[FROM THE ARCHIVES] Drawing a Lion in the Sand
๐ง๐ต๐ถ๐ ๐๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐ ๐ผ๐ฟ๐ถ๐ด๐ถ๐ป๐ฎ๐น๐น๐ ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐ผ๐ป ๐ต ๐ ๐ฎ๐ ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ญ.
Carte Blanche first broadcast the Cooke Report exposรฉ on canned lion hunting in 1997. Two decades later, the captive lion industry has expanded in scope and brutality โ cubs are removed from their mothers, hand-reared, petted, then bred for the bullet or their bones. But these practices began to damage Brand SA and, by 2019, the new minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Barbara Creecy appointed a high-level panel to advise her on the next steps for this industry. Last Sunday, she released her recommendations in an almost 600-page report. The findings signal a seismic shift away from captive breeding and hunting toward a new era for wildlife conservation in South Africa. The news is good for our struggling tourism sector and quickly went global. But will the multi-million rand hunting industry take these changes lying down?