Thousands of lions to be killed in SA 'canned hunting' battle

Tuesday December 29 2009

Thousands of lions face slaughter in South Africa under new rules, backed by animal rights groups, that would lead to the abolition of a lucrative hunting practice, according to game parks.

An attempt to regulate the hunting of lions bred in captivity and released as prey would force parks to cull animals, it is claimed.

Lions are reared for clients who pay up to £20,000 (€22,000) to hunt them.

The South African authorities have come under pressure to outlaw so-called 'canned hunting' and have put forward a measure stipulating that lions must roam freely for two years before they can be targeted. Breeders have fought the new regulations, claiming that they would be driven out of business.

Carel van Heerden, the chairman of the South African Predator Breeders' Association, said that if judges decided not to hear the case, "it will be the end of the road for us".

The association's members own around 4,300 lions, each costing about £800 (€890) a month to feed. But with no income from hunting "they will have to kill them," said Mr van Heerden. "It's going to be a slaughter."

Critics claim the captive lions are inbred and vulnerable to illness.

Fiona Miles, a spokesman for Lionsrock, the biggest lion sanctuary in the country, said: "Canned hunting means hunting in a small space where an animal has no chance of escape.

"People are doing it and satisfying their ego to say they killed a lion. The animals are looked at as a completely commercial tool, but these are living beings." (©Daily Telegraph, London)

- Sebastien Berger in Johannesburg

Irish Independent