Media Articles – Page 9

WHO Points To Wildlife Farms In Southern China As Likely Source Of Pandemic

This is an excerpt from an article written by Michaeleen Doucleff and published online by NPR on 15 March, 2021

A member of the World Health Organization investigative team says wildlife farms in southern China are the most likely source of the COVID-19 pandemic.

China shut down those wildlife farms in February 2020, says Peter Daszak, a disease ecologist with EcoHealth Alliance and a member of the WHO delegation that traveled to China this year. During that trip, Daszak says, the WHO team found new evidence that these wildlife farms were supplying vendors at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan with animals.

Daszak told NPR that the government response was a strong signal that the Chinese government thought those farms were the most probable pathway for a coronavirus in bats in southern China to reach humans in Wuhan.

Those wildlife farms, including ones in the Yunnan region, are part of a unique project that the Chinese government has been promoting for 20 years now.

“They take exotic animals, like civets, porcupines, pangolins, raccoon dogs and bamboo rats, and they breed them in captivity,” says Daszak.

The agency is expected to release the team’s investigative findings in the next two weeks. In the meantime, Daszak gave NPR a highlight of what the team figured out.

Captive Lion Breeding Poses Health Risks to Tourists and Others, Says Study

This is an excerpt from an article published by SA People on 09 March, 2021.

A joint scientific study by Blood Lions and World Animal Protection highlights how the captive lion breeding industry in South Africa poses real and serious health risks to thousands of tourists, industry workers and its communities.

“Five major diseases (dubbed The Sick 5 in our new campaign) have been identified that can inflict serious health issues for people”, says Dr Louise de Waal (Director of Blood Lions). “These diseases are associated with at least 63 potentially harmful pathogens linked with both wild and captive lions, as identified in our peer-reviewed paper.”

Underestimating the impact of such pathogens and the associated zoonotic diseases could lead to future epidemics with reductions in life expectancy, increased child and maternal death and serious socio-economic consequences.

What are the Sick 5?

The Sick 5 are Human Ehrlichiosis, Human Babesiosis, African Sleeping Sickness, Toxocariasis and Trichinosis.

The first two are tick-borne diseases, where the bacteria and parasite respectively are transmitted from animals to people by ticks. Toxocariasis and Trichinosis parasites are transmitted more directly to humans, the former for example by handling faeces contaminated soil and the latter has a direct animal-human transmission.

African Sleeping Sickness (or Trypanosomiasis) is caused by a parasite transmitted by the tsetse fly and is listed as a Neglected Tropical Disease by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Over the last century, this disease has caused several epidemics in Africa.

Unethical practices in lion farming and elephant tourism are increasing disease risk

This is an excerpt from an article written by Tracy Keeling and published online by the Canary on 27 February, 2021.

African lions and Asian elephants are in a very precarious situation. Both species have alarmingly small estimated remaining wild populations. People also keep significant populations of them enslaved for tourism. Additionally, the bones of slaughtered captive lions are a popular ingredient in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).

As if that wasn’t enough, these species also have another troubling thing in common. They’re potentially at risk of contracting tuberculosis (TB) in their captive settings and passing it on to other beings they interact with, be they human or other animals.

Essential icons

Lions and elephants are icons of the natural world. They also play a crucial role in the ecosystems in which they exist. As The Canary has previously reported, for example, elephants are a keystone species. This means they are integral to the environments they exist in. If elephants are absent, these ecological systems collapse because so many other species are dependent on them. Lions, meanwhile, are apex predators. As with keystone species, apex predators have a profound impact on the ecosystems in which they exist, partly through their predation of other species. All these ecosystems, in turn, prop up the wider climatic stability of the Earth.

In short, these species are not only iconic, they’re essential. Unfortunately, however, they face an uncertain future. African lions numbered 200,000 across the continent just a century ago. But estimates for populations of wild individuals currently range between 13,000-20,000. Their declining numbers are due to numerous issues, such as conflict with people (often because of their predation of farmed animals). Trophy hunting, habitat loss and disturbance are also among the problems they face. Asiatic lions, meanwhile, now only number in the hundreds.

