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Africa : South Africa: Lions face slaughter as South Africans battle over 'canned hunting’
on 2009/12/30 1:57:00
An attempt to regulate the hunting of lions bred in captivity and released as prey would force parks to cull animals, it is claimed.

Lions are reared for clients who pay as much as £20,000 to hunt them.

The South African authorities have come under pressure to outlaw so-called “canned hunting” and have put forward a measure stipulating that lions must roam freely for two years before they can be targeted. Breeders have fought the new regulations, claiming that they would be driven out of business.

A court action brought by breeders failed and they were denied leave to appeal. They have now asked the Supreme Court to rule on whether the measure violates constitutional protections of private property.

Carel van Heerden, the chairman of the South African Predator Breeders’ Association, said that if judges decided not to hear the case, “it will be the end of the road for us”.

“It will be a devastating effect on our members, it will be a sad day for South Africa. It will take away the economic value of every lion,” he added.

The association’s members own around 4,300 lions, each of which costs about £800 a month to feed.

“They will have to kill them,” said Mr van Heerden. “It’s going to be a slaughter.

“If you have to make a decision whether you are going to have to feed those lions and you are not going to get any income from that you are going to have no alternative but to kill them, which is very sad. We don’t breed lions to kill them, we breed them to hunt them.”

Lionesses fetched trophy fees of around £3,000, he said, with males worth as much as £20,000. More than 1,000 government permits are issued annually for the hunting of lions and the export of trophies, mostly to America.

Critics claim that the captive lions are inbred and vulnerable to illness.

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