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Kevin Crowley of Bloomberg wrote a piece looking at South Africa’s hunting industry and how it is fuelling the game price bubble. And the majority of social media points to a ban on captive hunting, especially when it comes to lions. But in this response, Biznews community member and independent environmental services professional Peddy Bam argues the case for the captive hunting industry.
By Peddy Bam
I do not want to be involved once more in this controversy because generally you are dealing with ignorant people who do not have the faintest knowledge of wildlife management.
Lets just take the captive lion hunting industry as an example.
There are approximately 3 500 lions that are kept in enclosures to breed lions for hunting.
Every year as the population of wild lions decreases, and it is a dramatic decrease, 75% in the past 20 years, these 3 500 captive lions form a higher percentage of the total African lion population.
Every breeder of captive lions has to be licensed. He is producing a product, which if it is not good, will not sell.
The breeders look after their lions extremely well, for obvious reasons.
The hunters are aware of the fact that they are hunting captive bred lions.
Photo credit: flowcomm / Foter / CC BY
So you ban captive lion hunting, and 3,500 lions will disappear in a few years. These lions are very costly to maintain, as they are not for viewing, most of them will be destroyed.
Say these captive lions at present account for 55% of the total South African lion population, in ten years time they will probably represent 75% of the total.
These lions are a very important gene pool to save the African lion for future generations.
Just to mention two of the greatest wildlife conservationists of the past sixty years, Ian Player and Ron Thompson, both in favour of hunting, because they had an incredible knowledge and experience of wildlife management.
Just think about it.
Please help to stop canned lion hunting in Africa! pic.twitter.com/dXgL2E3Oti
— Erika v.d.Lancken (@RhinosRockinZA) June 20, 2015* For more in-depth business news, visit biznews.com or simply sign up for the daily newsletter.
