The growing trade of lion bones in South Africa should be halted, and lions and tigers in breeding and breeding should be curbed, advocated environmental advocates
. The number of lion bones that can be exported has almost doubled.
Bones are widely sold to Asian markets to be used in virility products and traditional medicines
The news of the quota elicited outrage, animal welfare activists and organizations directly calling on President Cyril Ramaphosa, saying the move would accelerate the fall of wild lion populations by stoking poaching and would undermine efforts to reduce demand. drugs.
The Foundation for the Conservation of EMS in South Africa and the Ban Animal Trading Group, which produced the report The Extinction Business argue that the skeleton industry should be dismantled and that investigations should be launched
He also identified flaws in the CITES bone export licensing system
The controversial trade in bone lion began in the country ten years ago, and it is now the largest lion bone exporter to Asia – mainly to Thailand, Vietnam and Laos, where the bones are ground to make drugs and wine, which is wrongly considered as a health drink
on the use of tiger body parts for Chinese medicine.
Trophy hunters travel to South Africa to shoot lions bred in captivity especially for hunting and bone activities. Up to 8,000 lions are kept in more than 200 breeding establishments "on the hunt". But experts believe that they contribute to fueling wildlife trafficking by creating a demand.
Between 2008 and 2015, the South African Department of Environmental Affairs issued permits for the export of more than 5,363 lion skeletons, showed research. Last year, the company reported about 16 million South African rands (908,000 pounds sterling), according to the Captured in Africa Foundation
The main recommendations of the new report are:
A zero export quota for lion and other big cats A forensic investigation of the financial affairs of all lion breeders and bone traders
Restricting breeding and l 39; rearing of big cats
Reviewing and improving legislation on the protection and welfare of animals [19659016] Ensuring that the protection, welfare, care and respect of animals are provided for by law , especially with regard to permits for the custody, sale, hunting and export of wild animals and body parts
1,500 lion skeletons for export, almost double the quota of 800 from the previous year.
Linda Tucker, Founder and Director of the Global White Lion Protection Trust, wrote a heartfelt message.
"Factory farming of lions to kill is not a policy that South Africa can defend, neither the old nor the new South Africa," wrote it
"By the time I write to you, 1,500 of our lions, incarcerated in abysmal conditions, have been sent to slaughterhouses in the" Free State. "
"Once vilified for apartheid, our country will go down in history to legalize crimes against nature that replace the wrongs perpetrated by the illegal trade in animal parts.
"For our international reputation and our true moral compbad, I ask you wholeheartedly to abolish this heinous legacy."
The South African government has justified trade in bones as a byproduct of "l & # 39; 39; hunting industry "and claimed that the increase in quotas was motivated by a growing stock.
Spokesman Albi Modise said Research Project established by the National Institute of Biodiversity of SA with the University of Oxford and the University of Kent, according to which there was no noticeable increase in poaching of wild lions, although it was not possible to find any information on the subject. there appears to be an increase in the poaching of captive lions. But the ra Extinction Business indicates that in calculating the weight of shipments, experts estimate that exporters exceed export quotas – not controlled by Cites.
He stated that the industry is de facto state, "in spite of widespread opposition to the practice considered extremely cruel, linked to international criminal networks, a threat to the people of Africa. African wild animals and run by a small monopoly of operators for purely financial purposes ".
The campaign against canned hunting believes that bone trading is one of the many damaging activities involving lions: the others are captive breeding, cubs, volunteering and walks of lions. Travers, said earlier this year: "Nonconformist tourists fuel this despicable industry by participating in activities such as cubs and lions, while unsuspecting volunteers make turtles thinking that they are destined to be released in nature. Once adults, many of these animals are moved to canned hunting facilities to be slaughtered in pens by "sports hunters". Their bones are then sold in an international trade sanctioned by the South African government. "