentary on the killing of Batian and called the film The Cook Report. It was watched by 11 million viewers worldwide. Today this film is nowhere to be found. It was an International Television News production as you know and this firm has undergone many changes over the last 20 years or so.”

There are plans to show the recent documentary film on canned lion hunting, Blood Lions, in the Lowveld. It will be shown on Tuesday October 13 at Uplands Preparatory School in White River. Tickets can be bought at R100 per ticket from Webtickets, on behalf of the production team of Blood Lions. All the proceeds will go to a campaign against canned hunting and predator breeding.

The organiser for this showing is Mr Dex Kotze of Youth for African Wildlife.

Serial world record breaker, André van Zijl of Knysna, is determined that neither the elements nor isolation would rattle his cage as he takes on his 49th record – this time to raise awareness around the animal petting industry.

Van Zijl stepped into a 5m by 4.5m cage at Monkeyland outside Plettenberg Bay on Tuesday, August 11 – his home for the next two weeks.

“He entered a pre-release cage in the Monkeyland primate forest at noon and will spend 14 days in the enclosure. By living as a caged primate, André, along with the the South African Animal Sanctuary Alliance (SAASA) team hope to place focus on the plight of captive wild animals, especially those used in the pet-play-and-pay industry.

“We are confident that this will also bring much needed focus to the horrific canned hunting and lion bone industry [which is now being used as an alternative to tiger bones in traditional Chinese medicine],” said SAASA spokesman Lara Mostert.

By the end of his first day in the cage Van Zijl said the biggest challenge would be the weather. “That is the only and biggest challenge. Other than that it is all a mindset and staying positive to get me through it,” Van Zijl said.

Van Zijl will only exit the cage at 12:00 on August 25, just in time for the viewing of the now famous Blood Lions documentary at the White House in Plettenberg Bay on August 28.

The documentary uncovers the realities of lion breeding for canned hunting in South Africa and highlights the negative impact it has on the captive lions and other predators.

Mostert said initiatives like Van Zijl’s were necessary as, despite South Africa’s abundant wildlife, there was a disturbing number of facilities offering tourists the opportunity to get “hands-on” with wild animals.

“One can pet lion, tiger and serval cubs, and walk with adult lions and cheetahs. You can take a ride on the back of an elephant or even an ostrich, feed monkeys and lemurs or drape a large and dangerous snake around your neck. The list appears to get longer each year with more wild animals being added to the list of those you can cuddle.”

She added that the harsh reality behind these encounters was that the animals had been raised and conditioned in captivity, and generally from a very early age.

“Conditioning can take on many forms and generally will involve an element of physical and psychological cruelty.”
She added that many of the establishments offering animal encounters would often do so under the guise of conservation. “It is extraordinarily difficult to release any animal or bird back into the wild and once they have been imprinted by humans it is virtually impossible.

There can only be one reason to offer these attractions and quite simply it is to make money. The industry is controlled by greed and greed is acting like a disease which threatens to become an epidemic and the threat to our wildlife is becoming irreversible.”

Van Zijl is definitely no stranger to challenges like this. In 1969 he set his first world record by roller-skating 1 000 miles in 19 days from Cape Town to Johannesburg. The reason behind the attempt was simply to prove that he could.

Since then Van Zijl has been on a roll and subsequently set 47 more world records, many of which were to highlight issues around animal welfare and other worthy causes.

Some of his records have been a bit ‘off beat’, including one where he sang for more than 28 hours, drank 211 cups of coffee in only four hours, played chess non-stop for 150 hours, pumped petrol for 1 000 hours, sat in a bubble bath for 10 days and more recently spent five days in a shark diving cage to shed light on illegal pitbull fighting.

While Van Zijl goes after his 49th record, the SAASA team also decided to go after their own and attempt to gather the largest collection of recycling and donations over the same period. Mostert said they would be hiring big containers for residents to deposit their recycling as well as donations such as clothes you are no longer wearing (or anything you no longer need) to canned food and other non-perishables

“There are some facts which I would also like to bring to the fore that have an impact on our beautiful lions.”

WITH reference to your article, ‘Dept reviewing lion management rules’ on page 16 of the issue dated 24 July, thank you for bringing the subject of canned hunting to the public. However, there are some facts which I would also like to bring to the fore that have an impact on our beautiful lions.

As Asian traders have taken an interest in our rhino since the decline of their own tiger population, they have also taken an interest in our lions. On the Asian market, the lion bone trade can reach and exceed a value of R200 000 per skeleton. It is estimated that an average yearly figure of around 7 000 lion skeletons are sold legally to two Chinese dealers in South Africa. These bones are boiled down and bottled in Asia then hit the streets as ‘healing medicines’. So the circle of life for the lion starts as a cub.

