CAPE TOWN—The South African Predator Association (SAPA) together, with 10 individual lion farmers and ‘canned’ hunting operators, filed a court application seeking to renew a controversial lion bone export quota deemed “unlawful and constitutionally invalid” by High Court Judge Kollapen in 2019. At that time, Judge Kollapen found that the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) failed to consider the welfare of captive lions raised and killed for the bone trade when setting the quotas.
Conservation and welfare organisations, Blood Lions and Humane World for Animals (formerly called Humane Society International – Africa), implore the Honourable Minister Dr Dion George to stand firm and resist the demands of a select few lion farmers, who will all financially benefit from such a quota at the expense of lions.
The groups support the government in not facilitating lion bone exports through the issuing of a new quota.
The lion farmers assert the export quota is necessary to exercise their Constitutional Right to the freedom of trade, but fail to account for the well-being and welfare implications of their industry. The South African courts have moved to a more modern view that recognises that when exploiting captive wild animals, their needs and well-being must be considered at the level of the individual animal. Any consideration of a future quota must do so.
According to the court papers, the 10 lion farmers have stockpiled a total of 1,533 lion skeletons, all obtained as a ‘by-product’ of their ‘canned’ or captive hunting operations. Even though the skeletons may have been as a result of legal hunts, there is still no evidence that the welfare of the lions killed was considered adequately before and during the hunts.
SAPA claims that their members need to adhere to their self-drafted norms and standards, but it is unclear how such voluntary welfare standards are enforced by a membership organisation that includes no welfare professionals and lacks a mandate to enforce welfare conditions.
Blood Lions director Dr Louise de Waal says, “Captive (or ‘canned’) hunts, when a captive-bred, human-habituated lion is placed in a fenced camp, are considered to lack ‘fair chase’ by many in the hunting fraternity and cause severe stress for the animal involved. In addition, the lion has always been dependent on people for its food and water and may even approach the hunter believing it will be fed. Several welfare implications are clearly apparent.”
Link to captive hunt images and video: https://youtu.be/Q1jlo3WsB8w?si=ZjGCHZcYgxnOFhdi&t=242
According to Dr Matthew Schurch, senior wildlife specialist at Humane World for Animals South Africa, “This case is an attempt by a select few to reopen an industry that needs to remain closed for the good of South Africa and its iconic lions. The commercial exploitation of lions for the trade in their bones does not factor in the well-being of the lions concerned. This has been recognised by the government through the adoption of recommendations and guiding policies which aim to close the industry, a position the government most recently reinforced in 2024, through its Policy Position on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Elephant, Lion, Leopard and Rhinoceros.”
ENDS
Background:
On the 12th December 2024, SAPA and 10 named lion farmers filed a court application with the High Court of South Africa in Pretoria, asking the court to order the Minister to set a CITES export quota for 2025 to enable these individual hunting operators to sell off their lion bone stockpiles.
This is an appeal that seeks to overturn a 2019 High Court ruling, which in effect led to a zero quota. Since that time, no lion bones, parts or derivatives have been legally exported from South Africa. Since 2023 and the amendments to National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act 10 of 2004, the government has a right to restrict certain trade without a legal obligation to compensate, particularly when such trade leads to grave animal welfare contraventions.
While the Minister and his Department included an animal well-being clause in the environmental legislation, the South African Hunters and Game Conservation Association challenged this provision in August 2024, with apparent concerns that their hunting practices may not meet the necessary animal well-being standards.
According to one wildlife trader, a lion skeleton without a skull and claws is worth between ZAR 45,000 (male) and ZAR 35,000 (female), which means these lion farmers stand to profit of around ZAR 61 million through a once-off bone quota.
In April 2024, after extensive public consultation, the Minister's Task Team (MTT) on Voluntary Exit Options and Pathways from the Captive Lion Industry released its recommendations in a Cabinet-approved report. These recommendations included mass incineration of all known lion bone stockpiles, to prevent its illegal export and signal its commitment to ending this practice, as well as a prohibition on the captive breeding of lions in the medium term.