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White lion breeding at UK zoos linked to 'canned hunting'

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Patrick Barkham
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 11 June 2013 10.58 BST

Two parks have been accused of unethical breeding practices, as white lions are inbred and suffer from severe health issues.

They are a rare and beautiful variant of an ordinary lion, a big cat with a recessive gene that gives it striking white fur. But two British wildlife parks have been accused of unethical practices for breeding white lions taken from a farm linked to "canned hunting" in South Africa and allowing cubs to be petted for £250 a time.

Despite zoo associations in Europe and America ordering zoos not to breed white lions because they are already inbred and suffer severe health problems, Paradise wildlife park in Hertfordshire and its sister zoo, the Wildlife Heritage Foundation in Kent produced five white cubs in 2013. Paradise wildlife park initially charged £999 to cuddle its latest cub before amending its offer to £250.

"It is a scandal," said Pieter Kat, founder of LionAid. "It is an unethical process from so many different angles. They are bringing these animals from someone associated with canned lion hunting. They continue to inbreed them and they allow petting which is unethical." The European Association of Zoos & Aquariums is currently investigating the matter.

Lynn Whitnall, director of Paradise wildlife park and a member of the family that own both parks, said: "The white lions are extremely well looked after." She added: "They are good as ambassadors. They are good for education. They are good for raising funds, not just for our business but to do the conservation work we do."

White lions were first spotted on a game reserve near the Kruger national park in South Africa. Since 1995, the captive population has exploded from just 10 to around 500, driven by a number of South African breeders. Most of these animals are sold for up to £60,000 to trophy hunters, who shoot them in fenced areas – the controversial but currently legal practice called canned hunting.

White lions have a rare recessive gene and the only way to guarantee a white cub is to breed two white lions, producing extremely inbred animals that suffer from deformities and high mortality. A scientific study found 17 of 19 white lion cubs born in an Italian zoo were stillborn or died within a month of birth. Another was euthanised after six months because it could not bite its food and the sole survivor at 30 months was malformed.

The British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums (BIAZA), of which Paradise Wildlife Park and the Wildlife Heritage Foundation are members, has ruled there is no conservation value in keeping white lions. "Inbreeding practices as necessary to produce white lions impair the ability to develop and maintain sustainable captive populations and to deliver the appropriate animal welfare and conservation educational messages," it said in recently published guidelines. The European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) and the American Association of Zoos & Aquariums (AZA) have also both instructed their members not to deliberately breed white lions.

In 2006, Paradise wildlife park obtained two white lion cubs from Wiets Botes, a South African lion breeder who also offers trophy hunts where captive-bred lions can be shot. The Wildlife Heritage Foundation acquired two more white lions from Botes in 2012.

"The lions we've taken from there have a very good home," said Whitnall. She said her park was not aware that Botes also offered to arrange canned hunting. Paradise wildlife park and the Wildlife Heritage Foundation help fund projects to conserve endangered big cats such as Amur leopards and tigers in Russia and Bangladesh.

Marita du Plessis, manager of Wiets Safaris, confirmed that Botes could arrange lion hunting but said they never conducted the hunts on their own land or with the animals they bred. According to du Plessis, Botes only sold his white lions to zoos and not for canned hunting.

Petting lion cubs was condemned by the Captive Animals Protection Society (Caps) for causing unnecessary stress when the youngster was separated from its mother. "We're very concerned about the lion cubs' welfare," said Liz Tyson, director of Caps. "We are also concerned about the message – if you pay enough money you can come and cuddle these animals. That's completely against zoos' supposed purpose to educate people about wild animals. "

But Whitnall defended the zoos' "meet the cub" sessions saying the white lion cub sessions were only held for a short period this spring when the cubs had routine health checks and were "under a cub's terms" so the animal would decide if it wanted to sit on someone's lap. "Nine out of 10 times the cub wants to sit with them," she said.

Animal welfare charities criticised BIAZA for failing to take action against the zoos but BIAZA said it was awaiting the outcome of the EAZA investigation. Whitnall said both parks were liaising with BIAZA and EAZA over their white lions and currently had no plans to breed any more.

