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Young World
Stop the hunt
KING OF THE JUNGLE: Bred in captivity, to be hunted. PHOTO: AP
South Africa has proposed new laws that would end the "canned hunting" of wildlife bred in captivity to be shot in closed reserves by wealthy tourists. The law proposes that the breeding of threatened or endangered large predators such as cheetahs, lions or leopards for any type of hunting would be forbidden. Also banned would be all hunting that causes unnecessary suffering, such as the use of bows and arrows on large animals that can take hours or days to die. South Africa is famous as the home of the so-called Big Five — the elephant, the rhinoceroses, the lion, the Cape buffalo and the leopard. Its flagship Kruger National Park attracts hundreds of thousands of camera-toting visitors. But in the shadow of the Kruger — where all hunting is outlawed — a plethora of smaller, unregulated parks have sprung up, aimed at visitors who carry rifles and hunger for the thrill of a hunting safari. The global wildlife trade-monitoring network TRAFFIC said that in 2004, 190 lions were hunted by foreign tourists, who paid reserve owners an estimated $3.3 million - or more than $17,000 per animal. Forty-five leopards worth an estimated $250,000 were slain. The list of animals killed included baboons, giraffes, elephants, hippopotamuses, mongoose, porcupines, warthogs and zebras. Prices paid ranged from $25 for pigeons and quail to $25,000 for a white rhinoceros. Breeders have used crossbreeding and genetic manipulation to make the potential trophies more appealing - by producing large numbers of albino lions, for instance.
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