Canned Hunting

For centuries, hunters risk their lives to hunt top predators in the wildness of South Africa, however, wealthy tourists have a much safer and easier option now. It is a highly controversial practice called Canned Hunting, which consists in hunting wild animals in a confined area from which they cannot escape. Tourists are misinformed that the lions are being bred for re-introduction to the wild, consequently they are invited to pat and bottle-feed them for a bargain¹. As a result, the animals involved in this activity, especially the lions, are habituated to human contact growing up no longer fearfully of people. Therefore it is common for such animals approach humans to get fed but instead they receive a bullet or even an arrow from a hunting bow.
Needless to say that it’s a very profitable industry, every year, thousands of people (mostly from USA, Germany, France and the UK²), travel to South Africa and spend more than $30.000 to hunt a single lion³. Interestingly the Canned Hunting of lions it is not illegal in South Africa, although it have been banned all over the USA and Europe. In 2007 the South African Government instituted rules to restrict this practice, however three years later a judge upheld an appeal by predators breeders4.
Supporters of Canned Hunting affirms that it is a good way of introducing new hunters to the sport5, breeders argue that it is better hunters shoot a captive-bred lion than further endanger the wild population, on the other hand, there are plenty of campaigns and institutions rallying to stop