They are normally rented out to ‘petting zoos’, where tourists can have their photo taken while petting and cuddling a cub. Hundreds of ignorant volunteers come to these ‘wildlife sanctuaries’ to help bottle-feed and raise these cubs. Then, once the lion is fully grown, it is released, only to be hunted. The rest is history.

There are around 174 captive lion breeding facilities in South Africa, where lions are bred exclusively for trophy hunting. Leopards are not being overlooked either. They are also being hunted, either as trophies or for their skins, which are either used locally or sold to the fur trade. Their numbers are also rapidly declining.

This can only stop with you, making an effort to take a stand. There are websites where you can gain more information on this subject. For further information you can visit www.cannedlion.org. There is also a new documentary that has just been released. It outlines the practice of canned lions. The documentary is called, ‘Blood Lions’.

From allowing 26 live rhino to be sold to Vietnam, to selling our lions like common farm animals, we as South Africans need to seriously think what type of example we are setting for the rest of Africa and need to take a stand against this sick and degrading trade. Is this something we can share with our foreign tourists who flock to our game reserves, hoping to spot one of the Big 5? The recent illegal hunting and shooting of Cecil the Zimbabwean lion by an American dentist has received worldwide publicity. Europe is calling for a ban on hunting trophies, meanwhile South Africa has just lifted this ban on exporting trophies – where are we going?

Bruce Young, an old Rhodian and old Kingswoodian has directed “Blood Lions”, a documentary film which focuses on the multi-million dollar predator breeding and lion hunting industry in South Africa.

The killing of Zimbabwe’s Cecil the Lion in an allegedly illegal hunt has drawn the world’s attention to the whole issue of lion hunting (and hunting in general) and has also generated a great deal of interest in the film.

Blood Lions debuted at last month’s Durban Film Festival recieving rave reviews and a standing ovation at its first showing.

The response to the film on social media has also been impressive with the likes of Ricky Gervais and Ellen de Generis tweeting about it.

The film’s publicity material describes it as “a story that blows the lid off all the conservation claims made by the breeders and hunters in attempting to justify what they do”.

Bruce, who collaborated with Nic Chevallier on the production, graduated from Rhodes in 1981, with a Bachelor of Arts and Honours in Speech and Drama.

It was while at university that he developed his love for cinema and got motivated to go into the industry.

“I’ve loved stories all my life, I was brought up in a family where my mother and father read to us”, said Young.

Blood Lions follows environmental journalist Ian Michler and American hunter, Rick Swazey, on their journey to expose the grave realities of the so called ‘canned lion’ industry which, while not illegal, many believe to be unethical and inhumane.

Last year alone it’s estimated that over 800 captive lions were shot in South Africa.

“The Blood Lions campaign is starting to get significant traction,” says Ian Michler.

“Since the launch, we have been overwhelmed by the global response across all sectors of society.

This should serve as a clear indication to governments and the various authorities around the world that they need to come together to close down predator breeding facilities and canned hunting operations.”

Ultimately Young and his collaborators hope to raise sufficient awareness around the industry to sway public opinion and to force the department of environmental affairs to change the laws regarding the hunting and breeding of lions.

Dates for further screenings of Blood Lions in Johannesburg and Cape Town are to be announced soon.

Also, only yesterday, the film’s producers, Wildlands and Regulus Vision, announced that they have secured both local and global distribution with PBS picking up global rights and Indigenous Film Distribution handling South Africa rights.

Tom Koch, Vice President of PBS International says, “Blood Lions is a rare programme that reveals the dark and brutal side of trophy hunting in Africa.

Programmes like this are equally rare and exceptional and should be seen by audiences around the globe. We are proud to represent this film to the international community”.

A primary school pupil has reportedly been attacked by a cheetah at a game reserve in Pietermaritzburg.
News of the attack first emerged on Twitter after BloodLions, the organisation behind the controversial canned lion documentary, re-tweeted: “The dangers of wild animal interaction. Young PMB pupil allegedly attacked by a cheetah at KwaCheetah, Nambiti Reserve.”
Headmaster of Cowan House Preparatory School, Robin Odell confirmed that a student was bitten by a cheetah, after the animal managed to “partially force its way through a game fence” during an education tour yesterday.
“The school’s Board of Governors and Management have been in constant contact with all the relevant parties as well as the parents of the pupil,” Odell said.
“The pupil received immediate and appropriate medical attention for his injuries and is expected to make a full recovery from the bite wounds.”
The incident has raised questions over the breeding habits of wild cheetahs at the game reserve.
Wildlands Conservation Trust CEO Dr Andrew Venter says that the breeding practises at Nambiti Game Reserve could have been avoided, as cheetahs are not being released into the wild after breeding.
“The facilities are there, so why are the animals not being released into the wild? How did a cheetah get that close?
“The Endangered Wildlife Trust has forecast that this could happen, and now we see it is starting to happen. We’ve had a cheetah attack a child.”
Desmond Gouws, a manager of the The KwaCheetah breeding project, Nambiti Game Reserve could not confirm the incident.

