It’s not ‘sport’. It’s not ‘fun’. In South Africa, so-called ‘trophy hunters’ shoot more than 800 lions each year.
Ambushed and slaughtered, they’re often left to bleed out, suffering an agonising and demeaning death.
Then they’re skinned and decapitated and turned into ‘trophies’.
In 2021, the South African government moved to ban trophy hunting of captive-bred lions.
But in 2022, there was a risk the gains for lions might be wound back.
In July 2022, the government released a white paperthatcontinues to encourage trophy hunting and fails to end commercial exploitationfor traditional medicine.
3,300 Australian supporters and 35 international travel agencies, joined our calls and sent this letter for the South African government to stop trophy hunting.
Letter to Minister Creecy
Dear Minister Creecy
I welcome the draft white paper on Conservation and Sustainable Use of South Africa’s Biodiversity seeking to create a prosperous nation, living in harmony with nature where biodiversity is conserved for present and future generations.
But it falls short on clarity or tangible commitments to end global commercial wildlife trade, which includes captive lion breeding, the use of lion bones for traditional medicine, and trophy hunting.
South Africa should be protecting every wild animal, not trading them, shooting them or cruelly breeding them in captivity for commercial exploitation.
I urge you to reject cruel exploitative practices and invest in alternatives, including wildlife-friendly tourism.
South Africa’s wildife has the right to a wild life. Please respect and protect them as the sentient beings they are.
Thank you.
There's no pride in trophy hunting
It’s a cruel, cowardly form of theft by wealthy people.
Momentum is building to call full time on this sadistic ‘sport’.
