𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗮𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗻 𝟵 𝗠𝗮𝘆 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟭. Carte Blanche first broadcast the Cooke Report exposé on canned lion hunting in 1997. Two decades later, the captive lion industry has expanded in scope and brutality – 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?