The shooting of Cecil the lion and a new documentary have sparked a rethink on killing for sport and bragging rights.

Deep in the ancient part of our brains is a memory of being hunted by lions. Both our species and theirs emerged in the crucible of the great East African savanna – they were lords of the plains and we were their prey.

Weak and defenceless, we co-operated to survive, invented language, then writing and technology. We made weapons and reversed the equation: lions are now our prey.

Daar heers groot onmin onder beroepsjagters en ander bewaringskundiges oor wie nou eintlik verantwoordelik is vir die krisis wat tans in die jagbedryf heers.

Sommige beroepsjagters erken openlik dat die bedryf self ’n deel van die skuld moet dra en sê dat nie genoeg gedoen word om onetiese en onaanvaarbare jagpraktyke uit te roei nie.

Die Suider-Afrikaanse jagbedryf beleef een van sy grootste krisisse tot nog toe ná die internasionale storm oor die skiet van Cecil – ’n swartmaanhaarleeu wat na bewering uit die Hwange Nasionale Park in Zimbabwe gelok is voordat hy deur ’n Amerikaanse tandarts met ’n kruisboog geskiet is.

Asof dit nie genoeg is nie, het die plaaslike jagbedryf nog ’n paar klappe gekry met die uitreiking van die dokumentêre fliek Blood ­Lions, wat die omvang van wanpraktyke in die geblikteleeujagbedryf in Suid-Afrika blootlê.

Die Australiese regering het in Maart ’n verbod op die in- en uitvoer van leeujagtrofeë ­geplaas en drie Amerikaanse lugdienste, American Air­lines, Delta Airlines en ­United Air­lines, asook Air Canada het ’n verbod op die vervoer van Groot Vyf-jagtrofeë geplaas.

Stewart Dorrington van ­Sampeo (South Africa’s Most Proven and Experienced Outfitters) glo die erge wanpraktyke in die leeuteel- en gebliktejag-bedryf word nou as skietgoed gebruik om die hele jag- en toerismebedryf te beswadder.

Dorrington sonder die ­Beroepsjagtersvereniging van Suid-Afrika (Phasa) uit vir kritiek omdat hulle nie reeds lank­al strenger opgetree het teen die gebliktejagbedryf nie en ’n duideliker en harder boodskap hieroor uitstuur nie.

“Die probleem is dat dit nie meer ’n groepie raserige diereregteaktiviste is wat ons veroordeel nie. Die hele wêreld het ons jagbedryf nou onder die vergrootglas geplaas ná die uitbarsting oor die onwettige jag van die Zimbabwiese leeu Cecil en die dokumentêre rolprent Blood Lions,” sê hy.

“Ons grootste vrees is dat die openbare mening teen ons draai en ander lande en lugdienste soortgelyke stappe gaan doen om wildtrofeë te verbied. Wanneer dit gebeur, is die plaaslike bedryf daarmee heen,” sê hy.

Adri Kitshoff, uitvoerende hoof van Phasa, sê sy stem nie saam met Dorrington nie. “Ons veroordeel al jare lank onwettige jagpraktyke en ons waarsku reeds ’n tyd lank dat die jag van leeus in klein kampe sleg is vir ons reputasie,” sê sy.

Dr. Peter Oberem, president van Wildlife Ranching South Africa (WRSA), glo die regering moet die grootste aanspreeklikheid aanvaar vir die gemors.

“Elke provinsie het tans sy eie reëls en regulasies oor leeuteel en permitte wat tot uiterse verwarring lei. Uiteindelik word dié verwarring deur skelms in die bedryf uitgebuit,” sê hy.

Volgens hom is die oplossing om eenvormige wetgewing in te stel om beter standaarde en toestande in die bedryf te verseker.

A primary school pupil has reportedly been attacked by a cheetah at a game reserve in Pietermaritzburg.

News of the attack first emerged on Twitter after BloodLions, the organisation behind the controversial canned lion documentary, re-tweeted: “The dangers of wild animal interaction. Young Pmb pupil allegedly attacked by a cheetah at KwaCheetah, Nambiti Reserve.”

Headmaster of Cowan House Preparatory School, Robin Odell confirmed to News24 that a student was bitten by a cheetah, after the animal managed to “partially force its way through a game fence” during an education tour on Thursday.

“The school’s Board of Governors and Management have been in constant contact with all the relevant parties as well as the parents of the pupil,” Odell said.

