The CITES Trade Database shows that over 17 000 lions have been exported from South Africa over the last 10 years… dead and alive. Many of these lions were exported as canned hunting trophies, bones for the Traditional Chinese Medicine, or alive to breeders, zoos, circuses and entertainment facilities around the world. The vast majority of those lions came from the captive population.
If we allow the wildlife trade to continue, especially with little governance currently in place, the lucrative captive predator breeding industry will continue to grow at an alarming rate in South Africa.
Read more on the Zoonosis Study we conducted with World Animal Protection here: https://bloodlions.org/the-sick-5/
Stop the interactions. Stop the trade.