In South Africa thousands of captive-bred lions are hunted every year. There are almost 200 lion breeding farms in South Africa. Many of these farms also charge volunteers to pay to pet and hand-raise lion cubs. They also claim to exist for conservation, education and research purposes. We know the lions being hunted are coming from these breeding farms! Yet there is no definitive evidence that can prove this. The breeders are able to lie about where their lions end up and avoid tasking responsibility that their lions are being hunted. 

I call upon the South African government to implement a National Studbook for all captive-bred lions in South Africa. I propose that every cub born should be microchipped and registered. Every lion sold, traded or hunted should also have the microchip number recorded. These records should be made publicly available, just as the international Studbooks for other species are. This will stop lion breeders from masquerading as conservation projects when they exist to breed lions to sell them. It will create a trail of evidence which records the exact number of lions bred and sold at each facility and it will definitely prove where every captive-lion that ends up being hunted originally came from. It will allow volunteers to make informed decisions about which projects they wish to support and force breeders to be open and transparent about their motives.