Sunday was a good day for South Africa and the wild animals of this country. At a press conference, the final report of the High Level Panel appointed by Minister Barbara Creecy in 2019 was released.

The report- amongst others- recommends a policy on biodiversity, conservation, and sustainable use, as well as certain measures to protect some of our iconic species, such as lions, elephants, rhino and leopards.  Minister Creecy also accepted the recommendation of the panel to put an end to certain captive breeding and hunting practices.

Unsurprisingly there is already a backlash from those who will be financially affected by these decisions. They are now crying foul that the panel was loaded with “animal rights extremists”. This is laughable and couldn’t be further from the truth.

The majority of the animal rights people resigned from the panel last year and the Minister has been widely lambasted for the fact that there were too many hunters and people from the captive breeding industry on the panel.

“How…. could they possibly come to conclusions that could, for example, close down captive breeding or canned hunting of wildlife and vote against the export of ivory, rhino horn, lion bones or live animals? Who on the panel would propose non-consumptive alternatives or could understand the long-term effects of inbreeding or zoonotic transfer of disease?” asked the well-known environmental journalist Don Pinnock in an article from mid-2020.

The fact is that the panel consisted of five traditional leaders, five academics, the chairperson, representatives from seven conservation NGOs, seven people representing the hunting and private wildlife industry, and no animal rights activists.  Yet, almost 64% of the members voted for the majority findings  - clearly because they knew it was the right thing to do for the animals and the country.

Of course, the captive breeding and hunting industry does not agree and is now going on a media offensive to convince the public that these recommendations are anti-conservation and thus would have a negative impact on wildlife in South Africa.

What disingenuous nonsense.

Let’s be clear that the Minister intends to shut down captive breeding and captive hunting operations. These businesses, which are owned by a handful of mostly white farmers, have zero conservation benefits.

Let’s take for example the captive lion industry.

For years, the 60-200 lion farmers have tried to spin the story that they are conserving and protecting lions. That is what they tell people who pay to stroke lion cubs and walk with the bigger ones. They even convince young people from overseas to spend big bucks to come and work on these farms in the false belief that they are doing some good.

Little do the visitors to these farms know that the lion cubs are not orphaned (as they are often told).  The 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 only the beginning of a miserable life for these lions. As soon as their baby days are over, they are kept in over-crowded concrete enclosures for three to five years. The lions are usually starved since they are bred for their skeletons and not their meat or skins. Starving ensures more calcification of these bones and thus more money.  In fact, there have been endless exposés of the horrific conditions lions are kept in.

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

It is therefore not surprising that the traditional leaders and even some professional hunters on the panel objected to this practice, as any sensible person would.

The industry also now wants us to believe that by stopping these practices it would increase the incidences of poaching.

This is an age-old argument that has been shown to be false for decades.

Conservationists have proven that you can never breed enough to satisfy the demand for these products – not for ivory, rhino horn, or lion bones. In fact, you only increase the demand by supplying the markets with the products.

Peer-reviewed research has also proven that practices such as canned lion hunting have a negative impact on South African’s global reputation and tourism industry. Of course, the captive breeding industry would not like us to hear that. Instead, they claim that we will now see an end to all wildlife hunting and thus lose a major amount of revenue.

I certainly wish that hunting was stopped as well, but it hasn’t been.  The minister emphasised that this is not an end to professional hunting at all.

Again, it is only the canned hunting – which is an embarrassment to professional hunters - that has now come to an end.  

Of course there is still a long way to go, but this is a good beginning. Undoubtedly the industry will not take this lying down. My experience is that guys with guns are often big bullies, and I’m already hearing of threats and intimidation received by some of the panel members. Of course, they also can’t stand the fact that an intelligent woman is taking a stand against their cruel practices so -  in typical bully fashion – they are calling the Minister uninformed, someone who has been railroaded, and are suggesting that she couldn’t have possibly applied her mind. (How patronising and sexist can you get?)

The Minister has opened the report for public comment. It is time that the majority of people who care about animals and the image of our country have their voices heard and prevent a small minority of cruel, money-hungry farmers from overturning one of the very few good things that has happened in this country for a long while.