I believe that educating adolescents and youth is fundamental in changing attitudes and behaviours in any conservation effort. Education not only provides knowledge but also creates a sense of empathy and understanding on a much deeper level. It can also promote activism and justice, particularly in young people who are finding their voices and are so willing to act in ways which may often defy social norms (we often think of these young people as being rebellious; but I like to see them as challenging oppressive existing norms). This is becoming especially true of the captive breeding and hunting industry, which has for many years been covered in a cloak of conservation and good will. Yet, emerging evidence continues to expose an industry characterised by greed, neglect and cruelty.
Written by the Blood Lions team Published on 5 March, 2019
The Blood Lions ‘YouthForLions’ team hosted a youth workshop for over 120 high school and university students at the UKZN Howard College Theatre on Saturday, 2 March 2019.
The one day event highlighted and discussed activities associated with the captive lion breeding industry in South Africa, and other pressing conservation and tourism topics, such as Responsible Tourism, ethical volunteering programmes, and the harm that interacting with wild animals causes.
This was followed by a screening of the award winning Blood Lions® film, which follows acclaimed environmental journalist and safari operator Ian Michler, and Rick Swazey, an American hunter, on their journey to uncover the realities about the multimillion-dollar lion breeding and canned hunting industry in South Africa.
The Blood Lions ‘YouthForLions’ campaign is a global movement aimed at informing and engaging the worlds youth around the realities of tourist activities that exploit lion, such as cub petting and walking with lions; and the contribution these activities have on the canned hunting industry in South Africa.
Students who attended the Workshop were inspired by presentations from YouthForLions Coordinator Cath Jakins; Wildlife ACT’s Mark Gerrard and Zama Ncube; Thompsons Africa’s Janine Southwood; Youth 4 African Wildlife’s Fortunate Phaka; Project Rhino and Rhino Art’s Grant Fowlds; as well as Nunu Jobe(Trails Guide and Youth Mentor), Melumsi Matiwane (Rhino Art Educator), and Ben Wallace(Videographer).
The students left the Howard College Theatre with a much deeper understanding of the captive breeding industry, as well as the terms “Responsible Tourism” and “Ethical wildlife volunteering”. They were also exposed to possible career paths and opportunities in the conservation field.
“It is vital to see such a huge group of youth here posing such relevant questions to the speakers. This event is a great initiative to work towards developing our future leaders in the conservation space” – Mark Gerrard, Wildlife ACT Director.
Following the presentations and the Blood Lions® film, students were broken into groups and were given the task of creating a unique #YouthForLions campaign to create awareness on the critical conservation issues they had learnt about during the Workshop. The Blood Lions ‘YouthForLions’ team were thoroughly impressed by the wide variety of campaign ideas brought forward by the 11 groups of students and had an extremely difficult decision to make. The group with the most captivating and original campaign idea won themselves a 2-day trip to the iconic Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Game Reserve where they will have the opportunity to track and monitor wild lions and other priority species with conservation NGO, Wildlife ACT.
Here is what some of the students had to say about their time at the LIVE WILD Workshop:
“On Saturday 2 March I was privileged to be invited to the YouthForLions LIVE WILD workshop held at UKZN Howard College. Every single person took atleast one thing away from this workshop. Personally, I learnt how these wild cats are portrayed as these cute, touchable animals and how much money people pay to volunteer to help them. I also learnt how that money is just used to breed more lions and increase the breeding centres to uncontrollable sizes with inhumane conditions. I would just like to thank the YouthForLions team for everything that they do for the conversation of this amazing species and I just hope that the breeders wake up to the fact that what they are doing is wrong.” – Makaira Kerkhoff: Grade 11, Glenwood Boys’ High School.
“My brother and I attended the YouthForLions workshop at UKZN Howard College. It was a day full of fun, with interesting and interactive talks given by a number of big organisations that catered for everyone’s interests and potential career opportunities. The Blood Lions® movie gave everyone emotions revolving around anger, sadness and even guilt to those that have petted or walked with lions. Personally, I was angry and disappointed that people could be so heartless towards nature and its animals. It showed how lions are affected by inbreeding and how the owners became so defensive when asked questions relating to their lions lives and how they are treated.” – Odin Kerkhoff: Grade 9, Glenwood Boys’ High School.