Kirsten Pullen, chief executive of BIAZA, said: "We do not encourage the breeding of white lions or tigers. We work with zoos to continuously improve animal welfare standards in tandem with research developments, and to phase out any undesirable activities before taking more extreme action such as expelling members." According to Pullen, zoos are expected to "show due diligence with regards to where our animals have been sourced from" and new regulations are being drafted to tackle acquiring animals from dealers and canned hunters.

On Tuesday, Thai police arrested a pet shop owner after discovering 14 albino lions smuggled from Africa in a warehouse near Bangkok.


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Re: White lion breeding at UK zoos linked to 'canned hunting

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http://www.captiveanimals.org/news/2013 ... operations
Tuesday, June 11th, 2013


Following two significant exposés relating to the keeping and breeding of white lions in UK zoos in the last six months, CAPS and LionAid have continued to work together to expose the cruelty involved in this deeply unethical practice. A report in today’s national press links UK zoos with white lions to “canned hunting” operations and raises concerns that, despite recognising the inherent welfare concerns involved in breeding these animals, zoo industry body, BIAZA, has failed to take any action against its members that continue to do so.

The article highlights worries over the welfare of a small lion cub at Paradise Wildlife Park following the zoo’s recent attempt to make a “quick buck” from allowing visitors to handle her in return for payment of £250. CAPS condemned the scheme and pointed to the damaging educational message that is put forward by allowing this sort of event to go ahead.

The article further raises arguments made by both CAPS and LionAid for some time; that white lions are not, as zoos have claimed in the past, a “rare species” of lion, but are born as a result of the possession of a recessive gene. By default, white lions in zoos have to be inbred in order to perpetuate their unusual colouring.

Said CAPS Director, Liz Tyson:

“We have worked on this issue, alongside partners at LionAid, for a long time and are pleased to see that the truth behind the inbreeding, welfare concerns and complete lack of conservation value are now being brought firmly into the public domain. We have seen white lions sold from zoos to circuses, links with canned hunting operations, cubs being rented out for money and recognition that there are significant welfare concerns with the persistent inbreeding involved in keeping them. We will continue to work hard to educate and inform people on this issue”.

Read the exposé on Paradise Wildlife Park Here

Read the exposé on West Midland Safari Park Here

Read more on BIAZA and white lions Here


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Is walking with lions good conservation? Probably not.

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Peter Borchert on July 3, 2013

http://blog.africageographic.com/africa ... bably-not/

Close encounters with Africa’s megafauna is an irresistible magnet for many tourists in Africa, and for some the closer the encounter the greater the thrill.

So when a tourism operator offers the chance, for a fee, to ‘walk with lions’ it is no surprise that there is a steady flow of punters eager to do it. And when it is claimed that the money goes towards an elaborate project purporting to rewild lions, it seems, superficially at least, to be a Good Thing.

After all Africa’s wild lion population is in bad shape. A half -century ago some 100,000 lions ranged across Africa’s savannas, but lion habitat is only a quarter of what is was then and today lion numbers are fewer than 30,000. Forty per cent of these live in Tanzania and only nine countries can claim to have more than 1,000 wild living lions. To say that lions in the wild are on a one-way ticket to extinction is arguably no overstatement. So where could there be a problem with any attempt to reverse the trend?

Well, controversy and conservation are well acquainted and pretty well constant companions. And around the operations of Antelope Park in Gweru, Zimbabe and their sister operations called Lion Encounter at Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe and Zambia where ‘hands on’ interaction with these great felines is promoted, the controversy is well and truly raging.

Antelope Park, as stated on its website, is “home to the world-famous ALERT lion rehabilitation programme, as seen in the major UK TV documentary series Lion Country.” ALERT, it would seem, is the umbrella organisation in a network of subgroups: ALERT is a non-profit body but the subgroups are not.

