Killing The King

Does farming captive lions for a global trade in bones reduce pressure on wild lion populations – or make things far worse?

- James Fair

Though I’ve visited many zoos and believe they are a great way for children, especially, to learn about exotic species they would otherwise only see on a TV or computer screen, I do find something monumentally sad about the sight of large predators behind bars. The listless ennui of animals whose entire purpose in life has been removed – all their savage, highly evolved skills and raw energy reduced to a brief surge of adrenalin around feeding time – is a bleak indictment of how we treat the natural world.

So, I don’t like to imagine how I would react were I to see lions facing a fate far worse than any zoo resident’s – cubs that are literally passed around facilities where tourists pay to cuddle them, and then end up being tracked and killed in enclosures by trophy hunters. And, with some people seemingly partial to bow hunting, they could even end up with arrows through their hearts.

But increasingly, and perhaps most sinisterly, lions are being bred and harvested for their bones to be turned into ‘wine’ and ‘cake’ for consumption in Vietnam, Laos and China. Official estimates indicate 6,000–8,000 lions are kept in captivity in South Africa for almost entirely this purpose, though other assessments estimate it could be as high as 14,000.

But why is this any worse than the dairy industry, where calves are taken from their mothers at just a few days old, or the battery farming of chickens? If farming one animal is acceptable, why not another?

“Doing this to one of the most famous wildlife species on the planet is abhorrent,” says Richard Peirce, author of Cuddle Me, Kill Me: A true account of South Africa’s captive lion breeding and canned hunting industry. “If you carry on farming lions, you are turning them into wild pussy cats. You are taking the wild out of the wild.”