Why is it, at a time when South Africa is going around the world to ask for loans, debt repayment holidays, as well as investments, that we insist on permitting a trade that seriously damages our image internationally because of its cruelty?

I’m talking about the captive lion industry.

Of course, some of the 60-200 lion farmers would like us to believe that they are doing some good conservation work. That is what they tell people who pay to stroke lion cubs and walk with the juveniles. Young people from overseas, under the false belief that they are doing some good, even pay to come and work on these farms.

However, behind these cute, furry cubs that remind us of Simba from the Lion King exists a very cruel trade, which has zero conservation benefit and is increasingly damaging our global reputation. 

Contrary to the stories often told, cubs are not orphaned. Lion cubs are taken away from their mothers shortly after birth. There are even stories of wild lionesses being shot in Botswana in order for their cubs to be stolen and brought back to South Africa.

This is the beginning of a miserable life for these lions. They are kept in over-crowded enclosures and usually not fed properly, because they are bred for their skeletons and not their meat or skins. There have been endless exposès of the horrific conditions that these lions find themselves in. (See for example this story by National Geographic https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2019/11/lion-farm-south-africa/).

Towards the end of their short lives, these lions are killed either by their owners (or someone that they pay) or by hunters during canned hunting operations. During these unfair hunting expeditions, the lions often walk right up to the hunters, expecting food.

After their deaths, the lions are then butchered and their skeletons sent to Asia where the farmers can get up to R65 000 for each skeleton. The shocking thing is that this is a legal industry. Until 2019 South Africa issued 800 permits per year for these exports.

This gave rise to an exponential growth in the industry. In 1999 it was estimated that there were about 1000 lions in captivity. Today it is estimated that there are at least 8000  - some say 10 000  - lions in these miserable conditions. Compare that to the estimated 3500 lions in the wild.

In 2019, the Pretoria High Court ruled that these quotas were unconstitutional and did not follow due process. Judge Kollapen ruled that the Minister and Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) disregarded the welfare of captive lions in setting the quota, and that the Minister and the DEA must take the welfare of captive lions and other captive wildlife into consideration in decision making.

And so, there has been a moratorium on these quotas but the farmers are still killing these lions. It is estimated that about 1500 skeletons have been stockpiled.

Recently a High-Level Panel was appointed by the Minister of Environmental Affairs, Barbara Creecy to look into various issues including the lion bone trade. The problem is that the composition of this panel is hugely biased towards the hunting fraternity so there is little hope that something good will come from it.

But, something needs to be done urgently.

Not only for the lions’ sake, but also for the image of our country, the conservation industry, and nature-based tourism.

A few weeks ago a global petition was launched to stop the captive lion industry in South Africa. When I last looked it had more than 800 000 signatories and growing. The international media is increasingly focussing on why it is that South Africa is the only country in the world to allow this industry  - which can seriously impact on our already struggling tourism industry. 

There is also growing concern that these skeletons might carry diseases such as TB in their bone marrow, which could be infecting the users in Asia. Just imagine the repercussions if South Africa became the source of the next big epidemic!

So what is the solution?

The bottom line is that this industry has to be stopped immediately. This will take some creative thinking from the Minister. Farmers might need to be compensated, as they would for example if you closed down the cattle or chicken industry.

Then, of course, there is the big question of what should happen to the lions on these farms. I’m told that once lions have been hand raised they can never be released into the wild again. The majority of them are also in such horrific condition that they would never recover. So some heartbreaking decisions might have to be made.

 It is an awful indictment on the South African government and all us humans for allowing this to get this far.

As citizens, we should never ever support any of these big cat farms whether they allow interactions with the lions or not. We should also encourage the Minister to do the brave and correct thing.

Post-Covid South Africa needs all the international support it can get – in all our industries. There is no justification for allowing a handful of farmers to increasingly damage our tourism industry and international image through their bloodthirsty greed.