“YouthForLions was an incredible experience for me and I could not be happier that I attended such an amazing workshop. I have a strong passion for animals and the environment and YouthForLions brought those two things together. Not only did they educate me on multiple issues, but they also gave me the confidence to do what I want to achieve later in my life. #YouthForLions is a great way to make younger people and communities more conscious of the reality of the industry and how this issue is growing which later could lead to disastrous results. I hope this workshop continues to grow in size and numbers, and that we’ll soon start seeing it on a bigger scale for everyone to experience.” – Kyra Foster: Grade 12, Northlands Girls’ High School.
“The Blood Lions workshop was an amazing experience and all the presentations were excellent and a very effective way to educate and involve people about conservation issues. I learnt that daily interactions between lions and people must be avoided because these lions are supposed to be released back to the wild. The information about this issue was unknown to me and many of the youth at the Workshop. YouthForLions plays an important role in wildlife conservation. I learnt a lot about canned hunting and I’m looking forward to attend the next workshops.” – Siboniso Mthiyane: UNISA Graduate.
Written by the YouthForLions team Published 29 January, 2019
The Blood Lions ‘YouthForLions’ team have officially launched a brand new animated clip showing the life cycle of a captive bred lion in South Africa, to create awareness across the globe.
The ‘YouthForLions’ campaign was launched on the heels of the international award winning Blood Lions® feature film documentary in 2015. It is a youth-based campaign, focused on educating the youth about wildlife interactive activities and how these activities negatively impact the lives of the animals. It aims to spread awareness across the globe about the captive lion breeding industry and the exploitative activities that go hand-in-hand with it, such as cub petting, lion walking, the lion bone trade and canned hunting.
The cycle:
The campaign’s new release is a simplified and animated look at how lion cubs, born in captivity in South Africa, are often taken away from their mothers when they are younger than 10 days old. The removal of the cubs forces the mothers straight back into an intense breeding cycle. In captivity, lionesses often breed up to four or five times faster than they would in the wild.
The tiny lion cubs are then hand raised, bottle fed and used for cub petting attractions where members of the public pay to pet and hold them. When they grow older, the sub-adult lions are trained to climb trees and pose on rocks for “selfies” during lion walking attractions. Once fully grown, the now tame lions are often sold to captive hunting establishments where they can be shot and killed in “canned” or captive lion hunts. This is just one of the ways in which hand reared and bottle fed lion cubs end up. Others are kept in small enclosures and killed for their bones to be exported to South East Asia to supplement the tiger bone trade.
“If you knew the facts, would you still pet a cub or walk with a lion? We don’t think so. The clip was created to have a simple message using video as a popular tool to spread awareness about the life cycle of a captive bred lion. Understanding the different stages of exploitation that these cubs go through, and the fact that they are merely money making machines for their owners is the key to putting an end to this practice” – Tamryn Stephenson, YouthForLions Digital Marketing Manager.
When travelling in South Africa, THINK before you VISIT, CUDDLE, WALK or VOLUNTEER with predators including lions, tigers, leopard and cheetah.
Don’t be part of the problem; help be part of the change.
Share the clip and sign the pledge:
Share the clip across your platforms, view the #YouthForLions pledge here and commit to not supporting breeders or operators that contribute to the cycle of unethical exploitation of predators. By signing the pledge, you are adding your voice to the global call to stop the captive breeding and associated commercialisation of Africa’s predators. You will also pledge your support to the conservation community in their efforts to secure the survival of Africa’s predators in the wild while promoting the responsible interaction with, and respect for, Africa’s wilderness.
