STREAMING REVIEW: Bred for the bullet

Blood Lions: Available on Showmax

Environmental journalist Ian Michler tells the story of lions that are being bred for predatory and canned hunting. The 2015 documentary, which has become increasingly important over the years, unpacks how over 800 captive-bred lions are being killed annually by trophy hunters.

Tourists are lured to South Africa in the hopes of petting a lion cub or walking with young lions, some even come as “volunteers”, paying to stay at lion breeding facilities where they hand-rear cubs, all completely unaware that they are being sold a lie.

What is alarming is that those tourists claiming to be interested in the conservation of lions do no research to see how these wild animals are being stripped of their natural instinct so that our exploitative species can do what it does best – cause devastation and portray cowardly dominance. Blood Lions exposes the bloody and brutal industry in which cubs are being pulled away from their mother within their first three to 10 days so that their mother can go on to breed more cubs – though, too many times in her life cycle, creating lions that aren’t genetically healthy.