NEWS AND OPINION: My research tells me that in 2019 (or perhaps 2020), an amendment was made to South African’s Animal Improvement Act (AIA) to reclassify lions as farm animals. The government amended the AIA to include lions as a “species” that can be bred as livestock. There was no public consultation. The amendment allowed for the commercial breeding and trading of captive lions in the same way as other domestic livestock. This legitimised the controversial captive lion industry in South Africa and it arguably severely undermined lion conservation in South Africa and wider because if you regard lions as livestock you devalue their status in the wild as well.
And you also create a situation where it is difficult to differentiate between the body parts of farmed lions and the body parts of wild lions which are shipped to Asia in a highly profitable commercial enterprise.
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Research study
A study led by Dr. Angie Elwin, published in the journal Nature Conservation, and entitled “Under the lion’s paw; lion farming in South Africa and the illegal international bone trade”, has been reported in the online news media and indeed in hardcopy news media. It essentially reports on the ‘reduction’ of lions to livestock in South Africa which is deemed to be acceptable under their legislation and constitution but it also reports on the illegal selling of skeletons to Asian buyers.
Link to study: https://doi.org/10.3897/natureconservation.56.124555
Horrific conditions
The report is that South Africa’s lion farming industry is keeping large numbers of the species in horrific conditions at the end of which their bones are sold illegally to Asian buyers.
There are far more farm lions in South Africa than there are wild lions which is troubling.
There are an estimated 8,000 to 12,000 lions and other big cats bred in captivity across 350 facilities in South Africa. There are 3,500 wild lions in the country (estimated).
Canned hunting and cannibalism
The researchers obtained reports of lions kept in very poor and dirty conditions. They were starved to extent that there were instances of lion cannibalism. Some lions were drugged before being released into small enclosures for canned hunting. This is fee-paying trophy hunters shooting lions in an enclosure in order to take home bits of the lion’s anatomy.
Commercial breeding of lions is legal in South Africa as is canned hunting.
Although the canned hunting takes place in enclosures which are below the legal requirement of 1000 hectors. That’s according to the study report.
Export of bones
The report also refers to the export of lion skeletons including teeth, and claws which was declared unconstitutional by the South African High Court in 2019.
Conservationists say that the exports to Asia of lion bone is illegal as no quotas have been set.
The information comes from anonymous interviews with workers on these lion farms. They are located in South Africa’s Northwest province.
Alternative to tiger bone for Chinese medicine
The reports from the workers tell us that after the Lions have been hunted in small enclosures their skin, paws, and skull were kept as trophies by hunters while the bones were cleaned and prepared for the Asian market place. It’s believed that the bones are sent to East and south-east Asia. They are used as an alternative to tiger bones in the production of traditional Chinese medicine.
Dr. Angie Elwin is based at the Manchester Metropolitan University. The research was carried out in conjunction with the charity World Animal Protection. Angie Elwin said:
“Our study highlights the troubling reality of South African’s captive lion industry. Legal activities are being exploited to facilitate illegal trade, and this is compounded by serious animal welfare violations and unsafe conditions for workers. Urgent action is needed to protect lions and people.”
She further added that:
“Lion bone was originally thought to be used as a substitute in tiger bone wine traditional Chinese medicine products, but recent evidence also suggests an increase in demand specifically for line products in Vietnam and China.”
Intention to halt it
The South African government announced an intention to halt the “domestication and exploitation of lions, and ultimately close all captive lion facilities in South Africa” (2021). However, as you can imagine, effective enforcement is not taking place. Critics argue that there’s been a failure to enforce regulations. There’s also been a lack of clarity on the future of the industry. This created a legal gray area within which crime gangs use lion farming to supply illegal international big cat bone marketplaces.
Dr. Neal D’Cruze, head of Wildlife Research at World Animal Protection said:
“The South African government must take immediate action to fulfil its pledge to end the controversial captive lion industry. Without a comprehensive time-bound plan and stringent enforcement, this commercial industry will continue to pose legal, animal cruelty and conservation concerns.”
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How does lion farming impact wild lion populations in South Africa?
This is an important issue. I’ve used artificial intelligence to provide me with some information about it.
One problem is the depletion of wild populations. There is evidence that high demand for lion bones created by the lion farming businesses and trophy hunting of captive-bred lions has led to poaching of wild lions to supply the trade. This depletes the already highly threatened lion population on the African continent.
