ROARING FOR A CAUSE
In a world first, on the 15th March 2014 organizations and activists joined marches in 65 cities around the world to protest against the 'canned' lion hunting industry.
This was the result of a process which started in early 1991 when Gareth Patterson learned that hunters in the Eastern Cape had used bows and arrows to kill lions and some time later an undercover video came to hand which showed the sickening scene of a 'canned' trophy hunt
at the Marlothi game farm close to the Kruger National Park's southern boundary.
The video caused the investigative Cook Report team in Britain to arrange for an undercover hunting team to travel to South Africa, with Roger Cook himself posing as a wealthy but unwell 'client.' (Bolander June 5 2013). Their subsequent report, shown in South Africa on Carte Blanche, sent shock waves throughout the world in 1997.
It also spurred into action Chris Mercer and Bev Pervan of the Kalahari Raptor Centre who started a campaign to get canned hunting banned in South Africa. In their Publication "Canned Lion unting Hunting - A National Disgrace" which also contained their submission to the S.A. Government, they unting – a National Disgrace" they describe how they wdescribe how "they were snubbed by just about every wildlife organization in the country, from nature conservation authorities to N.G.O's, from hunting organizations to environmental journalists. No political party showed any interest in fighting this cause. The environmental ethic in South Africa was that animals were a mere resource to be used."
The canned hunting industry flourished, as did the various industries which fed upon its practice – the lion breeding farms and 'cub petting' and 'walking with the lions' facilities, the trophy hunters and taxidermists, the circuses and zoos and, eventually, the taxidermists. Also the lion bone industry, the bones being sold to known Asian crime syndicates who pay lion farmers for lion carcasses, which are processed in Asia and then fraudulently sold as tiger bone cake at (US$1000 per 100 grams) for unproven medicinal purposes.
But with a dogged determination Chris and Bev persisted and founded the Campaign Against Canned Hunting (CACH). Not getting much support in South Africa, their unrelenting lobbying was directed world-wide.
This persistence paid off, critical mass being reached 15 years later with the Global March being organized, proving that a vast number of people across the world would no longer be silent about the cruelty involved.
Sixty five cities came aboard with thousands of people marching to tell the world about the nightmare which is the horrific canned hunting industry in South Africa and that they wanted to see lions living wild and free.
In Los Angeles TheTokens performed live the original version of their number one hit and theme song of Disney's Lion King.
In South Africa marches took place in Durban, Johannesburg, Grahamstown and Cape Town where an estimated 1,700 people marched, with Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu's daughter Rev. Mpho Tutu joining the latter. She read out the Arch's prayer "for all God's beautiful wildlife, especially the wild white lion, that are at risk because of the (human) predators going around destroying them." He also prayed for blessings on those who had made public this practice and that they would succeed in their quest.
Chris Mercer from CACH handed over a submission to Dr. Mario Ambrosini MP for delivery to Deputy Director General Dr. Guy Preston of the Department of Environmental Affairs.
According to Mercer, a retired lawyer, there is no legal definition of canned hunting, but the key is the absence of fair chase. So "canned hunting is where the target animal is unfairly prevented from escaping the hunter, either by physical constraints (fencing) or by mental constraints (tame, habituated to humans.) On this definition, all hunts of captive bred lions are canned hunts."
He goes on to point out that there are fewer than 4000 lions left in the 'wild' in South Africa, but more than 8,000 in captivity, being bred for the bullet or the arrow, with the number increasing daily. "Lion farming is a real threat to wild lion prides, for many reasons. The on-going capture of wild lions to introduce fresh blood into captive breeding and the growth of the lion bone trade to Asia will impact severely on wild lions from poaching."
Already there are reports in the media about wild lions being killed in Botswana to obtain cubs which are then smuggled across the border into S.A. Unscrupulous S.A. lion breeders will buy them to bring fresh blood to their lion stock for genetic reasons, and to ward off captivity depression.
This wholesale and unscientific killing of lions has long term effects on wild prides, destroying the core pride function. Research shows that it can take as long as seven years for a lion pride to re-establish itself after the death of the trophy male.
"The public needs to be informed through sustained campaigns and the US and EU governments being persuaded to ban the import of lion/predator trophies. Only that way can the supply of dollars be cut off and the industry closed down," Mercer says.
Lion farming does not fall under the Department of Agriculture but the Supreme Court has ruled that it has nothing to do with conservation, so it cannot be regulated by conservation officials either. Lion farming thus falls between two government departments. In consequence, captive predators bred for hunting purposes have no regulatory protection.
"In the end," he says, "canned hunting only exists because of a failure of government policy, and being ferociously defended by wealthy vested interests."
It is causing a backlash against tourism to South Africa. Ethical tourists are already boycotting SA, causing losses to the legitimate tourism industry.
These boycotts will surely increase over time with sustained pressure through world-wide campaigns such as the recent global march against canned hunting.
