Imagine being bred, fattened up and set free just to be hunted. Seems like the sequence of the childhood fairy tail where the evil witch keeps feeding the kids just to boil and eat them.

This is just a hint of the plight of tigers in Africa. They are reared in captivity from 6 months to two years then set free to be hunted. They no longer see humans as there enemies and can hardly fend for themselves in the wild.There seems to be a major tourist influx for this kind of hunting tours.

Thankfully, now a ban has been put on them. South Africa’s environment minister said that he was sickened by wealthy tourists shooting tame lions from the back of a truck and felling rhinos with a bow and arrow.

Moreover , lions bred in captivity would have to be released into the open for at least two years before they could be hunted. Van Schalkwyk said a previously proposed six-month delay would not give lions enough time to develop self-defense instincts.


However, conservationists feel that the law would be difficult to enforce and did not go far enough because it stopped short of an outright ban on intensive breeding of lions, leopards and other predators.

The South African Predator Breeders’ Association, which was set up last year to lobby against the regulations, has warned that breeders may be forced to euthanize the estimated 3-5,000 lions they have reared if they are unable to offer them to foreign hunters and can no longer afford to feed them.

Up to 7,000 foreign tourists visit South Africa each year on hunting safaris, each spending roughly $18,000. About 55 percent of hunters are from North America and the rest from Europe and other countries.

Though Hunting is an integral part of South African life because of its cultural traditions and importance to the economy they are in fact a slur on ecological conservation. They definitely needed to be banned.

Source: Sky valley journals