Shooting Captive Animals for Sport
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1. Over 75,000 hunting trophies of animals bred in captivity have been traded over the past decade. 2. The epicentre of the captive hunting industry is South Africa. Since the 1990s, over 30,000 hunting trophies from 58 captive-bred species have been exported from here. 3. More than 10,000 of these trophies were from ‘canned lions’. However a similar number of Nile crocodile trophies were also exported from South Africa over the same period. 4. Other popular captive-bred hunting trophies to come out of South Africa include white rhinos, zebras and sheep. 5. The rate of growth of South Africa’s captive-bred trophy hunting industry is remarkable. During the 1990s, the average number of hunting trophies exported from South Africa each year was just over 200. Since 2010, the number is almost 3,000. 6. Other species bred in captivity in South Africa for trophy hunting include exotic big cats – tiger, Eurasian lynx and cougar – as well as cheetah, leopard, hyena, hippopotamus, various species of primates, and hybrid species. 7. The US is also a popular market, with captive-bred bobcats, cougars, alligators, black and brown bears, and sheep-goat hybrids being hunted by foreign trophy hunters who fly there. 8. Hunting trophies of captive-bred animals are popular among Britons, who have brought home trophies of captive-bred lions, baboons, monkeys, crocodiles, wild sheep and the Scimitar-horned oryx, which went extinct in the wild in the 1990s. 9. Foreign hunters have come to Britain to hunt captive-bred Barasingha and Indian hog-deer, as well as the Pere David’s Deer - which went extinct in its native China a century ago. 10. Other hunting trophies from captive-bred animals around the world include African elephant (Botswana and Tanzania), wolf (Canada), Canada Lynx (Canada), African wild cat (Namibia), Golden Jackal (Croatia), pampas fox (Argentina), ostrich (Zambia), and Reticulated python (Laos, Vietnam). 11. Other countries from which captive-bred hunting trophies were exported include Russia (brown bear), Qatar (falcon), and Thailand (turtle). 12. The trophy hunting industry appears to be providing legal ‘cover’ for major international trade in crocodile and caiman skins. These are exported from Bolivia, Colombia, as well as from southern African countries such as Mozambique and South Africa. Over 50,000 skins have been traded in this way over the past decade alone. Overview • South Africa has long been identified with the controversial sport of ‘canned hunting’ – the captive breeding of lions which are shot in enclosures for cheap hunting trophies. In recent years, lions have also been bred in growing numbers for their bones which are transformed into ‘wine’ and ‘cake’ for Asian markets. • There are advantages for both the industry and hunter. The industry is able to provide the client with a variety of options e.g. size of animal, colour of mane. The industry can sell the bones to other clients once the hunter has taken the skull and skin for taxidermists to transform. The hunter is able to save considerable money on accommodation and professional hunter fees associated with wild lion hunts that often last 3 weeks and where success is never guaranteed. • Not only is the outcome of a canned hunt 100% certain, the lion will make for a ‘better’ or more attractive trophy. An animal bred and kept in captivity will not have the marks and scratches typical of a wild animal who has fought with other males over a pride, for instance. Similarly, the mane will not have suffered the damage typical of wild lions living in scrubby bushland. • However South Africa is increasingly turning to other animals as part of its canned hunting industry. Almost as many crocodile hunting trophies have been exported from South Africa as have lion trophies. South Africa is not the only exporter of crocodile trophies. In fact, it appears that trophy hunting is being used to mask a massive global industry in crocodile and caiman skins. Labelled as ‘hunting trophies’ in the CITES Trade Database, they account for more than half of all the hunting trophies of captive-bred animals traded over the past decade. This is not the first time that traffickers and wildlife traders have used the ‘loopholes’ in the CITES regime which allow trophy hunters to shoot with few restrictions animals that are classed as threatened with extinction. A number of court cases have shown how crime syndicates have used CITES trophy hunting permits in order to acquire rhino horn for the booming Asian market in traditional ‘medicinal’ products. • South Africa, and indeed other countries, are promoting canned hunting of a number of other species. As CBTH has previously reported, there are number of ‘backyard breeding’ operations of tigers in South Africa, at least one of which also offers canned tiger hunts. The company was observed selling canned tiger hunts to Chinese clients at the inaugural China Hunting Show in Shanghai