This is an excerpt from an article written by Tyler Leigh Vivier and published online by Good Things Guy on 03 May, 2021
Today is a good day for everyone who has been campaigning to end captive lion breeding in South Africa; Government confirms they will bring it to an end.
South Africa (03 May 2021) – It is a good day for conservationists and animal rights activists in South Africa. Minister Barbara Creecy of the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) has instructed her department to start the process of ending captive lion breeding in South Africa.
This is a massive win for the team at Blood Lions that have worked tirelessly to raise awareness about the industry and have advocated to have it ended since 2015.
The Blood Lions campaign was launched following the release of the Blood Lions feature film documentary in July 2015. Currently, in South Africa, an estimated 10 000 – 12 000 predators, mostly lions, tigers, caracals and cheetahs, are held in captivity for commercial purposes. Many are used in exploitative tourism activities, such as cub petting, ‘walking with lions’ attractions, as photo props, and in voluntourism. The next stages in their short and unethical lifecycle are the captive (“canned”) hunting for their trophies and/or the legal export of lion bones to South East Asia for traditional medicine, contributing further to the escalating commoditisation of these wild animals.