Written by Cath Jakins Published 10 December, 2018
Welcome to the new YouthForLions Blog, and welcome to our very first blog post. For those of you who don’t know me, I am Cath, the new Blood Lions ‘YouthForLions’ Coordinator. My role at ‘YouthForLions’ is to raise awareness and educate the youth of South Africa (and the world) about the captive breeding of lions in South Africa and the importance of not interacting with these majestic animals.
When I joined the Blood Lions team in June, I was a little bit nervous about speaking in front a big group of people. But less than a month into my new job, my first presentation was a 15 minute talk to a hall of over 400 school children and their teachers. And it was fantastic!
Last week Friday, Thompsons Africa, a global leader in travel and tourism, dedicated the entire day to watching the award winning feature documentary, Blood Lions®, with over 100 employees in attendance. This included the signing of the ‘Born to Live Wild’ global pledge not to support exploitative wildlife interactive tourism.
Since the Blood Lions® film premiered in July 2015, the Campaign team, together with key partners around the world, have made great strides in their efforts to raise global awareness around captive lion breeding, ‘canned’ (captive) hunting and the lion bone trade to Asia. Upholding the values of responsible tourism, Thompsons Africa’s pledge formalises their stance against these activities.
Says Alessandra Alleman, CEO Thompsons Africa, “We are very proud to partner with Blood Lions in creating awareness around the canned hunting industry. It is important that our people understand why we say no to our customers when they request experiences involving walking with lions, cub petting and other forms of animal interactions. Tourism in South Africa is about our wildlife and nature and we want to keep it that way! We want generations of families from all over the world to continue to see our wonderful wildlife in their natural habitat…. not caged or being handled by hundreds of people each day. We pledge our support to the Blood Lions campaign and we pledge to continue to create awareness in holding up the values of sustainable tourism.”
Thompsons Africa support Blood Lions and its aims and acknowledge the following:
The established predator research and scientific community do not recognize any of the breeders or operating facilities as having conservation merit.
In marketing themselves as breeding facilities, these entities confuse the conservation messages and priorities, specifically with lions, which in turn results in a misdirection of vital funding that negatively impacts wild lion populations.
There is sufficient evidence to show that their activities put additional pressure on wild lion populations: intensive breeders have illegally acquired new genetic stock from the wild, and the burgeoning lion bone trade remains a risk because of an illegal demand for bones from wild lions.
We are deeply concerned about the welfare conditions of the animals kept in these facilities.
Canned hunting does not reduce the hunting pressure on wild lions and is unethical.
Furthermore, Thompsons Africa commit to the following:
To not knowingly book or otherwise support any breeder or operator that contributes to the cycle of breeding, exploitation and senseless killing of predators. This includes all petting and ‘walking with lion’ facilities.
To continue our support and promotion of the formal conservation community in their endeavours to secure the survival of Africa’s predators in the wild. Without wild lions and the rest of the predator guild extant in functioning ecosystems, there will be no African tourism industry; a calamitous situation for many economies.
To continue in our own endeavours towards wildlife conservation and economic development wherever we operate across Africa.
To continue supporting an ethical and responsible interaction with Africa’s wilderness and wild animals.
To continue promoting Africa as an authentic, wild and rewarding tourism destination.
“To have one of the largest tourism operators in Africa stand behind the ‘Born to Live Wild’ pledge and commit to promoting ethical and responsible tourism in South Africa is a huge step forward for the industry. We commend Thompsons Africa for pledging against these exploitative wildlife activities. Blood Lions is proud to partner with them in this campaign.” Pippa Hankinson, Blood Lions Producer.
In case of any queries regarding the pledge, please contact Blood Lions on info@bloodlions.org or Thompsons Africa on info@thompsonsafrica.co.za.
BREAKING NEWS: New Parliamentary report calling for an end to captive lion breeding in South Africa
Following the recent Parliamentary Colloquium entitled “Captive Lion Breeding for Hunting in South Africa: Harming or Promoting the Conservation Image of the Country”, the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Environment Affairs has released their report calling for a ban on captive lion breeding in South Africa.