in 2019. • A number of other cats have been bred in captivity in South African facilities for international trophy hunters to shoot. They include cheetahs, leopards, African wild cats, caracals, servals, and the cougar - which is native to North America. Among the perhaps more controversial species are African elephants and white rhinos. However a number of primates have been bred on ranches for hunting too, including vervet monkeys, grivet monkeys, chacma baboons and hamadryas baboons. • The industry has also catered for niche clientele, providing hybrid zebras, aardwolf, addaxes - which is down to its last few dozen in the wild – and the Scimitar horned oryx, whose wild populations were hunted to extinction in the 1990s. Some 58 different species of wild animal have been made available to visiting trophy hunters in recent years. • South Africa is not alone, though. Argentina has a thriving captive-bred programme providing hunters with cougars. The US is home to many ranches hosting exotic African species that American hunters can shoot for sport without having to get on a plane. Bears, bobcats and cougars are popular with foreign hunters. Britain is popular too, particularly with globe-trotting deer hunters in pursuit of the rare Indian hog deer, the Barasingha, or the Pere David’s Deer which – while extinct in its native China – can currently be shot on a handful of private estates in England and Scotland. • Canada breeds bears – as does Russia - and lynxes for hunters to shoot for sport. Pakistan breeds goats and sheep which appear in CITES’ database of exported hunting trophies. Elsewhere in Africa, Tanzania breeds elephants, hippos and civet cats; Namibia breeds zebras, lions and leopards; while Zambia has a thriving ranching industry where foreign hunters visit to shoot various species of monkey and baboon. Ostriches are available here too. A number of other countries ranging from Afghanistan to Switzerland are also involved in the trade. • What is apparent is that the captive hunting industry is growing in popularity and diversity, both in species and nation. It is cheaper and more ‘efficient’ as far as the dedicated trophy hunter is concerned. While attention has focused on canned lion hunting, little has been paid to the other forms of the industry which are now flourishing. • While the general public has expressed its abhorrence at trophy hunting as a whole, it is interesting to observe that the ‘official’ trophy hunting industry groups such as Safari Club International have – in public, at least – condemned canned lion hunting (although SCI has continued to allow canned lion hunting operators to exhibit at its annual conventions). The industry has said nothing about the other forms of captive-bred hunting. Indeed, many hunters who have won SCI awards for their exploits have shot deer and other animals in ‘high fence’ facilities – a North American term for canned hunting. • Aside from the ethical and conservation consequences of canned hunting (canned lion hunting has led to a spurt of wild lion poaching both to meet the new demand for lion bones and to ‘refresh’ the genetic stocks of lions in their facilities which are plagued with diseases associated with in-breeding), there are some serious human health issues to consider. There are some scientists who believe that the trade in hunting trophies may – just like the ‘wet’ wildlife trade – pose a serious threat to communities. Professor Irvin Modlin of the Yale University Medical School and the South African Veterinary Association (SAVA) are among those to have expressed concerns about the risk of disease transmission resulting from the booming trade in bones of lions shot in ‘canned hunting’ operations. • According to SAVA, there is a risk of TB being transferred by the production of ‘lion wine’ and that there is also a risk to local communities who are sometimes given meat from the dead lions after they have been deboned. Tuberculosis is a major issue in Africa, killing around 500,000 people a year, and is a leading cause of mortality in South Africa which is the epicentre of the ‘canned lion’ hunting industry and bone trade. Dr David Cooper, a leading African wildlife veterinarian who has been studying TB and animal-human transmission for 20 years, has described the threat as ‘a ticking time-bomb’. • There have been growing calls for a ban on wildlife trade following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. It is worth recalling that the UK government and Prime Minister have promised on a number of occasions to ban the import of hunting trophies. The current pandemic justifies the implementation by the UK government of an immediate moratorium of all wildlife trade and trophy hunting imports pending legislation. However there is also a need for concerted international action. An immediate international moratorium should be imposed pending the formal adoption of concerted measures at the next Conference of the Parties (CoP) of CITES which is currently scheduled for 2022.