https://www.thetimes.com/world...a-poaching-fw87w2bhm



We make our living from lion hunts in South Africa — why would we stop?

A decade after the death of Cecil the Lion, South Africa is trying to end trophy hunts, but not all agree

Kate Bartlett, Johannesburg
Friday July 04 2025, 6.00pm BST, The Times
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Hannes Wessels runs a South African organisation representing lion farmers, who breed the animals for trophy hunting

There are endangered species and then there is Hannes Wessels. An avid hunter himself but not of lions, his organisation represents dozens of farmers who breed the big cats for slaughter.

If the South African government succeeds in its mission to end breeding farms, such as the one Wessels runs in Limpopo province, he and his members will be out of business.

The country has the largest captive-bred lion population in the world, including about 300 commercial farms and roughly 8,000 of the big cats. They are used in trophy hunts, exported live, or their bones are sent to Asia for use in a traditional medicine known as tiger-bone wine.

Ten years after the killing of a Zimbabwean lion named Cecil by an American dentist made headlines around the world, the fate of the animals is dividing the country. Cecil, the 13-year-old leader of his pride who lived in the Hwange National Park, was shot with a bow and arrow by Walter Palmer, who reportedly paid $50,000 to take part in the hunt.



Presidents and celebrities denounced his killing, the US talk show host Jimmy Kimmel teared up on live television. An image of Cecil was beamed on to the Empire State Building in New York to raise awareness of trophy hunting.



Despite high-profile campaigns, including by Dame Joanna Lumley, a patron of the Born Free Foundation wildlife charity, change has been slow to bring about. “We need a ban on the import of hunting trophies here in Britain,” she said this week. “Cecil’s death cannot be in vain.”

South Africa’s environment ministry is attempting to phase out the industry, initially by inviting lion breeders to voluntarily exit the business — although it is providing no incentives for them to do so. It has suggested the breeding must stop, but has not provided a deadline. In a message to The Times, Dion George, the environment minister, insisted that the process of phasing out captive breeding was continuing. “No new facilities are permitted … Breeding prohibition process initiated,” he said.


Campaigners suggest that for all the talk, little has been done. “Since Cecil’s death in 2015, global outrage has not led to a significant reduction in trophy hunting in South Africa,” said Fiona Miles, director at Four Paws in South Africa, an international organisation for the protection of big cats. “Implementation has been slow and no legal ban has been enacted yet. Between 2015 and 2020, South Africa exported over 2,100 lion trophies, primarily from captive-bred lions,” she said.

Wessels, who heads the South African Predator Association, insists that breeding lions to be killed is a “conservation tool” that “contributes to the survival of species and habitat”.

He added: “Then obviously there’s an economic contribution — trophy hunting brings in substantial revenue to the South African economy, particularly in the rural areas where job opportunities are limited.”



He said the industry supported about 8,000 jobs in a country with 50 per cent youth unemployment. He claimed that if it was closed, workers did not have the skills to transition into other jobs and it would have an undesirable knock-on effect.


For all the outrage about Cecil’s death, in Africa many people sprang to the defence of hunting. A Zimbabwean academic, Goodwell Nzou, wrote an op-ed for The New York Times at the time headlined “In Zimbabwe, we don’t cry for lions”.

Nzou said that when he heard about Cecil’s death “the village boy inside me instinctively cheered: one lion fewer to menace families like mine”. He mocked the reaction in the West, asking: “Did all those Americans signing petitions understand that lions actually kill people? … Did Jimmy Kimmel choke up because Cecil was murdered or because he confused him with Simba from The Lion King?”


He wasn’t alone. When asked about the trophy-hunting controversy at the time, Zimbabwe’s baffled minister of information responded: “What lion?”


Jess de Klerk, chief executive of the Professional Hunters’ Association of South Africa, said lion hunting contributed approximately $40 million directly to the economy of South Africa. Both de Klerk and Wessels stressed that their organisations did not allow canned lion hunting, which is illegal because animals are slaughtered in fenced areas. Miles added: “Most lions used in canned hunting are bred on commercial farms.”

It is not only lions that are under threat. Other big cat species, including leopards, which are at risk of extinction, are also favourites of trophy hunters. A recent report found that more than 700 leopard trophies were exported from Africa in 2023, mainly to the US. It added that the world record-holding trophy hunter was Steven Chancellor, one of President Trump’s key donors.



And then there is what Miles calls the “little-known and alarming issue” of South Africa’s tiger trade. Despite tigers being non-native to Africa, the country is the biggest farmer and exporter of tigers in the world. They are bred — often in squalid conditions — for trophy hunting, their bones and live export, and the trade isn’t regulated owing to legal loopholes.