Blood Lions commends the Hon. Mr. Mapulane and members of the Portfolio Committee on Environment on the findings and resolutions of this comprehensive 24-page report. There is little doubt that the captive lion breeding industry has attracted extensive international criticism, and that it has had a deleterious impact on South Africa’s conservation and tourism reputation. The colloquium was attended by Blood Lions together with a number of leading conservation groups and scientists from across the globe.
Blood Lions official statement:
‘This is an important day for Blood Lions and all those who have been fighting against the captive lion breeding industry in South Africa. After some years in production, Blood Lions launched the feature documentary film and global campaign to end all exploitative predator practices in 2015. Since then, and together with a number of our partners in South Africa and around the world, we have fought hard to expose the horrors that comprise the commercial exploitation of Africa’s most iconic species. Blood Lions acknowledges the immense work being done by so many across the conservation, tourism and welfare sectors. While this is a small victory for everyone involved, we also understand that much work still lies ahead. In this regard, we thank the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Environment Affairs for their immense efforts to date, and urge them to continue this process until the brutality ends.’
The summary of findings from the report include the following points:
“The conservation value of predator breeding is zero; the economic value is minimal and undermines South Africa’s tourism brand value … studies have proven that breeding predators in cages or enclosed areas has no conservation value in the South African context. Moreover, there has not been a successful lion reintroduction programme with lions bred in captivity in the South African case.”
“South Africa’s captive lion breeding industry for hunting is an international pariah, and hence the Government should rethink this policy stance. The announcement by DEA that the lion bone quota determined for 2018 is doubled from 800 in 2017 to 1500 for 2018 is highly concerning.”
“Captive lion breeding for hunting is currently lawful, but this does not make it ethically, morally or socially acceptable, especially when the manner in which hunted animals are raised and released for hunting. It is obvious in this instance that hunting of captive-bred lions might have done irreparable damage to the reputation of South Africa, especially considering the negative global publicity.”
“The use of lion bones, body parts and derivatives in commercial trade, including for scientifically unproven medicine, is one of the major emerging threats to wild lion, besides habitat loss, diminishing prey and human wildlife conflict, and could serve as a cover for illegally wild-sourced lion and other big cat parts.”
“South Africa’s conservation reputation is being challenged for its captive lion breeding industry and its perceived disregard of the impact, effect, welfare and consequences of its policies with respect to captive lion breeding and wildlife trade…”
“South Africa is the largest legal exporter of lion bones and skeletons … Ninety-eight percent of these were destined for Laos and Vietnam, which are known hubs for illegal wildlife trafficking….”
The risk of human health and safety posed by zoonosis – an infection or disease that is transmissible from animals to humans under natural conditions, including tuberculosis (TB) and possible exposure to lethal compounds …. The risk to South African lion abattoir workers is real. South Africa also risks finding itself in a precarious legal position should it arise that the country had exported tuberculosis-infested lion bones.”
The summary of the Proposed Resolutions put forward in the report by The Portfolio Committee on Environmental Affairs includes the following:
1) Department of Environmental Affairs to urgently initiate a policy and legislative review of the Captive Breeding of lions for hunting and the lion bone trade with a view to putting an end to this practice.
2) Department of Environmental Affairs to conduct an audit of the captive lion breeding facilities throughout the country, including those offering private lion and cheetah cub petting and/or walking activities.
3) Department of Environmental Affairs and Department of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries to present a clear programme of work on how they intend to address the badly neglected animal welfare and health issues which were raised during the colloquium.
4) The agreement between the Kruger National Park and Association of Private Nature Reserves (APNR) concluded in 1996, should be revised to ensure that there is sharing of benefits, arising from the collapse of the fences in the western boundary of the Kruger National Park in the interest of the broader society.
5) The Department of Environmental Affairs should reconsider their decision earlier this year to increase the lion bone trade quota from 800 to 1 500 lion skeletons, as it was purportedly based on the Interim Report of the Scientific Authority, which report it emerged during the colloquium, was informed by commercial considerations, as opposed to science.