There is also the issue of “genetic pollution”. Captive lions are often inbred i.e. with limited genetic diversity. The potential release or escape of these lions into the wild can lead to genetic pollution of the wild population.
The lion farms are very demanding of resources i.e. land and food. The money spent to support these arguably obnoxious enterprises could be better spent on wildlife conservation efforts and habitat protection.
Further, conservation efforts can be more challenging when lion farming and trophy hunting activities become normalised. The point here is that when you normalise lion farming you almost declassify the lion from being a magnificent wild animal to a farm animal. This may gradually alter the public’s perception of the lion thereby undermining conservation.
There appears to be a lack of regulation and oversight in South Africa regarding the farming of lions. And a lack of proper enforcement and it appears a lack of proper commitment towards lion conservation.
Consensus
The general consensus by well-informed scientists and conservationists is that lion farming poses serious threats to the long-term viability and recovery of wild lion populations in South Africa and Africa more broadly. It’s important that these issues are dealt with urgently and with vigour and commitment.
Lions versus cattle
When lions are livestock in South Africa and lion farms illegally sell skeletons to Asian buyers, the once magnficent lion is shamefully degraded and reduced to no more than abused livestock.
Many business people will argue “what’s the difference between lions and cattle?” Well, from my perspective there is a difference. The lion is an iconic wild species; a precious species, the product of millions of years of evolution on this equally precious blue planet. Humans are the trustees of the planet and the wildlife that resides on it. We have an obligation to protect it for future generations. Lions should not be reduced to farm animals.
As for farm animals, they are often abused. That is another story but an equally important one. To say that there is no difference in treating lions as farm animals to treating cows as farm animals is to reduce the treatment of animals to the lowest common denominator. People need to pick up their standards across the board in relation to the treatment of animals both farm and wild.
A quick word about the tiger and lion bone industry
The truth is that Asia has done nothing to curb the illegal trade of tiger and lion bones into that part of the world to be used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) to make tonics, wines and other products believed to have health benefits. These so-called health benefits are unsupported by science and are, arguably, based upon superstition and nothing else. Imagine it: superstition is killing the lion and tiger in the wild and seriously jeopardising conservation.
And this has been taking place for a very long time. There is still high demand and an increased demand for tiger bone products in China as well as other Asian countries like Vietnam.
I can recall China’s president, Xi Jinping, actively supporting these traditional markets. China has no intention of contributing to tiger and lion conservation. It’s believed that the South China tiger is extinct unsurprisingly. Maybe very small numbers towards the Russian border near Vladivostok. But without being disrespectful, the Chinese eat wild animals like Westerners eat domestic livestock. This desire to eat wild animals resulted in thousands of wet markets in China within which, in Wuhan, it is believed Covid-19 was transmitted to humans from a wild animal, perhaps a pangolin which had fed on a bat. That’s what an obsession with eating wild animals can do to the world.
There is a chronic impact on wild populations through the desire to incorporate tiger and lion bones into medicine. It results in a continuous train of poaching of wild lions and tigers to meet the demand for bones which conservationists would agree is a major threat to the survival of the species.
There has been a dramatic fall in wild lion populations in Africa. The Asiatic lion population is more or less stable thanks to strong conservation efforts in India. The wild tiger population is somewhat stable thanks to conservation efforts in India but there is a continuous threat of poaching of the Bengal tiger, the anatomy which, is shipped across borders to Burma, Thailand and into south-east Asia and China.
There is perhaps little evidence for this, but China has established a very strong foothold in Africa in order to mine precious metals for their electric vehicle market. But I’m convinced that the Chinese are in Africa also to ensure that there is a steady stream of lion bones from South Africa and perhaps other countries on the African continent to China to supply the TCM market.
Captive bred bones may be laundered and sold as wild sourced bones. This indicates the merging of captive lions and captive tigers with the wild species. When you farm these animals you create this gray zone between wild and captive which makes conservation even more difficult.
As you might imagine, regulating and enforcing laws around the traditional Chinese medicine trading Asia has proven to be very difficult. In fact, as mentioned, I see no effort to do it. Quite the contrary; the Chinese government promotes TCM.
The bottom line is that CITES (an international treaty to prevent the illegal trade of wild animals and wild animal body parts) is dramatically failing and has done for a long time and China is doing little to nothing to help protect tigers and lions in the wild. TCM is a major threat to the conservation of these iconic species. There needs to be a radical and fundamental change to attitudes towards lion conservation in Asia but there is little prospect of it.
