Canned hunting, also known as captive hunts, is a term used to describe the confinement and hunting of animals in small enclosures. The animals have no way to escape and no chance of surviving the “hunt.”  The “shooters” pay large sums of money to kill the animals. Most of the lions used in canned hunts have been bred on a farm to be killed.

Canned Lion Hunting in Africa

In South Africa, canned lion hunting is big business, generating approximately $70 million a year in revenues. Many of these lions are bred for canned hunts on farms.

When young, the lions are used to attract visitors who pay money to see, pet and walk with them. Because they have been bottle fed and raised by humans, they have no natural fear of people. As the lions mature, “they become handsome targets for trophy hunters. Hundreds more are slaughtered and shipped to the East for the burgeoning lion bone trade.”

Thousands of canned hunters from the United States, the UK, Germany, France and Spain come to South Africa each year to kill lions in canned hunts.

“Moreson ranch is one of more than 160 such farms legally breeding big cats in South Africa. There are now more lions held in captivity (upwards of 5,000) in the country than live wild (about 2,000). While the owners of this ranch insist they do not hunt and kill their lions, animal welfare groups say most breeders sell their stock to be shot dead by wealthy trophy-hunters from Europe and North America, or for traditional medicine in Asia.” The Guardian (2013)

The Cook Report – Canned Lion Hunting

From Roger Cook (The Cook Report), who reported on canned lion hunting in Africa:

So-called ‘canned hunting’ involves unfairly preventing the target animal from escaping the hunter, thereby eliminating ‘fair chase’ and guaranteeing the hunter a trophy – for which he will have paid up to £25,000. The hapless animal is handicapped either by being confined to a small enclosure or because it has lost its fear of humans as a result of hand-rearing. Some are even tranquilized, as the Cook Report found in South Africa when it brought this ghastly trade to public attention in 1997.

After the programme, the Mandela government outlawed the practice, but this enlightened change in the law was successfully challenged under succeeding administrations by the influential Predator Breeders Association – and is now both legal and flourishing. There are fewer than 3000 lions left in the ’wild’ in South Africa, but more than 8,000 in captivity, being bred – like grouse – exclusively to be shot. What’s more, some of the volunteers who have paid to help raise them have been deliberately misled into believing that they are helping conservation. Nothing could be further from the truth.

This is a multi-million pound industry, founded on cruelty and fuelled by money. It is certainly not a sport. The South African Government needs to be persuaded to close it down, once and for all…

VIDEO: Chris Mercer – Director, Campaign Against Canned Hunting

Additional Canned Hunting Articles & News

The Guardian: Canned Hunting – The Lions Bred for Slaughter
Huffington Post: Canned Lion Hunting Report Suggests South African Business Booming After Regulations Lifted
Earth Island Journal: Canned Hunting and Cub-Petting Are Big Business in South Africa
National Geographic: Is Captive Lion Hunting Really Helping to Save The Species?
The Born Free USA Blog: Canned Hunts Must Die

MOVIE TRAILER: Blood Lions: An Expose of the Canned Hunting Industry

Until such time as the voice of the lion is heard, history will be written to glorify the hunter.” This powerful African proverb reversed out of a plain black screen grips the audience’s attention from the first frames of a riveting documentary. To be premiered on 22 July at the Durban International Film Festival, Blood Lions uncovers the ugly story behind South Africa’s predator breeding and canned lion hunting industry, and a team of filmmakers and conservationists who, with single-minded determination, are campaigning to have it banned.


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