Did you know?

The cubs are not rescued or orphaned

The vast majority of lion cubs originate from captive breeding farms that confine the mother lions to cages, often under appalling conditions. Many of these facilities claim that the lion mothers abandon their cubs, but this could not be further from the truth: the cubs are ripped from their caged mothers within days of birth, resulting in incredible trauma to the mother lion and her cubs.

The baby cubs are then hand-raised (usually by unsuspecting volunteers) and used as props to be repeatedly petted and photographed by tourists for money. Once the cubs are too big to cuddle commercially, they are moved on to the “Walking with Lions” tourist industry.

In South Africa, it is now estimated that there are approximately 450 captive breeding farms and facilities that are holding up to 13,000 enslaved lions, housed in confined, unsanitary, virus-filled and inhumane conditions. Some of these lions never see the outside world, living their entire lives crammed inside small over-crowded cages, many on hard concrete and without a single tree for cover.

The lions are not reintroduced into the wild

In South Africa, lions that have been hand-raised and are habituated to humans through cub petting or commercial lion walking tourism practices are not legally permitted to be released into the wild.

Despite this, most of these captive breeding centres fraudulently claim that the lions whom the tourists are cuddling will be returned to the wild.

The mother lions are used as breeding machines

In Nature, mature lionesses usually raise a litter of cubs every two to three years, and are known as the most loving mothers imaginable – so loving that they would give their lives to save their cubs.

These industrialised captive-breeding centres show contempt for their true natures, forcing young females to breed underage, once they are considered too big to walk with tourists. Thereafter, they have their new-born cubs forcibly removed days after being born in caged circumstances. This results in the traumatised lioness going back into oestrus, where she is forced to breed again, only to have her babies taken from her again. These highly sensitive wild creatures are treated as nothing less than “breeding machines”, often forced to bear litters two to three times per year.

As deeply loving mothers and Nature’s only truly social cats, this experience is nothing less than agony for these sensitised creatures, artificially removed from the wild.

But it gets worse…

Tamed lions are killed for “canned” hunts and the lion bone trade

Once the petted cubs become too large for hands-on tourism, they continue to be brutally exploited. As adults, these tamed lions face one of three appalling fates:

• Sold to be shot in small enclosures by hunters – as a trophy head on a wall (“canned hunting”).
• Transported in tiny cages to a slaughterhouse, after which their body parts are exported mainly to Far Eastern markets, where they are sold for fake medicinal purposes and other consumer products, such as “tiger” wine and lion bone consumption.
• Kept confined in cages as “exhibits” in zoos, circuses or visitor centres.

To summarise: in the cuddle-to-kill industry, lions are literally bred-for-the-bullet.

The first of these options – “canned hunting” – is the term used to describe a situation where the lions are unscrupulously hunted in a fake set-up, often made to resemble a wildlife setting. The tame, hand-reared lion is presented to the wannabe hunter as a “fierce predator,” yet is often sedated, before being cruelly shot in a fenced enclosure with absolutely no hope of escape.

This industry was first exposed in 1997, when a TV documentary by an undercover investigative UK team called “The Cook Report” brought to widespread public attention this abomination, coining the term: “Canned Lion Hunting” i.e. Lions in a Can.

However, despite ongoing campaigns led by the Global White Lion Protection Trust since the ‘90s, and a rising number of concerned worldwide conservation entities, this despicable practice has been allowed to continue. Today, it has escalated out of all proportion into large-scale factory farming of lions, milking tourists as part of the production plant.

[Embed video: https://youtu.be/U6-KZ_-x8pE – caption: Linda Tucker describes the heinous cuddle-to-kill industry in her TEDx Talk]

“Canned Lion Hunting” has recently been termed other names and guises, such as “captive hunting” or “put-and-take”, to make the malpractice sound less inhumane, and more alluring to hunters.

However, even the international trophy hunting industry itself, with its headquarters in Las Vegas, has finally taken a stand against it.

Learn about Alpha & Omega, two white lionesses who were rescued from the captive breeding industry and delivered a message of Zero Tolerance to humanity at this time.

“Alpha & Omega are speaking on behalf of all of Nature; whether it is the lions being bred in South Africa’s cuddle-to-kill industry, tigers in the USA’s roadside zoos, bears having their bile brutally extracted in the Far East, dolphins being slaughtered in Taiji, or elephants being chained up for entertainment in European circuses, the exploitation of Mother Earth and her creatures must come to an end. Nature must be recognised and honoured as Sacred & Wild.”

Linda Tucker

How can you connect with lions in a responsible way?

Choose to connect with lions without causing pain and suffering

The best way to connect with lions is to see them in the wild in reputable reserves and parks which do not allow hunting. South African National Parks are open to the public and the entry fees are reasonable. This way you can support the critical need to maintain natural parks in vast wildlife areas, while granting yourself an unforgettable opportunity to meet wild lions in prides and in their critically important natural environment.

Support Global White Lion Protection Trust, a non-profit organisation with a long legacy of achievement which includes raising millions to secure protected areas to ensure the survival and flourishing of White Lions in their natural endemic habitat, after decades of forced removal from the wild into the cuddle-to-kill tourism industry. The Global White Lion Protection Trust is not a commercial operation, and as such is not open to the public. However, there are several ways that you can visit the White Lion Heartlands and meet the Prides in their endemic homelands.

Visiting genuine and ethical sanctuaries is another good way to support and connect with lions and other big cats. This way you can support the hard-earned efforts of reputable organisations to rescue tamed lions from this abominable industry.

Sadly, there are very few reputable sanctuaries in South Africa at the present time. Many claiming to be “sanctuaries” are, in fact, linked directly or indirectly with the cuddle-to-kill industry itself.

Below, we list 5 sanctuaries in order of authentic value and importance:

Panthera Africa 

Born Free 

Four Paws

Drakenstein Lion Park 

Jukani

If you are planning to visit a sanctuary other than those listed above, please contact us directly for guidance on the authenticity of the organisation.