“The problem is there’s so much money involved in hunting,” said Wessels. “The moment you close the captive-breds, they’re going to start hunting the wild lions.”



There are only 3,000 of those wild lions left in South Africa.

quote:

Other big cat species, including leopards, which are at risk of extinction, are also favourites of trophy hunters.

Leopards faced with extinction? Give us all break from this bullshit.

Extinction of a species in the future will be the by-product of a developing world as a result of loss of habitat and not through trophy hunting.

It is already in the making but invisible to the naive.

Why are lions different to all other farm grown animals??

Let us start with cattle, sheep, pigs, etc.

Millions are killed non stop.

So why are lions different??

quote:

So why are lions different??

Because they belong to the fairy-tale kingdom of Disneyland.

Let us not forget our own.

The hunters who stand against hunting so called “canned” lions!

Lots of hunting can be classified as “canned”.

But no one bothers about it.

Lions and rhinos seem to be taken as different!

The mind boggles at this logic.

I wondered what happened to Hannes. Haven't run across him since my PH borrowed his car in 2012 and he was getting out of the business. Never met him personally.

That said, I'm not a fan of farm raising lions and canned hunting. It cheapens the real lion hunts and trophies, INHO. That said, if we can farm the Orient's desire for lion bones and rhino horns to stop poaching maybe we should explore it. Or, poison all that's been confiscated and release it it into the market to destroy the market. That seems to be an equally viable solution. I'd support it.

Probably ought to warn them before you did it.

I don’t have problem with canned hunts
Each to their own
Look at Texas whitetail hunts on corn piles

quote:

Originally posted by lavaca:
I wondered what happened to Hannes. Haven't run across him since my PH borrowed his car in 2012 and he was getting out of the business. Never met him personally.

That said, I'm not a fan of farm raising lions and canned hunting. It cheapens the real lion hunts and trophies, INHO. That said, if we can farm the Orient's desire for lion bones and rhino horns to stop poaching maybe we should explore it. Or, poison all that's been confiscated and release it it into the market to destroy the market. That seems to be an equally viable solution. I'd support it.

If you look at hunting in general, and the areas being hunted worldwide.

So much is being hunted on some sort of farmed or put and take.

Most of South Africa falls into this category.

Lots of hunting in New Zealand is too.

And putting feeders to feed deer, then come hunting season one sits in his truck enjoying a beer until the deer comes for his dinner is no different either.

Hunting wild places is becoming rare, difficult and expensive.

Personally I have no objections to any of this.

As long as it’s honestly portrayed.

I have hunted South Africa.

And enjoyed it very much.

But I KNEW what was happening, and that did not distract from my enjoyment.

To be this is fine for plains game.

I would not hunt lion or buffalo this way.

The silly bit starts when these sort of animals are shot as wild ones, and entered in record books.

You know, ones obtained on order, captured, and after a quick phone call our INNER CIRCLE nitwit arrives and kills it.

One more FAKE trophy to glorify the classless so called Hunter!

“Personalized encounters!”

Sad.

But even in a zoo you are not totally safe!

Well Saeed I understood from your many post about this discussions that you are not against canned hunts as long it is clearly explained to all parties, nevertheless you doesnt like to participate on it for certain species like Buff or Lion but you can enjoy it if it is plainsgame. Then you say why canned lion hunt is treated differently as rhino or pigs or cattle.
Yourself are making a different between lion and buff and do not understand others to make such a difference?
You are an expert "real hunter" as long as I know and to be able to explain the differences you are feeling about all this is needed.
Precisely because of all this oppinions and acts that we are not able to scientifically or ethically explain is why we are easy target for antis.
For me, my friend, is very clear. We love wildlife because we love hunting and enjoying the expression of our inner attavick feelings. That is not a hobby, that is a way of living and participate wildlife.
Anything which in anyway helping in conservation of wildlife and biodiversity must have our support as hunters and wildlife lovers. Even if an initiative is coming from antis but is helping biodiverity, we must support it. Even if an initiative is coming from hunting industry but is not helping biodiversity, we must stand against it, do not put our money there and clearly say THAT IS NOT HUNTING.
About breed lions I know of several projects to recover wild lion populations based on those breed lions from SA, same as rhino.
To fund those efforts breed lions need to exist and for that they need public or private financial support. Market rules are stating the way those funds are entering the projects.
For me, as a Hunter, I will never shoot any rhino or lion or any fenced animal that can not have room enought to effecitevly run from me and call it hunting or trophy.
Nevertheless I must understand and support rhino or lion farms as long as it is helping species conservation, but is must be controlled and should not be more of those farms than the ones strictly neccesary for conservation.
Regarding fenced plainsgame, as long as it is breed there in a big enough property and managed accordingly with biodiversity protección rules, no problem at all.
I think I am giving now an explanation based on science and ethics

Best regards

quote:

About breed lions I know of several projects to recover wild lion populations based on those breed lions from SA, same as rhino.

