Youth For Lions News – Blood Lions

I want to see a big cat up close, but should I?

How can we tell if a captive facility is one that we should support or avoid? With so many predator parks calling themselves sanctuaries or claiming to rescue their animals, how can we be certain that the facility is ethical or not?

South Africa has close to 400 captive predator parks, most of which are purely commercial, or at a minimum designed to earn a profit from their animals. This has resulted in an rampant industry that keeps approximately 8,000 lions, 600+ tigers, 500 cheetahs, 300 leopards, and 1,000s of other predators all in captivity.

To help you better understand what unethical and profit-driven predator parks look like, read on to learn more about the captive Red Flags.

Youth For Lions Blog: A visit to the zoo or a captive wildlife facility – education or edutainment?

Written by Youth Ambassador, Stephanie Emmy Klarmann and published with permission

There are some heated debates about the value of captive wildlife facilities and zoos. Many are firmly situated in the belief that animals in small enclosures and cages do not educate visitors or serve an important conservation purpose. There are others, however, who argue that seeing animals in captivity educates visitors and encourages them to care. I personally can’t help but wonder what the public is learning when they witness an animal standing against a fence or sleeping in an unnaturally small space. Even more importantly, does this type of education result in pro-conservation behaviour?

Youth For Lions Blog: Lions Classified as Farm Animals. Why You Should Care

Written by Cath Jakins
Published on 28 October, 2019

Humans have been domesticating and farming animals for decades, millennia even.

However, people all around the world are becoming so much more aware of the ethical and welfare-related issues involved in captive breeding and animal husbandry. Recently, there has been “a move globally to say ‘ok, intensive farming may not be the way to go, people want free range animals’. And yet, on the wildlife side, we are reverting back to intensive breeding under the worst conditions,” says Karen Trendler, Wildlife Trade & Trafficking Portfolio Director at the NSPCA. According to Trendler, “conservation of wildlife is best done by preserving wild animals in their natural habitat.”

Youth For Lions Blog: LIVE WILD Lion Monitoring

Written by Cath Jakins
Published on 11 July, 2019

It is my opinion that there are very few genuine “once-in-a-lifetime” experiences left in this world. With technology advancing so rapidly, life is becoming progressively more connected and less authentic. Two weekends ago, however, I had the opportunity to experience something rarely experienced by members of the public: endangered species monitoring in the wild.

At the YouthForLions LIVE WILD Workshop, which took place in March of this year, a group of 8 high school and university students from KwaZulu-Natal won themselves a 2-day trip to Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife’s iconic Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park to track and monitor wild lions with Wildlife ACT, a leading conservation and wildlife monitoring NGO. My YouthForLions colleagues and I were lucky enough to join in on the experience as chaperones for the students.

Youth For Lions Blog: The Power of Educating our Youth

Written by Stephanie Emmy Klarmann
Published on 15 March, 2019

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.

Youth For Lions Blog: Creating Awareness with Tomorrow’s Leaders

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!