Canned hunting has become an issue for the Australian Government, but it has been on the forefront of conservationists and wildlife activists for some time now.
Canned hunting is the hunting of animals while in captivity overseas. The biggest market for this is in South Africa. People pay thousands of dollars to “hunt” exotic animals such as lions, rhinoceros’ and other high value species in an enclosed space.
South African conservationist and author Ian Michler is one to raise the alarm on the way these animals are treated. He claims that many of these animals are raised in captivity for the sole purpose of these hunts. Young volunteers who go to South Africa to work on these farms, many of them being Australian, are being tricked into believing they are helping conservationists save animals. The young animals are used as tourist attractions, allowing people to pose for photographs and walk them until they are old enough to be hunted, killed and divided up for trophies.
Many canned hunting farms claim that they are conserving the lions by raising them by hand, because they cannot advertise that they are specifically for hunting. They do this because it would deter volunteers from coming across to work for them.
Mr Michler recently travelled to Australia to support the lobby of banning trophies being imported. He told the ABC that the hand rearing of lion cubs is not a form of conservation, in fact it is worse for them and for humans because they have lost the fear.
“You cannot reintroduce a human imprinted or hand reared lion into the wild. It cannot be done. Lions are scared of humans. We know that if they are cornered or in a dangerous situation they will attack and kill humans. But if they are scared in the wild and are not cornered they will run away. If it is a human imprinted lion, it’s lost that fear of humans. It is always a danger, it will kill humans if reintroduced.” he said.
95 percent of canned hunting happens in South Africa on private farmlands, because on private land there is no laws stopping them from raising and killing these animals. There are about 150 farms within South Africa, that people are aware of, that act as canned hunting lands.
99 percent of canned hunters are foreign. The largest number came from the United States but there have been 144 lions have been imported into Australia as trophies, meaning many Aussies are going across with the specific goal of hunting a caged animal.
On October 4, which is also World Animal Day, people marched in order to further raise government awareness of canned hunting. Hundreds of people attended marches planned in more than 100 cities across the globe, including Melbourne, to preserve the many species that are being raised and slaughtered in the canned hunting industry.
Mr Michler believes that the actions being taken by Australian politicians are ahead of the curve and can very well stop the canned hunting industry, as he told the ABC.
“It will help. Once you pull the economic model from under these farmers feet, you call their bluff. You say right you can’t take the trophy home and you very quickly find out it has nothing to do with conservation, it’s only got to do with money and the kill; having the trophy.”
Federal backbencher Jason Wood has successfully lobbied the government on laws regarding trophy imports. Australians are no longer allowed to bring home rhinoceros parts as part of a government crackdown.
Now the Environment minister Greg Hunt, along with Mr Michler, is looking to appeal to the South African government to ban Australians from partaking in canned hunting. He has also started the process to ban people bringing lion parts into the country. Mr Hunt has pledged to have a result on the ban by the end of the year.
