Lions bred as 'prey': Inside South Africa's big game hunting industry

Big game hunting is an industry in South Africa. ITV News correspondent Geraint Vincent visited a lion farm to investigate.

I knew lions were hunted for sport in South Africa. I had seen the pictures on social media which always caused such outrage. A magnificent animal lying lifeless at the feet of a smiling human holding a rifle.

I had always imagined that the lions who met such an end had at least led their lives wild - in the wide open spaces of the African bush.

I was wrong.

Big game hunting in South Africa is an industry. The vast majority of lions in South Africa live in captivity - bred to supply that industry with trophies.

I went to visit a lion farm. The animals - usually one male and two females - live in large pens. I guessed that the largest enclosure was no more than 80 metres long. The lions I saw were used for breeding.

The cubs are taken and when they grow big enough they become the prey in hunts where a ‘kill’ is guaranteed.

Hunters pay big money - as much as $25,000 (nearly £20,000) - to shoot a large black-maned male. The lion breeders use farming terminology to describe this process. They call it ‘the harvest’.

This entirely legal business has flourished for decades. But after years of international opprobrium, and growing domestic protest, the South African government has agreed that the breeding of lions for sport must come to an end.

It proposes a system of voluntary closures - a collaborative approach. It says it has proposed ‘multiple options’ to assist and incentivise lion farmers.

But there is no sign yet of the very large compensation payments the farmers would demand for closing businesses which they have spent their lives building up. One lion breeder told me he would take legal action to defend his livelihood.

Anti-hunting campaigners in South Africa say that big game hunting is a dark stain on South Africa’s hard won reputation for conservation and good eco-tourism.

But the realists among them know that the tourists with rifles aren’t going to stop coming anytime soon.

An animal welfare professional we spoke to foresees a compromise solution - known as ‘ranching’. The lions would be taken out of the farms and kept on large 'hunting reserves’ where they would live as wild a life as possible before being shot.

But there is much distance to be travelled before solutions are reached. The hunting of big game is part of the culture in Southern Africa and the farming of its prey is part of what has become a huge industry. For the moment, it will continue.

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