Michael Ashcroft - Unfair Game: An investigation into South Africas captive-bred lion industry

I n December 2018, I went to South Africa to report on Footprints of Hope, a unique project arranged by a British charity that aims to combat wildlife crime. Footprints of Hope allows veterans suffering from physical and mental health problems to spend time caring for orphaned baby rhinos. Dozens of these creatures, some only weeks or months old, are found abandoned in Africa every year. In almost all cases their mothers have been brutally shot and dehorned, sometimes while they are still alive, by poachers.

The programme was hosted by a second charity, Care for Wild, whose sanctuary just outside South Africas famous Kruger National Park has become a home for many rhinos. The aim of Footprints of Hope is for humans and animals, both damaged by traumatic events in their lives, to benefit from the others existence through animal-assisted therapy (AAT), which brings animals and humans together. AAT is used to complement and enhance the benefits of more conventional therapy. Through my sponsorship of Footprints of Hope, five UK Armed Forces veterans have so far benefited from this project.

While I was planning this trip, I decided I wanted to spend xvi some of my time in South Africa making enquiries about another imperilled creature: the lion. I was familiar with the ghastly phenomenon of so-called canned lion hunting, in which wealthy tourists pay tens of thousands of dollars to hunt a lion when in reality all they do is pursue a tame creature in an enclosed space and then shoot it. I was also aware that hundreds of lions die in this manner in South Africa each year. As I detest animal maltreatment, I wanted to find out more about this particular form of cruelty so that I might be able to help end it.

As I journeyed around the country, I spoke to many animal experts and conservationists and listened to what they had to say. What I heard shocked me. It soon became clear that, however abhorrent canned lion hunting undoubtedly is, it represents just one element of a far greater problem. It is no exaggeration to say that the abuse of lions in South Africa has become an industry. Thousands are bred on farms every year; they are torn away from their mothers when just days old, used as pawns in the tourist sector, and then either killed in a hunt or simply slaughtered for their bones and other body parts, which are very valuable in the Asian medicine market. In between, they are poorly fed, kept in cramped and unhygienic conditions, beaten if they do not perform for paying customers, and drugged.

This sinister system has sprouted up in plain sight in South Africa, inflicting misery on the king of the savannah on an unimaginable scale. My research suggests it is highly likely that there are now at least 12,000 captive-bred lions in the country, against a wild population of just 3,000. Yet, strikingly, just a small number of people a few hundred profit from this abusive set-up. Thanks to South Africas constitution and laws, they xvii seem to be able to operate as they wish. In a country so vast, it is easy to see how anybody with the means to do so can break into this ugly business. What many will not realise, though, is that the lion trade is inextricably linked with violent international criminal networks. It could hardly be more sinister.

The harrowing details that I picked up during that visit in 2018 forced me to see just how desperate the situation has become. As I have learned more about the grim life cycle faced by any captive lion in South Africa, I have become determined to do whatever I can to bring to an end the abysmal industry in which these animals are caught. Quite apart from the harm inflicted upon the creatures themselves, their rampant exploitation is a stain on a country that I love. Indeed, it is a stain on all of us.