South Africa's lion hunting industry to be hit by new US protections which may reduce clients

[FarrenH]

16. I'm South African

Last edited Mon Dec 28, 2015, 11:51 PM - Edit history (1)

Raw population counts are extremely deceptive. Our lion population is large because a lot of lions are bred in captivity and captive bred lions are often used for the abomination that is canned hunting. The point of conservation is to conserve these animals in their natural habitat. Re-introducing captive-bred and -raised lions into the wild is a costly process, Lions breed readily in captivity, unlike pandas, and lions are not going to go extinct as long as many zoos still have them around the world.

What we're trying to conserve is wild lions. Holding up numbers significantly bolstered by captive bred populations bred specifically for hunting as a plus is a thoroughly disingenuous tactic used by hunting lobbyists over here. Those captive populations aren't serving a legitimate conservation interest.

Aside from that, South Africa also has more resources to provide sanctuaries for animals like lions that don't bring them into conflict with rural populations and to deal with poachers et al than other African countries (another post points out we're the second largest economy in Africa, but per capita we're far and away the richest). Our wild population in national wildlife reserves like Kruger National Park are stable, and they don't rely on the hunting industry.