2015-07-20
By Carla Lewis-Balden
The harsh truth is: when you’re cuddling a
lion cub or bottle feeding one, you’re directly funding the canned lion
industry, writes Carla Lewis-Balden.
The cute cub you're cooing over will likely meet it's end at the end of a hunting rifle or bow and arrow.
Lie #1: Volunteering at these 'animal sanctuaries' promotes conservation
Google
'gap year' and 'big cats volunteer' and you will get millions of
results about establishments offering well-intending but ill-informed
gap year students the chance to interact with lion cubs, while
“contributing towards conservation and research". Not all of these
organisations are what they claim to be.
Beverly Pervan, director of the Campaign Against Canned Hunting explains that some lion farmers rent out their cubs to tourist resorts and "voluntourism projects".
“There
is an insatiable demand for cub petting by tourists. All the tourists
who indulge in cub petting are supporting the canned hunting industry,"
says Pervan.
"When the cubs are too big to be handled by humans any longer, they are sent back to the lion farmer to be hunted.
“Basically
lion farmers use the profits they make from cub petting to externalise
the cost of rearing the cub to a huntable size. Once you understand that
there is virtually no market for adult lions other than hunting and
that more than a thousand lions are canned hunted every year you begin
to understand the scale of the tragedy.”
Lie #2: The cubs are orphans rejected by their mother, or it killed by poachers
Most
of these establishments spin sob stories to gullible tourists about the
animal's mothers abandoning them at birth, or parents being killed by
poachers.
There are genuine sad stories but they are very rare,” says Fiona Miles, South Africa’s manager of the FOUR PAWS Animal Welfare Foundation. They run LIONSROCK, a sanctuary in Bethlehem for big cats that were kept in inadequate conditions in zoos, circuses or private captivity.
“The
majority of cubs encountered at facilities, where interaction is
provided, are the product of intensive captive breeding or farming,"
says Miles.
“These cubs are removed from their mother
as young as possible and hand raised. The reason this is done is
twofold: The cubs raise funds through interaction, the second reason is
that the mother will go into season again and will reproduce more
rapidly than if she was allowed to raise her own young,” Miles explains.
Lie #3: When they are adults, the cubs will be re-introduced into the wild
As
social animals lion cubs learn from their parents how to hunt and
interact with other lions. A hand raised animal will not have gained
this experience. There is a certain instinctual knowledge on hunting but
not successful hunting.
According to Miles, it is
highly improbable that a lion raised in captivity by man will be able to
survive for any extensive period, once it’s placed back into a wild
environment.
The best goal for lions currently in
captivity would be a situation like LIONSROCK where they are provided
with ample space and minimal human contact.
Lie #4: Lion breeders are contributing towards the dwindling numbers of lions in the wild
“Firstly
it is unlawful for any registered sanctuary to breed with animals other
than in carefully controlled specific programs for endangered species,"
say Pervan.
“Otherwise breeding is prohibited for sanctuaries," says Pervan.
In 2010 the Lion Breeders Association won a court case in the Supreme Court of Appeal
(SCA) against the (then) Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism,
Marthinus van Schalkwyk. Van Schalkwyk successfully imposed a verdict
that semi-tame animals may only be hunted 24 months after being set free
from their breeding cages, but the Lion Breeder’s Organisation took the
case to the SCA, where they won.
The SCA proved that
lion farming was “a closed circuit”, since no captive-bred lions have
ever been released back to the wild, thereby showing that lion farming
has nothing to do with conservation.
Accordingly,
the Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism had no jurisdiction to
impose any restrictions on them. Lion breeders are farmers, not
conservationists,” the Campaign Against Canned Lion Hunting explains.
“Therefore,
no captive-bred lions have ever been released back to the wild, nor
would conservation authorities ever allow it because of genetic and
veterinary reasons,” Pervan says.
Lie #5: Playing and posing with these animals teaches children the value of conservation and makes them appreciate the animals more
“Interaction
with wild animals serves no positive influence on the animals. Animals
that are utilised for human interaction will invariably become
habituated and lose any fear of humans,” says Miles.
With
habituation, the risk of the animal causing injury to another person is
increased, as is the risk of disease transfer. Ethically any
interaction between a human and an animal merely opens the door to risk
to the animal and ultimately lowers the welfare of the animal.
"A
hands-off approach would be just as beneficial towards any conservation
program, while also maintaining the welfare of the animals. A direct
interaction operation will claim that it aids conservation and ignore
the fact that it does this at the cost of the welfare of every animal
that passes through its doors."
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