Lion and Rhino breeding projects are for business purposes with Lion being the main marketable product for whoever has the money and cares less if it is a canned Lion as it can be in the bag in less than a week.

Rhino on the other hand is a rather touchy subject due to highly restrictive laws governing the two species: Black vs White with black being almost impossible to kill.
Fortunes are therefore spent on darted hunts, permits of which are more readily available giving the hunter the opportunity of "bagging" a Rhino and the medal that comes with it.

If we try to compare farmed Deer and Birds of differing species to farm-bred Lions, it would be similar trying to compare apples and oranges.

How can one state that breeding Lions in a penned environment be beneficial as a conservation tool when these same Lions that have been hand-reared on a diet of chickens, are unable to fend for themselves if transported to a wild area when they have never had to hunt for themselves and eat their own kill to survive?

According to the records there are more than 10,000 such pen-reared Lions in captivity in South Africa alone with an uncertain future ahead of them.

Hunting to me is all about the whole experience. Travelling to a foreign land, different food, meeting local people, hunting with different PHs, different sights, different animals etc etc. And also the thrill and pursuit of a great trophy that you may or may not get. If you are hunting a canned lion, the outcome is pretty much guaranteed. Never the case on a wild lion hunt.

If you go on a canned lion hunt and believe that you are going to have the same overall experience as a wild lion hunt you are sadly mistaken. As Biden would say DONT!

Same applies to fenced whitetail, elk, sheep etc etc.

However "new" hunters who didn't grow up hunting or come from a background of hunting dont seem to appreciate this experience anymore. They bought a hunt they want 100% guaranteed success. They want to stay in a 5 star lodge and eat gourmet food and have a 5 star experience all around and God forbid if they dont have such a experience.

Many SA outfitters cater to this crowd and do it very well.

The good ole days of wild places, real hunters are going quick. SAD

A PH in Africa told me about a German client.

Tomorrow we shoot kongoni
Monday web shoot zebra
Tuesday we shoot impala

Wednesday we shoot buffalo
Thursday we on the evening and shoot leopard.
Friday we shoot hippo!

It looks like you mean no breeding lions were ever used to recover wild lion populations.
Also looks like rhino is only breed for darting and no rhino were ever used to recover a wild population or has ever been shot for a price same as breed lions.
It looks like that, as you quoted part of my post,it needs to be corrected in that precise point.
Also again looks like you are making a difference between breeding lions or birds etc while I can not see that difference science or technically talking.
Birds breed for hunting pourpouses in a fenced property just to make it more available for hunters there or else where are different from lions in which way??
If you want to give your personal oppinion it is ok. If you want to correct an statement which was part of an explanation based on a scientific or technical reason, I think more scientific or technical explanation is required or else we will be still continuing giving just oppinions based in our personal feelings same as antis, and once there, they will win absolutely.

Best regards

Ready I completely agreed on what you said about new hunters and agree also on what Saeed show as the way they think, but please try not to be applied to all Germán clients...
The point here is that real hunters like Saeed or Reddy must try to show the difference between that people and what real ethical and wildlife supportive hunting means.
Once all people shooting animals are considered as hunters we are lost against antis and real hunting will disappear.
Same as when antis put poaching and trophy hunting in same bag...
We should make a difference between hunting and shooting cattle.

Best regards

quote:

Originally posted by spanishhunter:
It looks like you mean no breeding lions were ever used to recover wild lion populations.
Also looks like rhino is only breed for darting and no rhino were ever used to recover a wild population or has ever been shot for a price same as breed lions.
It looks like that, as you quoted part of my post,it needs to be corrected in that precise point.
Also again looks like you are making a difference between breeding lions or birds etc while I can not see that difference science or technically talking.
Birds breed for hunting pourpouses in a fenced property just to make it more available for hunters there or else where are different from lions in which way??
If you want to give your personal oppinion it is ok. If you want to correct an statement which was part of an explanation based on a scientific or technical reason, I think more scientific or technical explanation is required or else we will be still continuing giving just oppinions based in our personal feelings same as antis, and once there, they will win absolutely.