The nub of the issue is the ALERT ‘vision’, which is founded on a four-stage rewilding strategy, with stage four being the successful release of lions into true conservation areas. One understands that grand ideas are not always realised overnight, but ALERT was founded in 2005 and has yet to release any lions into the wild. But lions, true to the basic strategy of all life, reproduce. Cubs taken from their pride groups to walk with tourists soon outgrow their purpose and are moved up a stage and ‘new’ walking specimens are brought in. The lions in the middle stages of the rehabilitation model will mature and will breed. And as the breeding cycle continues the numbers of contained lions grows. Unless lions are legally released into a wild area, the ‘captive’ population has to balloon. It’s simple arithmetic. In fact figures provided to Africa Geographic by ALERT show a large build up of baby lions (where the money is made), a significant death rate in the middle stages and no successful final stage releases to date. After 8 years those numbers speak for themselves. And yet ALERT persists with its conservation claims and volunteers and tourists flock to their operations. Let me be clear on this, I am all for successful tourism operations – but not when they redirect money from genuine conservation activities and not when the promises of conservation impact are nothing more than a thin marketing veneer.

Image

The ‘excess’ lions from these breeding operations will have to go somewhere to relieve the bottleneck and if that destination is not a legitimate conservation area, where will that somewhere be?

The fear and, in some quarters, strongly held suspicion is that via some form of wildlife laundering system lions will find their way into one or more of the many lion breeding farms that serve canned lion hunting operations.

This would certainly not be conservation in any shape or form. In fact it would mean quite cynically that conservation money from volunteer internships, fees to walk with lions and donations is being diverted from really good conservation projects into operations of questionable ethical standing.

If this is not the case then only complete transparency and accountability for all the lions involved from cradle to grave will allay the growing disquiet of the conservation world. And even if such transparency is forthcoming, is it in the first place sensible to offer ultra-close encounters with big, dangerous animals. Attacks on humans and maulings have already occurred at Lion Encounter and quite possibly a real tragedy awaits. But that is another story.

I asked Derek Joubert, conservationist, National Geographic Explorer in Residence and wildlife documentary filmmaker extraordinaire for his views, so I sign off with his wise words:

“There has been a proliferation of these walking-with-lions operations, not just in Africa by the way. I also saw them in Mauritius. In my opinion the activity is fundamentally flawed. A lion is a potentially dangerous animal and walking with it not only exposes guests to an accident that will result in the lion needing to be killed, but also erodes the wildness, the mystique and the very essence of what a wild lion is by taming it.

It is the respect for that vitality and wildness that drives our conservation of wild lions. If you consider that there are probably 6,000 lions in captivity but that we never include those lions into the overall figure of between 20,000 and 30,000 in the wild, its because the conservation of lions is not based on the total number of lions there are in the world, but those in the wild. As such, captive lions have little to do with conservation.

The fact that the captive lions simply confuse the conversation about lion conservation is one thing, but I worry about what happens when the lions get old, injured, sick or a little less cute to walk with. Do they feed a canned lion hunting scheme? Probably.

And canned lion hunting is one of the greatest misguided uses of an icon of Africa. It damages the reputation of South Africa, it is spurred by greed alone and it has stimulated a market that could be responsible for the collapse of not just wild lions but tigers as well, via its evil cousin the bone trade.”


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Re: Is walking with lions good conservation? Probably not.

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This is not the only one 0'

Breeding lions in most cases has nothing to do with conservation though the centres tell tourists the animals are being bred to be later released into the wild. And by now tourists and volunteers should know that lions raised by hand, cannot be successfully released into the wild. 0- Most of them end up in canned hunting.
Lions need suitable habitat, then they breed themselves, no need to breed them in captivity. 0*\ 0*\ 0*\


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Re: Is walking with lions good conservation? Probably not.

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They do indeed have no problem breeding, to put it mildly! :-)


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Re: Is walking with lions good conservation? Probably not.

Post by nan »

I would be the first.... walking with a Lion... but... BUT nothing to see with wild animal 0- :-(
it's pure egoism and superiority toward animal... and other 0=


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Re: Is walking with lions good conservation? Probably not.

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It's very nice to play with them, nana...a good drawcard? They are not endangered, yet, and the canned lion topic is another discussion? -O-


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How Lions go from the Petting Zoo to the Dinner Plate

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Copyright "Africa Geographic"
by Chloe Cooper on August 4, 2013 in Hunting

It seems to be the way that human beings are wired, but as soon as something exists in all its natural magnificence, it becomes a desirable item to own. Sometimes even just a part of it will do to satisfy the customer.

