Canned hunting is a particularly cruel and barbaric form of trophy hunting. Rather than stalking animals in open spaces where there is at least a chance that the animal might escape, canned hunting targets wild animals in a confined area from which they cannot escape. The animal victim has no way to run away, fight back, or avoid being killed, and the hunter cannot “miss.” Canned hunting is, almost literally, like “shooting fish in a barrel.”
Thousands of animals are caught up in this brutal, but very profitable, industry. And it is not a practice which only happens in far-flung countries; in the United States, too, giraffes, gazelles, zebras, and even endangered species, are hunted on around 1,000 game facilities across the country.
In South Africa, an estimated 8,000 lions languish on some 200 “lion farm” facilities, exploited for profit from birth to death – a perfect illustration of all that is wrong with wild animal captivity.
AS CUBS
– Cubs born on lion farms are typically taken from their mothers to be hand raised by humans. This encourages a horribly misplaced trust in humans and causes intense psychological and emotional distress in the mothers and babies alike.
– When old enough, the cubs are presented to tourists for photos and petting, interactions that are stressful and traumatic for the cubs. Tourists are often able to pitch in feeding or otherwise caring for the animals, and lion farms mislead the public into believing that paying money to handle, feed, and clean up after lion cubs helps, rather than hurts, the animals. In fact, many even label themselves as “sanctuaries” to further fool the public.
AS ADULTS
– When the lion cubs get too large and unpredictable to handle, their time starts to run out. Some are bred to produce more lucrative cubs for petting and photos.
– Other adolescent and adult lions are killed for the sake of the wildlife trade, supplying the international demand for lion paws, bones, and other body parts.
– Finally, other adult lions are transferred to canned hunting facilities to be shot and killed by trophy hunters who want an “easy kill.”
This is the perverse “circle of death” for the lions that fall victim to canned hunting.
Trophy hunting – whether at home or abroad, in the wild or in captive facilities – must be stopped. This is not wildlife conservation; it is pay-to-kill cruelty.
Keep Wildlife in the Wild,
Julie
