Guys,

I hope no-one will be offended when I say some of you are a bit misinformed on this.

Firstly, there's a big difference between antelope that breed and live their lives in a very large fenced area that's used for hunting and Lions that are bred and raised in small pens simply for the purpose of having someone (often misled into thinking they're shooting a wild Lion) shoot them. Remember also, these Lions are frequently drugged before release to make 'em less dangerous and easier to find.

Secondy, they make no contribution whatsoever to the gene pool, because they're kept in pens and away from other Lion populations, so can't spread their genes.

Thirdly, none or virtually none of these animals are sold for translocation into national parks etc as those parks that do have them usually have a surplus of them and even if they didn't, the release of 'strangers' into such areas would cause an awful lot of problems with the pride dynamics of the existing populations and almost certainly cause the death of more Lions than were added to the population by their release.

Those fenced private areas that were mentioned, don't want Lions, because they eat all the PG populations which the landowner would then need to replace by buying more........... therefore, simple economics mean Lions aren't wanted. On top of that, you also have the added issues of keeping staff etc from being eaten.......

Next up is the moral and ethical question of this. It goes without saying that it's immoral and unethical, and (IMO) if we don't put a stop to the practice ourselves, the antis will come along and put a stop to it for us. They probably won't stop there though. They'll either try to ban all hunting in South Africa at the very least....... and possibly elsewhere as well, or they'll try to stop all Lion hunting throughout Africa. I actually regard the canned Lion issue to be the biggest threat to Africa sport hunting in existance.

Most people don't realise quite what a nasty business canned Lion hunting is and nor do they have an inkling of how far it spreads........ Believe me, the vast majority of Lions (almost all) shot in SA and some shot elsewhere are either canned or partly canned and most of the people who have shot them have been misled into thinking they were shooting a wild Lion. We've even seen reports on the forums where guys have reported Lions running towards their vehicles where they've then shot them....... the reason they run to the vehicle, is because they think they're gonna get fed! ....... situations like that are almost laughable.

I'm extremely glad this disgusting practice has been banned (although I don't believe we've heard the last of it just yet) and I know that the vast majority of the ethical hunting industry feel the same way. My only regret is that it was allowed to start in the first place.

I have to admit I loath this practice and it's purveyors with a vengance, and as far as I'm concerned, I have no more pity for the breeders than I'd have for a pimp who had been nicked for peddling his trollops.

We actually have a couple of articles on our other hunting site on this........ one of which gives the absolute skinny on how it happens and how to spot you're being screwed, but I can't copy it in here because we've had to disable the right click function on the site to stop people stealing our material. If anyone's interested, just send me an e-mail etc.

Hope that clears up a few misconceptions.