Canned Lion Hunting – the looming menace of Asia.

By Chris Mercer.

The controversial sport of big game hunting is becoming popular among Chinese tycoons. More and more rich Asians are joining hunting expeditions in Africa and Canada. At least 100 Chinese tycoons have hunted overseas, with the number increasing.
http://www.chinawhisper.com/big-game-hunting-a-new-sport-for-chinese-tycoons/

W. Scott Lupien, an American who lives in China, founded I Love Hunting Club in Beijing. He led the first hunting group to South Africa in 2009. Lupien says there are two kinds of clients, with one type being the hunting enthusiast and the other being tycoons who have never hunted. Most his clients are bosses, executives and government officials. Wang Wei, a hunting broker since 2004 from Beijing Zheng An Travel Agency says most of these people are businessmen, usually at their 40s and 50s, idle and rich, love off-road vehicles, outdoor sports, and do not have psychological barrier to shoot. 
http://www.52safari.com/portal.php

ASIAN DEMOGRAPHICS, THE CULT OF LUXURY  AND ITS AFTERMATH FOR ENDANGERED WILDLIFE – extract from Dex Kotze’s address to the recent Rhino trade conference.

China has already overtaken Japan as the second largest consumer nation of luxury products after the USA.  There is more disposable income in China today than ever before and predictions are that China will boast a larger economy than the USA by 2025.  The status of luxury goods      has fueled an obsessive-compulsive behaviour for millions in Asia. 

The number of ultra-wealthy Chinese is expected to grow 80% until  2023.  This will exceed the billionaires in the UK, France, Switzerland and Russia combined.  Wealthy consumers are on average 20 years younger in China than those in Japan or the USA.

At 120 million people, China’s affluent market is richer than its middle class. China’s middleclass is 250 million people and will grow to 600 million by 2020. 

The ASEAN market is the third largest market after Europe and North America.  Most of the ASEAN nations are involved in illegal wildlife crimes.  Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Myanmar, Cambodia are all involved as consumer, transit or trafficking countries.  Ho Chi Minh City will have a 173% increase of         ultra wealthy persons over the next 10 years. 

Asian activities in African wildlife crime, are fuelled by:

a. China’s economic expansion into Africa

b. China’s phenomenal economic growth over the last 15 years        

c. Vietnam’s economic growth                  

d. Corrupt officials in range states, transit countries and destination   countries       

e. Weak laws pertaining to sentencing perpetrators of  wildlife crimes          

f. Weak laws  pertaining to  bail grants of arrested wildlife criminals  

g. An obsessive-compulsive need            for status and luxury goods amongst Asian nations.     

h. Lack of political and diplomatic will on an international level.

Already there are hundreds of thousands of illegal Chinese immigrants in various African countries. The majority of arrests relating to wildlife crimes involve criminals of Asian origin.

 

S.A. LION EXPORT STATISTICS FOR 2012 – extract from Richard Hargreaves’ article on our website: http://www.cannedlion.org/blog.html

So what are we looking at here?

Basically well over 350 dead lions were exported from South Africa to Asia in 2012.  

That’s about 150 more than the Minister said it was last December.  

That’s also not including how ever many lions those 845kg of bones comprised…. 

The evidence is in that these dead lions are boiled down upon arrival in Asia and used in products passed off to unsuspecting customers as containing tiger bone. That’s a huge injection into the supply side of the Asian tiger bone trade that poses such a challenge to the survival of the world’s last 3,000 tigers.

The South African Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs previously advised that she would not ban the export of dead lions from South Africa to Asia, as she considered that "the lion bone trade from South Africa posed no threat to wild lions."  

The Minister was recently asked if she will now ban the lion bone trade from South Africa owing to the dire threat that it poses to the world's last 3,000 wild tigers. Still she says no! 

Will the complacency ever end before the last of the big cats is gone from the wild?

  

Richard Hargreaves’ latest update on the 
Lion Bone Trade from South Africa.


24 April 2014 

I recently read that the South African provincial records with regard to South Africa’s dead lion exports are a ‘complete shambles’. Based on the latest data now published for 2012 I’m inclined to agree…. 

DEAD LION EXPORTS FROM SOUTH AFRICA TO CHINA IN 2012

In December 2013 the South African Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs advised that South Africa exported the following dead lions to China in 2012:

36 trophies


15 bodies


2 skeletons 

By contrast, South Africa’s ‘official’ CITES records now show dead lion exports to China in 2012 of:

21 trophies


1 skin


12 bodies

China’s ‘official’ CITES records for 2012 own up to 17 of these trophies but they also reveal import of a further 92 lion skins (93 in total) from South Africa in 2012 that neither the South African environment Minister nor South Africa’s permit officials were apparently aware of! 

So we have South Africa saying it exported approximately 54 dead lions to China in 2012 but China saying it imported 110 !?! 

DEAD LION EXPORTS FROM SOUTH AFRICA TO LAO PDR IN 2012 

In December 2013 the South African Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs advised that South Africa exported the following dead lions to Lao PDR in 2012: 

1 trophy


20 bodies


8 skulls


92 skeletons 

From South Africa’s ‘official’ CITES records those dead lion exports from South Africa to Laos in 2012 can now more accurately be stated as: 

1 trophy 


49 bodies


15 skulls


108 skeletons 

Plus just over 107 kilograms of additional lion bones. 

DEAD LION EXPORTS FROM SOUTH AFRICA TO VIETNAM IN 2012 

In December 2013 the South African Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs advised that South Africa exported the following dead lions to Viet Nam in 2012:

8 trophies

738kg of bones

Again, from South Africa’s ‘official’ CITES records those dead lion exports from South Africa to Viet Nam in 2012 can now more accurately be stated at: 

8 trophies

738kg of bones 

Plus a further 72 lion bodies that the Minister was apparently unaware of!?!