In spring, colourful explosions of flowers are harvested by wanderers and merchants who wish to capture the beauty for themselves. The difference between the pickers is that one has a specific interest in making a profit out of the blooms. Dollar bills pop up with an inviting cha-ching and a market for the naturally occurring beauty is born.

The same concept is seen on an uglier, darker and a seemingly unstoppable scale in the trade of the African lion. The maned lion is celebrated worldwide and just like crystals, diamonds and exotic birds, it has become a hot commodity. The moneymakers lack heart and compassion for the creature; they are the traders who have pinpointed the demand and are holding the carrot in front of the donkey, knowing full well it will be gobbled up greedily.

Image
A fully grown male is sought after as a trophy to adorn the walls of hunters’ homes.

The financial gain for South African lion farmers and breeders is large, making trading in the cats a lucrative business and one that has elicited the evil in some wildlife industries. It takes a specific kind of person to want to hunt and kill a lion. Whether it is a nomadic male roaming the wild or a drugged and disorientated lion in an enclosure, these people have a sick desire to want to watch it fall, especially when it is widely known that it is a species facing extinction. Others who are drawn to the cute factor of a cub or the thrill factor of a close encounter can pay money to get what they want. To have inquisitive baby lions rough and tumble on one’s lap is an experience that can now be bought, and is an activity that we are told ‘contributes to conservation’. Walking alongside these adult predators, being given permission to touch them and getting to take home the photograph is also an activity that has been labelled as ‘conservational’.

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Hunting and breeding farms ensure that cubs are reared completely unnaturally and are never able to survive in the wild.

The nasty truth about the hunting, breeding, petting and walking with lions industries is that they are based on ugly lies. The bones of the cats are sought after as health and prestige products by a demanding mass market, most of whose members are unaware of the disastrous impact that their totally ineffective ‘tonics’ have on the lion species. The thousands of dollars fetched by this trade (around US$10,000 per skeleton) have lit fireworks on South African breeding farms. When hunters walk away with their trophy heads, leaving the rest of the animal to the metaphorical dogs, the farm owners greedily wrap them up and sell the carcasses for a vast profit to China, Vietnam and Laos. This insatiable market is only fed by the availability of the supply item.

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An icon of strength and stature, yet parts of a hunted lion not flaunted on walls are used in traditional medicine and as meat in burgers. © Wikimedia/Cheva

People all over the world refute the sordid sport of hunting, arguing that the idea of shooting such a majestic animal is inhumane. However many of these same people also like to admire this king of beasts from close-up, and – hey presto! – their desire is easily met and is then used to the benefit of money-hungry merchants. Visitors can enter the sanctuaries where they can cuddle, pet and feed the cubs, or set out with a handler to experience a walk on the wild side. What many customers do not know (or merely ignore) is that when these young ’uns grow out of their fluffy-furred cuteness and lose their milk teeth, they are sold to hunting farms, adding to the industry that the animal-loving visitors are so against. The matured cubs are reared in enclosures until they are picked out for a hunt and shot by a paying customer dressed in camouflage.

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Cubs at lion petting sanctuaries are sold to hunting farms once they are too big to be cuddled and are seldom released into the wild. © Flickr/Christina

Losing its head to a taxidermist, its bones to a Chinese pharmacy and its flesh to butchers in America, the African lion is smuggled out of its homeland, destined to appear as a burger patty, a magic potion or a floor mat. Harvested in superficial conditions, chopped up and sold for parts, the largest carnivore in Africa has gone from the iconic symbol of strength and bravery to a mere commodity that is traded amongst humans to the point where it is consumed as an unrecognisable version of itself. One should not be fooled by any industry that offers interaction with lions from any place other than the seat of a safari vehicle. If only the gentle act of observation was enough to satisfy the desire to ‘have’; we would ‘have’ so much more and we would have it forever.

Image
The true beauty of a lioness only shows in her natural habitat.

Images Copyright: © iStock


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Re: How Lions go from the Petting Zoo to the Dinner Plate

Post by Mel »

Eish, I think the shoe fits... :o0ps: having visited the Lion Park myself O/


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Re: How Lions go from the Petting Zoo to the Dinner Plate

Post by nan »

0*\ :-( :-( :-(


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