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By Mike
Cadman
The government has won the court case that will effectively
put a stop to canned lion hunting - but it now faces a
massive animal welfare crisis as breeders threaten to ditch
unwanted predators that no longer have any commercial value.
There are between 3 500 and 4 000 lions in captivity in
South Africa, most of which are bred specifically for the
hunting industry.
The South African Predator Breeders Association (Sapba)
estimates that 1 050 lions - the highest figure on record -
were hunted in South Africa last year.
About 700 lions were shot in 2007 and 322 in 2006.
On Thursday, the Bloemfontein High Court ruled that the
Department of Water and Environmental Affairs had a right to
enforce laws that stipulated that lions raised in captivity
must be allowed to roam free for two years before being
hunted.
Sapba argued that this provision would make the breeding of
lions in captivity for hunting financially unviable even
though the industry is legal.
The association also argued that the former department of
environmental affairs and tourism had acted unfairly in
drawing up the legislation.
Sapba chairperson Carel van Heerden said on Friday that his
organisation, which has 123 members, was considering
appealing against the ruling. The members would meet next
Friday to consider their options, he said.
"This is a crucial time for them. The decision could mean
the end of their businesses, which had been legalised by the
state," Van Heerden said.
"It also has dire consequences for about 5 000 workers and
their dependents who could lose their jobs if lion breeding
facilities close down.
"People have poured millions of rands into their facilities
and it costs a lot of money to feed lions and raise them.
"The government allowed the industry to become established
over a period of many years; they legalised it by issuing
permits," he said.
"And now they want to destroy it, so they must tell us what
they plan to do with all these animals that no one will want
because they have no economic value."
For the past few years, conservation, animal welfare and
animal rights groups have urged the government to draw up
plans to deal with the animal welfare issues should the
canned lion hunting industry be shut down.
"A victory may have been won in court, but to these animals,
whose lives so far have been nothing more than a caged
existence to provide a trophy to an unethical hunter, their
future remains uncertain and may not necessarily be any
better," said Yolan Friedmann, CEO of the Endangered
Wildlife Trust in Joburg.
"We urge the government to immediately begin a process of
addressing this situation, to avert a welfare crisis in
which these animals could fall prey to neglect and further
cruel treatment," she added.
The government has no suitable sanctuaries for unwanted
lions raised in captivity, and private operations can't
handle such large numbers of lions.
Wildlife rehabilitation experts said releasing lions back
into the wild was extremely difficult and time-consuming,
and that most large wildlife areas in the country had
reached their carrying capacity for lions and other
predators.
Brenda Santon, the manager of the wildlife unit at the NSPCA,
said that law enforcement and monitoring of the industry had
been notoriously poor for years.
"Immediate action is needed to deal with this welfare crisis
and there is an urgent need to properly monitor how the
animals are now treated," she said.
A report published recently by the NSPCA shows that most
captive lion breeding facilities are in North West and the
Free State.
There are some facilities in Gauteng, the Eastern Cape and
Limpopo, but more than 90 percent of all lion hunting takes
place in North West.
The Department of Water and Environmental Affairs said last
week it was still awaiting a report on the captive lion
breeding and hunting industry, but it planned to include
lions in the Threatened or Protect Species (Tops)
regulations as soon as possible.
Asked what plans were in place to deal with unwanted lions,
the department's spokesperson Albi Modise said it "will
co-operate with all stakeholders and investigate all
available options to address the issue should it arise".
Canned lion hunting in South Africa made headlines in 1997
when a British documentary showed lions being hunted behind
fences.
The documentary sparked an outcry, and three successive
environment ministers repeatedly vowed to investigate the
industry, enforce strict controls and outlaw canned hunting.
In February last year Marthinus van Schalkwyk, then the
minister of environmental affairs and tourism, said new
legislation ensured that "the days of captive breeding of
listed species for any purpose except science and
conservation are over" - but he later removed lions from the
Tops regulations because of the Sapba court challenge.
o
This article was originally published on page 3 of
Sunday Independent on June 14, 2009
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