British tourists fuel Africa's cruel trade in 'canned hunting'

By Jonathan Brown and Rob Sharp
Published: 01 April 2006

British tourists are fuelling a booming industry reliant on the slaughter of thousands of lions and other exotic animals by travelling to Africa to hunt semi-tame big game.

Rich huntsmen are willing to pay up to £625,000 a time to shoot and stuff animals bred commercially for their sport as part of the so-called "canned hunting" trade.

British and other European governments are coming under mounting pressure from international animal welfare groups to ban imports of hunting trophies in an attempt to cut off the demand for the trade.

Figures reveal that 164 trophy licences have been granted to British hunters since 1999 allowing them to bring big game mementoes home. However, it is estimated that as many as a thousand UK citizens a year travel abroad in search of quarry after having booked a canned hunting safari over the internet.

The Independent was offered the opportunity to shoot and kill all of the big five game animals - elephants, rhino, buffalo, leopard and lion - within minutes of contacting ranch owners. One even indicated he could arrange a hunt using fox hounds to chase down lynx.

Campaigners say the most sought-after trophies are the heads and feet cut from dead lions, leopards, wild dogs and elephants. But as competition grows, commercial hunts are offering increasingly exotic prey, introducing tiger, jaguar, puma and grey wolves, according to new evidence from the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).

Animals with a recessive gene, such as white lions, black leopards and king cheetahs, are particularly sought after, while breeders can also charge a premium by crossing sub-species of leopard and tiger, IFAW says.

The demand is so great that animals are being hand-reared from birth in cages and sold on to stock the growing number of game ranches where they end their lives in fenced-off killing enclosures. They may be drugged into docility and habituated to human contact, it is claimed.

Welfare groups say such breeding practices render the animals sitting targets to the hunters who dispatch them with a choice of weapons, ranging from high-powered rifles to bows and arrows.

Video footage obtained by anti-canned hunting campaigners has revealed wounded animals writhing in agony as they die after being shot, often against fences.

Such is the scale of the trade that IFAW claims it is critically undermining big cat populations and threatening their long-term survival. Christina Pretorius, a spokesperson for IFAW, says there are up to 3,000 lions in captivity in South Africa waiting to be shot by overseas hunters who come mainly from the United States, France, Germany, Spain and Britain. "There is absolutely no sport in this. They are being bred to be shot in enclosed areas where they have no chance of escape or a fair chance. They are already accustomed to humans and associate them with food.

"They are drugged to keep them even more docile so they put up even less of a fight."

She said the industry was growing "out of control" and measures were desperately needed to stop the expansion that was undermining South Africa's international reputation for wildlife management.

Six years ago trophy hunting in South Africa was worth about £14m a year. By last year that figure reached nearly £80m. Zimbabwe is also vigorously promoting itself as a canned hunting destination and other African nations are also developing it.

Liberal Democrat MP Mike Hancock has been campaigning for Britain to impose a total ban on the import of trophies and the promotion of the practice. "It is just about as low as it gets to kill animals in this way and it is beyond belief that people can be allowed to make money out of it. We are actively encouraging people to sell these so-called holidays and why anyone would want to bring back an elephant's foot as a trophy is beyond belief," he said.

Mr Hancock is holding out little hope that the Government could implement a ban despite a recently concluded consultation exercise on the trade in exotic pets and animal parts.

Jim Knight, the Bio-diversity minister, told the House of Commons that he did not consider new legislation as enforceable. But he said existing powers could be used to outlaw the possession of tiger, bear and other protected species' parts.

"We are currently considering responses to a public consultation on the subject and I will announce our conclusions in the summer," Mr Knight said.

At present many species hunted for trophies are covered by the EU laws implementing the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites), which allows for imports to be refused where the trade is considered detrimental to the conservation of individual species.

The South African government is also expected to announce soon the findings of a panel of hunting experts on the future of wildlife resources. But some campaigners believe it is a cynical exercise. Chris Mercer, a South African conservationist who is in the middle of a British speaking tour to convince people against going on canned hunts, said: "The hunting industry now owns conservation in South Africa and what you will get is a splendid exercise in public relations. Even if the law is changed there will be no one to enforce it and the policy will not be worth the paper it is written on."

The Independent was offered a two-week hunting trip costing £5,000 a person with impala, warthog, kudu and zebra. Another operator quoted the cost of killing and skinning an elephant at £10,000 with taxidermy charged extra. The most sought-after trophy of all is that of a black-maned lion, which will cost up to £625,000.

quote:

The most sought-after trophy of all is that of a black-maned lion, which will cost up to £625,000.

