Lions, Bones & Bullets: new documentary sheds light on wildlife trafficking

Posted by Olerato Ramafsi on 21 November 2022

Lions, Bones & Bullets is a new documentary that sheds light on South Africa’s controversial commercial captive lion industry. The team followed the wildlife trafficking trail to Laos and Vietnam.

blood lions canned hunting

Picture: Blood Lions

British author Richard Pierce talks to lion farmers and hunters in South Africa who are exporting lion bones to Southeast Asia for the traditional medicine trade, supplementing the tiger bones trade. Pierce uncovers the elaborate wildlife fraud of processing lion bones into ‘food products’, which could contain zoonotic diseases that can potentially lead to another pandemic.

The UK production company, Jagged Peak Films, is behind this new investigative film with producers Anton Leach, Jasmin Duthie and Richard Pierce. The film is narrated by British actor Peter Egan.

South African non-governmental organisations Panthera Africa big cat sanctuary, Humane Society International-Africa and Blood Lions have come together to offer an exclusive screening of Lions, Bones & Bullets in the Hermanus Auditorium on Thursday 15 December 2022.

The screening starts at 9am with coffee, tea and vegan snacks, and will be followed by an informative panel discussion moderated by independent investigative journalist Dr Don Pinnock.

Dr Audrey Delsink (Wildlife Director, Humane Society International-Africa) said: ‘Captive lion breeding and all of its associated industries from cub-petting to canned lion hunting has been allowed to fester for nearly two decades. The result is an animal welfare crisis with serious risks and consequences for the people that both work with and interact with these animals. Urgent and decisive action is needed; this can no longer be swept under the proverbial lion’s rug.’

Dr Louise de Waal (Director, Blood Lions) added: ‘Even though Minister Creecy of the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment announced in May 2021 that South Africa will no longer breed captive lions or their derivatives commercially, in other words the government intents to effectively end commercial captive lion industry, no real changes have so far been implemented.’

‘It is with the utmost urgency that all of us, the public, corporates, organisations and government, wake up to their responsibility to bring an end to the atrocities captive big cats in South Africa are subjected to. Lions, Bones and Bullets brilliantly portrays the truth about their current situation, which enables us all to make conscious and well-informed decisions, to free the kings and queens of Africa,’ adds Cathrine Cornwall-Nyquist (Co-founder of Panthera Africa).

Pictures: Supplied

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