NSPCA CHALLENGES THE CAPTIVE LION INDUSTRY

This is an excerpt from a report written by the NSPCA and published online by Conservation Action Trust on 25 February, 2021.

The issue of canned lion hunting in South Africa was brought to the world’s attention after the 1997 award-winning “Cook Report” was broadcasted on a British television programme called “Making a Killing”⁴.

It showcased disturbing realities associated with the industry which involves the hunting of lions raised in captivity and unfairly preventing the target animal from escaping the hunter by eliminating “fair chase”, whereby the hunter is guaranteed a trophy. The animal is placed at a disadvantage by being confined to small enclosure or because it has lost its fear of humans as a result of hand-rearing, whilst some are tranquillized.

The programme sparked an outcry and a wide range of animal welfare and animal rights supporters, conservation groups, some hunting associations and members of the public called for urgent action for this practice to be outlawed.

Soon after the expose on canned lion hunting in South Africa, the then Minister of Environmental Affairs (DEA), Dr Pallo Jordan, engaged with environmental officials from all provinces and subsequently recommended a moratorium on the granting of licences for new breeding facilities, however this did not materialize⁵.

Read the original report:

Something to hide? Department of Environment takes the path of least disclosure

This is an excerpt from an article written by Don Pinnock and published by Daily Maverick on 15 February, 2021.

If you want information from the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries about the policies and activities it undertakes, it will stretch your patience and sanity to a snapping point. But what are they trying to hide?

Secrecy, according to the 19th-century English philosopher Jeremy Bentham, is an instrument of conspiracy and ought never to be the system of regular government. Yet bureaucracy always seeks the path of least disclosure.

That path is well tramped by the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries (Deff). Transparent they are not.

Because it’s their legal duty to provide information requested of them, they’ve become masters of diversion and diffusion. It’s not that they’re uncommunicative, but that they lead you on a merry dance just to get the facts that you’d expect to be freely available to the public in a functioning democracy.

Do DEFF officials have something to hide, are they terrified their inefficiency will be exposed, or is it simply because it’s a damn nuisance to answer questions? That this is happening under Minister Barbara Creecy’s watch is deeply worrying, given the initial elation by the wildlife community at her appointment to the environment portfolio. Is she aware of the problem or part of it?

Access to information is the lifeblood of any democracy and in this our law is unambiguous. Section 32(1)(a) of the Constitution provides that everyone has the right of access to any information held by the state, including provincial governments. This was confirmed in the Public Access to Information Act (PAIA) of 2000, which even requires that an officer assist you to frame good questions.

Government departments are required to reply within 30 days. If they’re having trouble finding it, they are permitted another 30 days. And that’s all.

So how are we doing? When I asked environmental NGOs and journalists if they were having problems accessing information, it turned out they were – in spadefuls.

Blood Lions Inspired over 1300 People to add their Voices to the Cause of Saving Lions

This is an excerpt from an article written by Tyler Leigh Vivier and published online by Good Things Guy on 21 January, 2021.

Over 800 voices were added to the #800 Lions campaign; in fact, more than 660 schoolchildren and students joined the cause to help raise awareness.

South Africa (21 January 2021) – The 800 Voices for 800 Lions campaign aimed to visually represent through art the quota of 800 lion skeletons South Africa exported every year for use in traditional medicine that has no proven curative benefits.

Blood Lions wanted to inspire and mobilise people to raise their voices by creating their own lion art to submit to the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries (DEFF). The campaign has been submitted to Honourable Minister Barbara Creecy at DEFF, and the organisation is awaiting further communication. They are also awaiting news on what was recommended to the Minister by the High-Level Panel.

