http://www.cannedlion.org/cub-petting.html
Campaign Against Canned Hunting (CACH)
THE LIFE OF A CAPTIVE BRED LION IN SOUTH AFRICA
CUB PETTING
Thousands of people visit facilities where they interact with lion cubs. To pet, cuddle and have their photographs taken with a cute lion cub.
Thousands of people get involved in lion walking.
Thousands of volunteers wish to work at wild life sanctuaries, particularly if they have lion cubs to take care of, to bottle feed, to hand raise.
WHERE DO THESE MANY LION CUBS COME FROM?
The harsh reality is that they are the product of factory farming. The cubs are taken from their mothers shortly after birth. This causes extreme stress to both the mother and the cubs.
The mother is then forced to breed again and again, to produce about 2 to 3 litters of cubs in a year. This is extremely unnatural. In the wild a lioness will only reproduce cubs every second or third year.
WHAT BENEFIT IS HAND REARING TO A LION CUB?
There are no benefits at all. Lions deprived of growing up in a natural social group and hand reared cannot be rehabilitated back to the wild. These inbred, human- imprinted and psychologically damaged animals have absolutely no conservation value. They are bred for one reason only. MONEY.
THE CUB
These babies are used to entice volunteers to come out to S.A. to look after them and hand rear them. Volunteers pay lots of money to work at a facility where there are cubs, believing naively that these animals will be reintroduced back to a natural life. They will not.
These cubs, once they are able to feed themselves, are rented out to lodges where tourists come to pet and have their photos taken with them. What possible enjoyment can these cubs derive from being picked up, pawed, posed with day in and out, until they have grown too big? It is extremely stressful for them, they can lose their fur and get diarrhea. Lion cubs are naturally boisterous so they are often beaten into submission by staff members if they do not behave themselves.
No true lion sanctuary allows breeding in captivity for captivity. So there will never be cubs to interact with at a genuine lion sanctuary.
THE CUBS
Look at how poor the condition is of these cubs. Notice how the hair is falling out. This is a typical result of stress caused by removing babies from their mother at such an early age, unnatural nourishment being given to these babies and constant cub petting. When you indulge in cub petting for the self indulgent purpose of having your photo taken with a cute lion cub, this is what you are doing. Do not believe the blandishments of these lion farms that pose as wildlife sanctuaries, that their lions will not be hunted, will be released back to the wild, will go only to approved facilities that do not hunt, blah blah..
You have the choice to do the right thing.
WALKING WITH LIONS
When the young lions can no longer be pawed and picked up, they are used for walking with tourists. These lions must walk, whether they want to or not, as often as the business requires.
BEFORE THE HUNT
When the lions get older, and can no longer walk with tourists, they are sent back to the breeders where they will live their lives out in miserable little camps. The facilities are often over crowded and dirty. There, they will endure hopeless, blighted lives in miserable overcrowded conditions. Here they will wait for the end of their lives, which will be an agonising and painful death.
THE HUNT
When they finally reach huntable age, they are now used for the last time. They are sold to hunters. The Canned hunting industry in South Africa is one of the cruelest businesses on the planet. SA lion farmers have taken our majestic lions and turned them into tame, living targets for hunters, who think that they have the right to torture and destroy for fun.The agony of an animal shot multiple times with bullets or arrows has to be witnessed to be fully understood.
THE BONES
The last chapter in this sorry story is that the lion bones will be sold to the Asian markets to make lion bone cake for medicinal purposes, regardless of the fact that there is no medicinal value in them. These bones fetch thousands of dollars and the industry is growing.
DANGER TO WILD LIONS
There is a terrible danger to wild lion prides due to poaching, because how do you tell a poached dead lion from a canned hunted dead lion when the bones are exported to Asia? You can't.
When the pride males are shot, it takes the pride approximately 7 years to re-establish a functioning unit.
HOW CAN YOU TELL IF IT'S A TRUE SANCTUARY?
No true sanctuary will have any cubs or allow you to walk with predators. A true sanctuary for lions and other predators will not allow breeding nor will it allow any physical interaction with the cats. This is to protect you and the animals from harmful diseases.
Every reputable animal welfare organisation in the world condemns the use of lion cubs, or any wild animal babies, as a human plaything.
YOUR RESPONSIBILITY
We urge tourists and volunteers to practice responsible tourism and use their dollars for good and not evil. If you are guilty of indulging in any of the above practices, you must do so knowing that the lion cubs that you interact with are from the canned hunting industry and that you are contributing to their terrible lives.
Wanton cruelty to animals is offensive to compassionate people all around the world. This industry’s whole business model consists of an endless cycle of routine abuse of helpless animals. Cubs are ripped away from their mothers at birth. They are exploitively used for stressful petting by thousands of tourists. When too old for that, they are used for walking with yet more tourists, and then they suffer an early and violent death. This is not farming or hunting. This is a sick business which must be closed down.
Please take this seriously and look at this site https://www.facebook.com/volunteersbeware?hc_location=timeline to understand fully the horror of these breeding farms.
CALL TO ACTION
1. Write to the S.A. Government to end this industry. All SA conservation authorities emails can be found at http://www.cannedlion.org/global-march.html
2. Inform tourism agencies in your town why they should only send their clients to ethical locations.
3. Write to S.A. Embassies/Consulates in your country asking them to end this industry.
4. Do not engage in cub petting.
5. Do not engage in lion walking.
6. Do not volunteer to take care of lion cubs.
7. Seek celebrity action to raise awareness of the SA canned hunting industry.
8. Spread the word of what is happening to our wildlife heritage on social media.
As Lisa Marsden so aptly explains: “The African lion is smuggled out of its homeland, destined to become a burger patty, a magic potion, or a floor mat. Harvested in superficial conditions and chopped up and sold for parts, the largest carnivore in Africa–the king of all animals–has gone from being a symbol of strength and bravery to a mere commodity traded amongst humans to the point where it is consumed as an unrecognizable version of itself.”
This magnificent lion has been reduced to a special.
To be shot and die a painful, agonizing death.
Everyone that pets or walks with a lion is part of this.
