On the 15th March 2014, people across the globe are marching for Lions. The aim of the march is to raise awareness about the South African “canned hunting” industry. 

Canned hunting is a practice that is legal in South Africa, where lions get bred in captivity, hand reared for use in the cub petting industry, then when these tame lions are big enough, shot in an enclosure often drugged, for a large sum of money.

People around the world are calling for the South African government to ban canned hunting.

“Our goals are to have trophy and canned hunting banned; to get lions on the Endangered Species List where they belong, to stop the export of lion bones to China, to stop the import of lion trophies in to USA and EU” – says Christine Jordaan who initiated the idea of this march.

The numbers of wild lions in Africa are being depleted rapidly. There are more lions being killed in South Africa than Rhinos at the moment. At this rate our lions will be extinct in less than 20 years. 

A global prayer will be led by ARCHBISHOP TUTU and his daughter Reverend Mpho Tutu, who will open the Global March for Lions with a prayer for the plight of the world’s lions, in particular South Africa’s critically endangered White Lions, whose rights to survival should be upheld in their natural habitat. This prayer will be pre-recorded and digitally screened prior to the march in all the cities marching. 

Actress TIPPI HEDREN, the woman behind Shambala Preserve big cat sanctuary in California, will be taking part in the Global March for Lions as animal rights activists in Los Angeles link up with their counterparts in 40 cities around the world to protest against big cat breeders. 

“From the heat of the African summertime to the winter cold of the northern hemisphere we want people to rise up and give out a ROAR for South Africa’s lions and populations elsewhere.” says Christine. “Many of our supporters are from overseas and so far we have marches being organised in London, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Brussels, San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Austin, Tampa FL, Vancouver BC, Adelaide, Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Mombasa, with new cities coming on board daily.” South African cities include Durban, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town, Hoedspruit, Grahamstown, Port Elizabeth and East London.

For more information on the various marches and how to take part, please visit the campaign website:

http://www.globalmarch4lions.org

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