The documentary Blood Lions exposes South Africa’s controversial “canned” lion hunting industry. In canned hunts, captive-bred, often hand-reared lions are confined in enclosed spaces on private hunting reserves, guaranteeing marksmen easy trophy heads in exchange for fees of up to $50,000. With approximately 8,000 “ranch” lions to draw on, South Africa’s hunt operators can make […]
Tag: trophy hunting
POLL: Should trophy hunting be banned?
This week sport hunters placed bids on at least 600 permits at Safari Club International’s annual convention, or, as it’s also called, “the ultimate hunter’s market.” The auction drew sharp criticism, but those 600 permits are only a sliver of American hunters’ involvement in the sport hunting industry. Sport hunters, those who kill animals for […]
POLL: Should “pay to slay” auctions be banned?
The world’s largest trophy hunting club was on the defensive at its giant annual auction in Las Vegas as animal rights advocates and conservation experts traveled from across the globe to condemn the industry that killed Cecil, one of Africa’s most famous lions. The Safari Club International on Wednesday kicked off its elaborate four-day convention […]
POLL: Should the US extend endangered species status to lions in Africa?
The US plans to extend its endangered species protection to lions in Africa, five months after an American dentist caused an international furore by killing Cecil, a famed lion which lived in Zimbabwe. US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) will classify lions in southern and eastern Africa as threatened, with those in the central and […]
POLL: Should the EU ban the import of lion hunt trophies?
France has banned the import of lion heads, paws and skins as hunters’ trophies, nearly four months after the killing of Zimbabwe’s most famous lion by an American trophy hunter sparked international outrage. In a letter to the actor and animals rights activist Brigitte Bardot, France’s environment minister, Ségolène Royal, said that she had instructed […]
POLL: Is Trophy Hunting Helping Save African Elephants?
African elephants are in trouble. Their numbers have fallen from as many as ten million a hundred years ago to as few as 400,000 today. Recent losses are largely from poaching for the illegal ivory trade (some 30,000 elephants a year), but also because of the shrinking habitat for elephants, as people open up land […]
POLL: What should China do with its ivory stockpile?
After years of defending and supporting a legal domestic trade in ivory, China made a big announcement in September: It’s shutting down the trade. The United States is, too. Together, the presidents of both countries have made an unprecedented public pledge to put a stop to all ivory trading—legal and illegal. The U.S. is on track […]
Africa’s lion population forecast to drop by half
Lion populations in Africa are likely to shrink by half over the next two decades unless a concerted effort is made to conserve them, a study has found. The study included that grim news that the number of lions in Africa has already halved since the early 1990s. The research looked at 47 African lion […]