'Stop wildlife abuse'

2005-11-16 14:40

Cape Town - Captive breeding of large predators such as lions for hunting purposes should be banned completely, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw) said on Tuesday.

This was one of several recommendations by the organisation in the wake of an investigation it conducted which, it said, revealed captive breeding as the "dirty underbelly" of South Africa's wildlife industry.

"Our evidence proves that captive breeding of large predators is an industry responsible for encouraging, supporting and enabling the abuse of wildlife," said Helen Dagut, campaigns manager for Ifaw Southern Africa.

"If captive breeding, other than for bona fide conservation purposes, was banned, we would rapidly see the demise of 'canned hunting' and the indiscriminate trade of our wildlife."

Regulations needed

In its recommendations, Ifaw also called for strict regulation of genetic manipulation of species and of the import, export and movement of alien species, for provincial wildlife legislation to be revised to make it coherent and enforceable, and for the banning of canned hunting.

Canned hunting, it said, was the practice of hunting animals in an enclosure too small to allow an animal any chance of escape; hunting drugged or sedated animals; and hunting animals habituated to humans.

Ifaw said its investigation into captive breeding and a review of the regulation of breeding and hunting of large predators showed an industry that was "virtually free to act as it pleases" due to inadequate national and provincial regulation and a lack of capacity - or will - by authorities to enforce laws.

Cramped enclosures

"Our undercover investigation took us to many captive breeding facilities throughout South Africa, and without question, few of them observed even the fundamental basics of animal welfare," said Dagut.

"Large predators such as lion are kept in cramped enclosures which are completely inadequate for their needs. More commercially valuable animals are fed while others are left to starve."

A substantial number of exotic predators, such as tigers, jaguars, puma and wolves, were filmed in breeding facilities during the investigation.

Some of them were intended for cross-breeding with indigenous species, and others for the manipulated breeding of rare colour "morphs" such as black leopard and white lion.

Ifaw is an international animal welfare and conservation organisation that works to protect wild and domestic animals, and has offices in 15 countries around the world.

- SAPA