'Canned lions' sale goes ahead
2002-11-25 16:12
Bloemfontein - Organisers of a Free State predator auction refused to cancel the event after an environmental group threatened legal action to prevent what it called a "car boot sale of endangered predators".
Game breeder Shorty Durand one of the four Free State game farmers to supply animals for the auction scheduled for Friday, said on Monday they intended opposing an application for a court interdict by the Kalahari Raptor Centre.
Durand insisted that the planned auction was legal, saying the organisers held permits for each animal to be on sale.
"Everything we do is legal and with the permission of Free State nature conservation authorities. All our facilities are approved and regularly inspected," Durand said.
Chris Mercer from the centre said his application for the interdict would now be filed as soon as possible in the Bloemfontein High Court, probably on Wednesday. This was decided after the centre received a letter from the legal representatives of the auction organisers, informing them that it would not be cancelled.
Mercer said he received "massive" support over the weekend from wildlife charities across South Africa and from abroad for his bid to prevent the auction. One of his supporters was the Born Free Foundation from England.
Last week he wrote an open letter to Vleissentraal, which is organising the auction, demanding its cancellation and claiming that the ultimate fate of the animals on auction would be "the bullet", referring to the "canned" hunting industry.
Mercer said in the letter that he would bring an urgent application for a court interdict against the auction if Vleissentraal should fail to notify him before the end of last week of its cancellation.
According to Mercer the interdict would be the precursor to a bid by his centre to have the captive breeding of predators and the hunting of captive bred predators banned in South Africa.
The auction is to take place in the western Free State district of Hoopstad. Up for sale are 51 lions, five Bengal tigers and two jaguars.
The Free State is one of four provinces in South Africa where the hunting of captive bred lions is legal. Organisations like Mercer's maintain that the majority of captive-bred lions are destined to be hunted because of the lucrative hunting market and a moratorium on the selling of lions to farmers who are not registered breeders.
- SAPA