{"id":1437111,"date":"2024-05-01T10:17:26","date_gmt":"2024-05-01T10:17:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whitelions.org\/?p=1437111"},"modified":"2026-03-13T11:16:42","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T11:16:42","slug":"finally-an-exit-for-the-cuddle-to-kill-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whitelions.org\/ja\/finally-an-exit-for-the-cuddle-to-kill-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"Finally \u2013 An Exit for the \u201cCuddle\u2013to\u2013Kill\u201d Industry?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A Lamentable History<\/h3>\n

For decades, the so-called \u201ccanned\u201d lion hunting industry has faced public scrutiny \u2013 first, through the shocking 1997 Cook Report expose, which coined the tragic name for commoditized lions \u201cin a can\u201d. The malpractice of breeding and killing lions in captivity started as dark deals done by international syndicates in the underbelly of society, stealing lions from the wild and holding them in tiny cages for mass production. After these undercover activities were exposed, the industry exploded into a grotesquely sanitised, multi-tiered money-making scheme that cons unsuspecting tourists in the name of conservation, who pay to cuddle baby cubs which will later be killed.\u00a0Today, as many as 12000 lions are bred in over 300 camps across South Africa \u2013 waiting to be shot by wealthy hunters or slaughtered for the lion bone trade.<\/p>\n

Finally, after decades of campaigning, presentations to parliament<\/a>, and public outcry, the South African government declared in 2021 that this heinous industry would finally be shut down. In March 2024, Environment Minister Barbara Creecy\u2019s Policy Position to close close lion facilities and end commercial exploitation of lions and \u2018canned\u2019 hunts was accepted by Cabinet. In April 2024, the Ministerial Task Team published a much-anticipated report, which outlines the first major step in the actual process: the voluntary exit options for existing captive breeders across the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe easy slaughter of animals in fenced areas is called “canned hunting”, perhaps because it’s rather like shooting fish in a barrel. A fully-grown, captive-bred lion is taken from its pen to an enclosed area where it wanders listlessly for some hours before being shot dead by a man with a shotgun, handgun or even a crossbow, standing safely on the back of a truck. He pays anything from \u00a35,000 to \u00a325,000, and it is all completely legal.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>Patrick Barkham, The Guardian, 03 June 2013.<\/p>\n

In 2002, Linda Tucker founded the Global White Lion Protection Trust after nearly a decade of primary research into the conservation and cultural importance of White Lions. At the time, commercial trophy hunting and other forced removals of lions (into zoos, circuses, and captive breeding camps) from the Timbavati region had rendered White Lions extinct in the wilds of their endemic habitat. Since its inception, the Global White Lion Protection Trust has campaigned against the hunting of lions, whilst simultaneously adopting a pioneering conservation model that puts the interests of Nature first.<\/p>\n

Linda Tucker has been campaigning against this heinous industrialising of lions since the 1990s, and famously rescued a White Lioness, who was born in one of these lion death camps neighbouring the town of Bethlehem in 2000. In 2005, Marah, whose mother had been forcibly removed from the wilds of her endemic ecosystem, was the first White Lion to be successfully reintroduced (with her cubs) to the wilderness lands of her origins. In the very heart of their original ecosystem, the White Lion Heartlands was purchased, protected, and responsibly managed by the Global White Lion Protection Trust over the decades, where today Marah\u2019s lineage continues to thrive to the 4th<\/sup> generation in nearly 6000ha of pristine wilderness.<\/p>\n