Hey guys, there’s a roaring trade in lion bones in South Africa (SA). You know why? The white guys are testosterone fuelled hunters and hunt organisers or lion breeders and the black officials and politicians are corrupt. A great double act guaranteed to kill-off wildlife.
Between them they are destroying the lion in South Africa and further afield because once you blatantly regard this most iconic of wild species as a commercial asset to be mercilessly exploited for financial gain you devalue the animal so much that it promotes further illegal activities such as widespread poaching and illegal trophy hunts.
The whole sham of lion conservation becomes a transparent joke. There is huge pressure from Asia on South Africa to provide lion bones. It has degenerated because of increased efforts in protecting the tiger in India. The tiger is another wild cat species regarded as a commercial asset in China to be slaughtered for their body parts and used in that centuries old but utterly useless treatment called Traditional Chinese Medicine.
As usual the SA government justify the trade in lion bones. They claim that it is well regulated and sustainable..blah blah. There’s a permit system and what happens is supported by ‘solid scientific evidence’.
The true picture is not as presented by the SA government. Michele Pickover the director of EMS Foundation, a conservation charity, said that many more than the 800 permitted lion skeletons left SA last year. And almost all the exported lion skeletons had their heads indicating they were not shot for trophies.
These lions were killed for their bones.
“A growing industry which slaughters lions in abattoirs specifically for their bones is indefensible and cannot be justified”.
The trade in lion bones puts captive and wild lions at risk by “accelerating the slaughter of wild lions for their parts in neighbouring countries”. (Paul Funston).
It’s big business and business and wild animals means only one thing: animal abuse. The hunting industry in SA brings in £565 million annually. Nine thousand trophy hunters visit SA each year. Most are Americans.
A lion skeleton fetches £125 per kilo (£3,800 per lion). The skull is worth £840. Six thousand lion skeletons have been sold from SA since 2008. Ninety-eight percent go to Vietnam, Thailand and Laos. The bones are boiled down and made into a cake-like product which sells for £13,000 per kilo.
They believe that eating it makes them as strong as a lion or tiger. Pathetic isn’t it? And damned sad for the human race.
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