CONCLUSION

So what are we looking at here?

Basically well over 350 dead lions were exported from South Africa to Asia in 2012.  

That’s about 150 more than the Minister said it was last December.  

That’s also not including how ever many lions those 845kg of bones comprised…. 

The evidence is in that these dead lions are boiled down upon arrival in Asia and used in products passed off to unsuspecting customers as containing tiger bone. That’s a huge injection into the supply side of the Asian tiger bone trade that poses a dire threat to the world’s last 3,000 tigers.

The South African Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs previously advised that she would not ban the export of dead lions from South Africa to Asia  as she considered that "the lion bone trade from South Africa posed no threat to wild lions."  

The Minister was recently asked if she will now ban the lion bone trade from South Africa owing to the dire threat that it poses to the world's last 3,000 wild tigers. Still she says no! 

Will the complacency ever end before the last of the big cats is gone from the wild?

CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM FOR LOUIS THEROUX

Dear Louis ,

I watched your program " African Hunting Holiday" on BBC Knowledge channel on South African TV on the 13 January, 2009 at 9.30p.m.

You certainly caught the atmosphere of canned hunting very well, but it became apparent that you were unprepared for the pro-hunting arguments, none of which bear intelligent analysis.  There is a good expose of the hunting arguments in Mathew Sculley's book Dominion and also on our website www.cannedlion.org   We find it a common failing among wildlife documentary film makers that they do not do their homework on this complex issue, leaving the canned hunting industry free to make propaganda claims which are left unchallenged.  For example:

Claim: the captive breeders are boosting numbers of wild animals, so they must be conservationists.  Answer: once you remove the animals from their natural environment and place them into factory farms or fenced camps, to breed living targets, what you have is a straightforward commercial operation.  Wild animals are now no longer wild - they have become alternative livestock being farmed.  They are not part of a functioning eco-system.  Being proud of boosting the numbers of these miserable prisoners is as absurd as boasting about our huge prison population, and claiming that it proves we are a healthy society.   Virtually all animals shot on one of the 9000 'game' farms in SA are captive bred.  They are all bred in fenced camps free from natural predators; given supplementary feeding and subjected to active breeding management, such as the culling of 'surplus' members of family groups.  Having turned wild animals into livestock being bred for the bullet, hunters now regard themselves as exempt from the laws against cruelty to livestock set out in the Animals Protection Act of 1962.

Claim:  Give it a value and it will be preserved ie the only way to save African wildlife is to systematically hunt it.    Answer: That is as absurd as arguing that it is only whaling which will save the whales.  This false argument was made several times and you never once challenged it.  Indeed in your closing narration, you actually endorsed this nonsense!

Claim:  Hunting is kinder than the slaughter of livestock at abattoirs.   Answer: Really!  Do hunters seriously contend that farmers should be allowed, out of tender concern for the welfare of their animals, to ambush their sheep and cattle with bow and arrow from hides placed next to water holes.   Would you rather be euthanased by a bolt to the brain, or wounded by an arrow?

The infliction of pain and death for fun on unoffending animals is, as the hunters themselves concede, offensive to 98% of the population.  Yet you never spelled out why. 

Fair Chase:  there is no fair chase because these animals are drawn to the only water hole available and the lucerne bait that is put out for them.  The 'hunter' sits in a vehicle or a hide.  Even when the animal is shot he does not even do the follow up to see what injuries he has inflicted on the unfortunate animal.  Some black menial worker does it for him.  How colonial!   Shooting from the back of a vehicle or from a hide is not hunting.   You could have asked why they call themselves hunters, when they are so lazy and un-sporting that they have to sit in a hide by a waterhole, or a vehicle, rather than walking through the bush and stalking an animal.

4. As far as the feelings of animals go, your program allowed the hunters to portray the animals as cardboard beings who have no 'human' feelings; mere Cartesian machines who wander around eating grass without emotions.  That is far from true.  We ran a wildlife centre for 7 years and if you are interested we can tell you amazing stories of the feelings of the wild animals we treated.  Your dog shows feelings and emotions, why should the 'wild' antelope be any different?  To permit hunters to portray them as unfeeling, without challenge, does not do justice to their suffering, not just that of the victim but also that of the bereaved family members.

6.  As far as the meat from the animals is concerned, we know of hunting farms that bury the meat from these poor animals.  It is far too much trouble and expense to freeze or deliver the meat to poor neighbourhoods.

7.  All sport hunting is intrinsically cruel, unChristian, unIslamic, unBuddhist and in our view illegal under the Animals Protection Act .  You could have quoted to the hunters eg a statement from the Koran such as: "a kindness to an animal will be judged in Heaven the same as a kindness to another human being," and then asked for their comment.  You could have exposed the fact that not one of those hunters ever thinks about the legal, ethical and moral issue of shooting an animal that has done no harm.  

Of course, by not shooting the poor unsuspecting baby warthog at the end, you did by implication raise the moral issue, but in a rather weak way.   Had you prepared the counter-arguments beforehand, you would have come across much stronger in your ethical beliefs, rather than leaving an impression of an indecisive wimp struggling to get in touch with his predatory instincts.  Having showed the six year old girl being coached into killing a poor warthog with a crossbow, and then a wavering urban American lady killing an impala the same way, you laid the foundation for a compelling moral argument which you then conspicuously failed to make.

The end result is that your African hunting holiday program actually promotes and endorses canned hunting.