“We are proud to report that the campaign reached 163% of its goal, with over 1,300 lion art submissions from across the globe.
Looking at the numbers, we received 853 submissions from South Africans, including 593 from young South Africans under the age of 16. The campaign also attracted 36 submissions from Vietnam, including 27 from students at Thai Phien Primary School and 20 from school children in China, which was really inspiring to see.” – Cath Jakins

A few schools in South Africa really took to the challenge and submitted student artwork en masse. Manor Gardens Primary School in Durban submitted over 138 pieces of artwork, including songs and poems written and performed by the students.

Camps Bay High’s Learner Artwork to Form Part of Blood Lions #800Lions Campaign

This is an excerpt from an article published online by Awsum News on
07 January, 2021.

Drew Goldie, who will be in Matric at Camps Bay High School in 2021, has had an art piece that she made for the #800Lions Campaign selected to be part of the Blood Lions billboard campaign.

Blood Lion Campaign Billboards, calling for the end of the captive lion breeding industry in South Africa, are now live along highways in Johannesburg and Durban.

The #800Lions movement called for the submission of art in different forms in order to represent the more recent legal lion bone quota in South Africa, which was 800 skeletons. Blood Lions is calling on South Africa to set a ZERO lion bone quota.

Make no bones about it, SA’s lion trade must be stopped, say experts

This is an excerpt from an article written by Paul Ash and published online by Sunday Times on 09 December, 2020.

The trade in bones and captive lion breeding pose a serious threat to SA’s tourism industry.

Wild lions will come under increasing pressure in Southern Africa if the trade in lion bones is not stopped, say animal welfare activists and scientists.

Speaking at an HSI-Africa/ Blood Lions webinar this week, Dr Paul Funston, lion programme director at big cat conservation group Panthera, said the trade in lion bones, which are sold as traditional medicine in Asia, had grown from almost zero a decade ago…

Captive-bred lion industry a stain on SA’s tourism reputation, say environmentalists

This is an excerpt from an article written by Nica Richards and published online by The Citizen on 08 December, 2020.

Government has been urged to phase out and eventually remove the industry entirely, which makes up less than 1% of the country’s gross domestic product.

Tourism and conservation authorities have for the first time come together in a united call to stop South Africa’s thriving captive-bred lion and big cat industry.

Government has been urged to phase out and eventually remove the industry entirely, a call which has been signed off and supported by 21 lion scientists, and endorsed by 41 scientists.

There are a number of reasons why the captive-bred industry is unsustainable. From the welfare of lion farm workers to the potential damage to the country’s tourism industry, experts are reiterating and substantiating their reasons to impose a zero lion bone quota, and to kick the entire sector to the curb.

Unsustainable

Lion programme director at Panthera, Dr Paul Funston, emphasised in a webinar on Tuesday that there was no evidence to support the notion that captive lion breeding and hunting provided direct conservation benefits to wild lions.

There is also significant evidence to prove that there is a direct link between South Africa’s captive-bred lions and lion bone exports destined for Asia.

SA tourism body calls for ban on captive lion breeding

This is an excerpt from an article written and published online by African News Agency and IOL on 08 December, 2020.

CAPE TOWN – Conservation and animal welfare organisations, Humane Society International-Africa (HSI-Africa) and Blood Lions on Monday called for a ban of South Africa’s captive lion breeding industry and its associated spin-off industries.

This decision was backed by other non-governmental organisations (NGOs), scientists and the Southern Africa Tourism Services Association (SATSA).

Comprehensive submissions on captive lion breeding were presented to the department of environment, forestry and fisheries, to review existing policies, legislation and practices in the management and handling, breeding, hunting and trade of elephant, lion, leopard and rhinoceros.

South Africa has about 400 facilities with approximately 10 000 – 12 000 lions in captivity for commercial use in cub petting, canned hunting and the lion bone trade.

HSI-Africa wildlife director, Audrey Delsink said that the lions were bred with the intention of slaughter, one way or another, whether for their bones or as hunted trophies.

“In addition to the global opposition to trophy hunting, the cruelty of ‘canned hunting’ is making South Africa a pariah in conservation and animal welfare and protection communities,” Delsink said.