“The pupil received immediate and appropriate medical attention for his injuries and is expected to make a full recovery from the bite wounds.”

The incident has raised questions over the breeding habits of wild cheetahs at the game reserve.

Wildlands Conservation Trust CEO Dr Andrew Venter says that the breeding practises at Nambini game reserve could have been avoided, as cheetahs are not being released into the wild after breeding.

“The facilities are there, so why are the animals not being released into the wild?”

“How did a cheetah get that close? The Endangered Wildlife Trust has forecast that this could happen, and now we see it is starting to happen. We’ve had a cheetah attack a child.”

Traveller24 contacted Desmond Gouws, a manager of the The KwaCheetah breeding project, Nambiti Game Reserve but he was unable to confirm the incident.

A new documentary on ‘canned hunts’ shows that Cecil and other wild lions represent just a fraction of the animals Americans kill each year.

Cecil the lion’s death at the hands of an American dentist last month was not an isolated incident.

According to a new documentary called Blood Lions, foreign hunters kill two to three lions every day in South Africa. Unlike Cecil, however, these aren’t wild lions. They are captive cats, born and bred in cages solely for the purpose of selling them for “canned hunts”—excursions in small, walled-in encampments where hunters can easily shoot the semi-tame animals without having to stalk them across the savanna.

Prices for these canned hunts start at about $17,500 and go as high as $50,000. Hunters get to take the heads and skins home, while many of the bones reportedly make their way to China and other countries for use in traditional Asian medicine.

Blood Lions follows South African conservationist Ian Michler and American hunter Rick Swazey as they investigate the trade, getting rare footage of crowded breeding facilities and putting their lives on the line as dealers threaten to shoot them for trespassing.

The film has earned praise from conservation groups. “Blood Lions is perhaps the most in-depth and significant look inside the insidious world of South African canned hunts,” said Adam Roberts, chief executive of Born Free USA. (The Born Free Foundation provided funding for the film.) “It shows how nefarious these operators are and visually depicts the massive cruelty of canned lion hunting in grotesque detail.”

Like Walter Palmer, the Minnesota dentist and big game hunter who killed Cecil, most hunters who pay to shoot captive lions come from the United States. Born Free recently analyzed legal lion exports from South Africa and found that 5,000 of 8,318 lion trophies exported between 2000 and 2013 were sent to the U.S. “That means that roughly three out of every five lion trophies were imported into the United States,” Roberts said. Watch the trailer for the film below.

The American portion of the trade has increased in recent years. In 2013, Born Free found that 84 percent of lion trophies were sent to the U.S.

Although official counts of the number of lions in captivity in South Africa are not available, the documentary estimates that between 6,000 and 8,000 big cats live in breeding facilities, waiting to be shot. South Africa officially labels them “education and conservation facilities.” Michler, however, told National Geographic that these cats could never be released into the wild because they are too acclimated to humans.

Roberts, meanwhile, said the legal trade of lion parts from canned hunts hurts wild populations and “can potentially mask an illegal trade of wild, poached lions.” He noted that the growing lion bone trade—which has emerged over the past few years to replace the flow of products from tigers, which are even more endangered than lions—places additional demand on wild and captive lions.

The filmmakers have said they hope the documentary will expose the lion trophy-hunting industry and shame South Africa into shutting it down.

Blood Lions premiered at the Durban International Film Festival in last month and will screen throughout South Africa starting Aug. 14. International and U.S. distribution is in the works.

Debate is intensifying in South Africa over the practice of hunting captive-bred lions. Ian Michler, maker of a documentary film called “Blood Lions,” has estimated that close to 1,000 lions bred in captivity in South Africa are fatally shot every year by trophy seekers.

Critics, who refer to the custom as “canned hunting,” say lions that are bred in captivity are not afraid of people, making them easy targets for shooting in relatively confined areas. While hunting operators in South Africa describe their industry as well-regulated, a key hunting association has called for a review of captive-bred lion hunting amid growing public criticism.

The practice is an “extreme and a brutal form of trophy hunting,” Michler said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press on Monday.

In neighboring Zimbabwe, authorities have said two American hunters were involved in illegal lion killings in separate cases in the area of Hwange National Park in April and July. The cases have put fresh scrutiny on hunting in Africa at a time when poaching has vastly reduced wildlife numbers, including threatened species such as lions, rhinos and elephants.

South Africa has had success in the conservation of wild lions. Last month, however, South Africa’s environment minister, Edna Molewa, held a meeting to discuss concern about alleged irregularities at what she called “the fringe” of the “legal, well-regulated” lion breeding and hunting industries.

It is time to review captive-bred lion hunting, Hermann Meyeridricks, president of the Professional Hunters’ Association of South Africa, said in a July 24 letter to association members.

“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,” he wrote.