The South African television premiere of Blood Lions: Bred for the Bullet took place on 11 October 2015 on the Discovery Channel. The dark reality of captive breeding, interactive tourism, hunting, and the lion bone trade was laid bare for hundreds of thousands of people across the world, from school students to government officials to see.
We are now eight years down the line with the compelling call to action made in the documentary baring fruit, albeit slowly. Our goal is to have these unethical and insidious practices stopped and the industry closed down.
Prior to the premier of Blood Lions in 2015, the captive lion industry, although still largely unknown by the public, was growing substantially. The Cook Report – Making a Killing – was released in 1997 and served as a vital exposé of the breeding and canned hunting of lions in South Africa. Despite early warnings, the industry was allowed to expand. In 2005, an offshoot of the industry was discovered and an investigation confirmed that lion bones were used as a substitute in tiger bone wine. Not long after in 2008, the first CITES lion bone export permits were issued with 60 skeletons legally exported from South Africa’s Free State province. Thereafter, controversy grew surrounding the hunting of captive-bred lions and the issue began to gain significant momentum. The 2015 premier of the Blood Lions film and the subsequent global awareness campaign have been instrumental in bringing the captive lion industry back into the public and government spaces for scrutiny and awareness on an even greater scale.
We also applaud the many tourism organisations, airlines, and governments that have taken a stand against the commercial exploitation of lions and other predators in captivity by refusing to carry and/or import hunting trophies or withdrawing support of exploitative interactive activities like cub petting and walking with lions. Below we look at the overall and collective progress that has been achieved since the film’s launch. We want to thank every individual and organisation who have tirelessly lobbied in public and government spaces to raise awareness and affect policy change.
We look forward to all that 2023 holds as we await the outcomes of the Ministerial Task Team working to devise effective solutions to phase out the industry, by starting with voluntary exit strategies.
The Blood Lions team remains strong in their determination to raise awareness and lobby for policy change in the commercial captive predator industry. Through all the setbacks and progress, we will continue to expose the realities of this industry to promote the genuine conservation of one of Africa’s most iconic species. We await further open engagement with South Africa’s government to find a way forward that fulfills the High-Level Panel goal that “South Africa does not captive breed lions, keep lions in captivity, or use captive lions or their derivatives commercially”.
To read more about the progress made please click on the link below :
https://bloodlions.org/progress-made-so-far/
In July of this year, Blood Lions was made available to watch on YouTube.
Please follow us on social media and share the clip below to show your support and encourage Barbara Creecy to phase out this cruel industry once and for all.
Together, we can create a better future for lions in South Africa.
View this post on Instagram