That's over a Million US dollars.

Regards,

Terry

quote:

Campaigners say the most sought-after trophies are the heads and feet cut from dead lions, leopards, wild dogs and elephants.

I know I really cherish my collection of trophy feet.

No where is the wild dog hunted.

Who is writing this stuff?

Regards,

Terry

Yes and that's just the beginning of the unraveling of one of the most ridiculous articles written by the Independent to be posted and brought to our attention by Kathi on AR in a very long time. What a crock of . . . .The unfortunate thing is that the public believes every word of what they read.

Tell this animal rights protaginist CHAP Mercer that he might come to New Zealand where we put a spike through the brians of a couple of thosand sheep heads every day to kill the beasts and the meat is then processed and is so juicy tasty and edible. Maybe he should come over here and try to ban the killing of sheep, he might be run out of town castrated and fed to the Lions (-:

On a more serious note, is this chap on a one way ticket to paradice, it might be interesting when he gets back to SA where they dont put up with as much s..t as they do in the UK.

Cheers Peter

The animal rights people constantly use the same tactics over and over again and that is Goebbel's "Big Lie" tactic. they are doing it again in this story.

They bolster this tactic by anothjer which is creating straw men to knock over.

Here are two good examples. There was a guy in Canada called Gray Owl who portrayed himself as an Indian and saviour of the beaver. In fac t his name was Archie Bellany and he was an Englishman. By the time he got around to saving beavers they had already been saved. That is an example of the Big lie tactic.

There is a Canadian writer named Farley Mowat who set out to save wolves. He did so by attacking what he claimed were the practises of the Dominion Wildlife Serice.

There is no such organization and there never has been. He just craated a straw man, a straw organization to knock down. He got total support from the Canadian media for about 40 years and in all sold 14 million books world wide.

Finally a writer for Saturday Night Magazine smelled at rat and torpedoed Mowat. But it took decades and Mowat became an icon. Got the Order of Canada a worthless bauble if ever there was one.


VBR,


Ted Gorsline



They just make up what they call facts.

Its been going on for more than 100 years (long before Goebbels) and it never changes.

Ridiculous!

quote:

Originally posted by Ted Gorsline:

Here are two good examples. There was a guy in Canada called Gray Owl who portrayed himself as an Indian and saviour of the beaver. In fac t his name was Archie Bellany and he was an Englishman. By the time he got around to saving beavers they had already been saved. That is an example of the Big lie tactic.

Ted,

Wasn't there another guy like that ? He pretended to be a native indian and lived with the grizzles (I think...) and ended up getting eaten by one after a good few years. They then found out he was as much native indian as I am part marshian. There was a bokk deal or three there as well I think.

I just thought that it was funny how he spent his whole life telling people how these animals were lovely fluffy balls of fur, then they ate him!!

FB

An all too typical pair of pinko commie fag subversive, bleeding-heart, liberal wally wankers. Get love mail from them periodically at the magazine.

Don't hold back, Don. Tell us what you really think of them (LOL).

Dear Fallow Buck the guy who got et by the bear was Timothy Treadwell. He said he was Australian but he was from New York. Got alot of support from the American talk shows as savior of the bear and got money from actors like Leonardo DiCaprio to play the fool.

His death was no great loss but he roped his girlfriend Annie Huegenot into sleeping with him on bear paths and they both got killed and eaten. I look on her as a pretty silly and innocent victim of Treadwell.

Japan's foremost wildlife photographer and bear lover was killed and eaten too, doing the same thing, but it was in Kamchatka in Russia.



VBR,

Ted Gorsline

So, if the lions these in this article are hand reared and bottle fed, awaiting slaughter how would they have a negative affect on the wild lion population. Thats like saying the veal chop I had yesterday is affecting the wild cow population. How can an animal never in that particular segment of population adversely affect it?
The article is riddled with half truths and blatant lies, thanks for potsting this Kathi.

Article at: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article354934.ece

Published by:
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The general switchboard number is (+44) (0)20 7005 2000

Email: Foreign Desk - foreigneditor@independent.co.uk

Note it was published on April Fool's Day.

No mention of any positive impact that sport hunting or conservation groups (funded by hunters) have had on African Wildlife and the survival of so many species - including elephants and lions. That's what's really disingenuous, all of these activist groups are acting as if their methods are the only avenue to save these animal populations, and yet they ignore the proven benefits of controlled and properly regulated sport hunting - with the massive amounts of revenue it generates. Where's Teddy Roosevelt when you need him?