Best regards

Maybe you did not grasp the meaning of the statement related to farmed deer and birds.

These happen to be species that naturally adapt to a new environment even if they were bred in enclosed and restricted spaces; a herbivore or a bird does not have to learn how to obtain its food.

Predators, Lion in particular, are a different ball game; they are hand-reared, ball fondled, blow-dried and in a large number of cases, can be viewed as pets with a difference.

Most of the wildlife "scientists" sit behind desks in a big European city who, barely know where Africa is and have to google the location of a country and are the ones who will tell people in the business for generations, on how to run their business.

Without going to Africa, just look at the number of screw-ups they have done in Europe through the introduction of non-native species and the damage that is being done as a result of the "scientific" brains.

A handful of morons have been able to block the re-stocking of Rainbow and Brown trout in the Alpine streams/rivers in Italy because they claim they are not a native species, even if they have been present for generations.

In the meantime, the Cormorants and Herons (non native species) the same idiots introduced have wiped out most of what little there was; no fish, no frogs, just stretches of water for people to go kayaking.

The introduction of Wolves in the same Alpine region (Val Grande) has seen the decimation of livestock (sheep/goats) instead of the intended over-population of Boars that some other idiot introduced from Toscana, Umbria and Bergamo some 35/40 years ago.

Go figure that one out.

It would be interesting to know how many of these farm-bred Lions have been successfully re-introduced to a natural and wild environment and whether they have survived, procreated and regenerated an area once devoid of this species?

For South Africa to have accumulated 10,000+ suggests the market is not aimed at re-populating an area but more towards personal gain in other forms, otherwise there would have been a lot less and we would have been reading reports of their success.

How many Rhino have been exported under the same pretext of reviving a population that has been wiped out by poachers? That I know of, about 5/6 to Tanzania purchased by a billionaire to stock his photographic concession and half that number was soon taken care of by poachers. He has now deployed chopper patrols 24/7 to safeguard the remaining few.

We need to stop trying to pull the wool over people's eyes and just get on with our objectives, without too much fanfare, successful or not and build up confidence among ourselves, the hunting community.

The antis will not be swayed, no matter what!

Agree fulvio antis wil always be there as that is the way they make their livings (taking about asociations or NGOs) but better for us not to make it easier for them.
I already understood your point but you are not completely right from my perspective and experience managing wildlife as a forestry engeneer.
Regarding for example Red deer, wild board, rabbit or partridge, I can assure you that if you release any of this in the wild directly from a farm in which they were breed like cattle they will behave like that.
Easy for predators or humans using a weapon to finish them if not starvation.
Quite different if they were breed with the pourpouse of the long term reintroduction with envolves drastically different breed management. That is same for all wild captive breed animal, also lions.
By the way, many more rhino were moved from SA to other areas for reintroduction as many captive lions in bigger or smaller properties have been used to reintroduce specie in the wild.
That is the kind of use of fenced management I support and I understand it will also require some hunting inside those fenced properties to fund all required cares.
If land is used in a different way involving carrying over capacity populations or cattle like treatments etc, I think we should be against carlinga it hunting.

Best regards

Question.

Animals are bred for a purpose.

Whatever it is.

So why does each we treat certain animals differently from others??

Cattle are bred for food.

So are pigs.

I eat beef.

But I don’t eat pork.

So should I demand no one eats pork, and we should stop breeding them??

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
“Personalized encounters!”

Sad.

But even in a zoo you are not totally safe!

We were just at the zoo a couple of weeks ago with the grandkids. Got me bugger how this would happen if she wasn't part of the zoo staff.

Hi Saeed.
I will answer that question that is really important and key.
In my oppinion humans have the powerful to change the world for us and other species.
But like spiderman might say, a big powerimplies a big responsibility.
In my opinion we should manage wildlife, cattle and human populations In a reasonable way, meaning sustainable use of land is possible.
Of course human kind can continue expanding world wide and depleting all wildlife just building cities and farms to feed citizens.
I call that unsustainable use of land and, In my oppinion, will finally lead us to extinction.

Other way of acting is trying to extend the sustainable use of land so wildlife and humans can coexist.

To do that, we need to manage wildlife in a way that maximum biodiversity is assured and we need to give a value to that use so it will also have an economic sense. For that hunting, real hunting, is key.
So we need to protect our wildlife and we need to be able to feed a sustanaible human population and that is way not all animals or hábitats are treated same way.

Sorry if my english is not the best...

Best regards

quote:

Originally posted by M.Shy:
I don’t have problem with canned hunts
Each to their own
Look at Texas whitetail hunts on corn piles

Yep….