{"id":758972,"date":"2019-12-03T08:32:57","date_gmt":"2019-12-03T13:32:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=758972"},"modified":"2019-12-03T08:32:57","modified_gmt":"2019-12-03T13:32:57","slug":"investigation-inside-a-south-african-lion-farm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=758972","title":{"rendered":"INVESTIGATION: Inside a South African lion farm"},"content":{"rendered":"\t
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Doug Wolhuter: The lion has been known as the king of the jungle, and then you see it reduced to basically an intensively farmed animal. You\u2019ve removed everything regal and noble about the animal. Soul destroying. <\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\n

RACHEL FOBAR:<\/strong> ‘Thirty-four lions were crammed into a muddy enclosure meant for three. Rotting chicken carcasses and cattle body parts littered the ground. Feces piled up in corners. Algae grew in water bowls. Twenty-seven of the lions were so afflicted with mange, a painful skin disease caused by parasitic mites, that they\u2019d lost nearly all their fur. Three cubs lay twitching in the dirt, one draped over the blackened leg of a cow, its hoof visible. Mewling, they struggled\u2014but failed\u2014to drag themselves forward. A fourth cub looked on, motionless… Although the number of captive lions in South Africa has been estimated at between 6,000 and 8,000, there may now be as many as 10,000, according to conservationist Ian Michler…<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cSoul destroying.\u201d That\u2019s how Douglas Wolhuter, senior inspector with South Africa\u2019s National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA), describes the scene at Pienika Farm, in North West Province, on April 11, 2019. The NSPCA is responsible for enforcing the country\u2019s Animals Protection Act, and Wolhuter was conducting an inspection of Pienika, one of the more than 250 privately owned lion farms in South Africa. \u201cEver since I\u2019ve been a young kid, a lion has been known as the king of the jungle,\u201d Wolhuter says. \u201cAnd then you see it reduced to basically an intensively farmed animal\u2014you\u2019ve removed everything regal and noble about the animal”…<\/em><\/p>\n

Some ranches may offer \u201ccanned\u201d hunts, in which lions are confined to fenced areas. Sport hunters may pay as much as $50,000 to kill lions so they can keep the skins and heads as trophies. The bones and other unwanted parts may be exported to Asia, where they\u2019re used in traditional medicine. South Africa sets a quota for the number of lion skeletons that can be exported legally every year. For conservationists and animal welfare advocates, Pienika symbolizes everything that\u2019s wrong with South Africa\u2019s lion farms.<\/em><\/p>\n

The captive-lion industry has been criticized as being largely unregulated: South Africa\u2019s Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries doesn\u2019t regularly track the number of captive lions, demand for lion bone has grown, and monitoring animal welfare is left to the short-staffed and underfunded NSPCA. What started as a small industry has burgeoned to a size that some, including Karen Trendler, who manages the NSPCA\u2019s wildlife trade and trafficking unit, describe as uncontrollable: \u201cA monster has been created that now has to be fed,\u201d she says’<\/em>.\u00a0 SOURCE…<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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