FRIDAY, 3.30PM:
AN episode of the British investigative TV programme The Cook Report, due to be shown on May 6, lifts the lid on SA hunting operations which charge large sums to set up kills for foreign hunters involving drugged or confined lions.
The programme makes several allegations, including that: SA game farmers are breeding captive lions specifically as trophies for these “canned” hunts; Hunt operators on private reserves bordering the Kruger National Park are luring park lions onto their properties to be killed by big-paying foreign hunters; and The SA Tourism Board could be seen to support the “canned” hunting business, as it lists operators in its SA hunting directory. The programme features a video sequence showing a lioness that has been lured from the Kruger Park trapped against the park fence and shot while her three cubs watch from the other side of the fence.
The findings of the programme’s investigation were this week presented for comment to representatives of the SA government in London. The documentary and the findings will also be presented to Environment Affairs and Tourism Minister Pallo Jordan, with the intention of mobilising to have “canned” hunts banned.