There are absolutely no excuses to keep Canned Lion Hunting alive …the lions are starved to death and horribly killed..have you ever been to see a farm ??Why would the land be turned over to cornfields or pasture? Trophy Hunting does not help the local community ..the money goes straight into the pocket of the Hunting Organisers. If the land was turned into areas of real wildlife, instead of hunters there would be photo tourists…people staying …lodges built, staff for tracking, guides, craft shops, a reason for wildlife. A Trophy Hunter comes in …stays 2 nights shoots and ships, In fact they can now do it remotely from their home through an order catalogue. Animals would live ..and live wild. Biodiverisity would flourish and the land and peoples and animals saved. I do not think the small cages in which the lions are kept have that many butterflies/ worms and certainly not small mammals/ bats/ deer etc. I think you argument about modern agriculture verses Canned Lion Cages is corrupt and false.

There is no disputing that there are major problems with the industry BUT it’s still better than plowing up all of that pristine bushveld and turning it over to cornfields or pasture. For every canned lion there are millions of species of ants, butterflies, worms, grasses trees and small game that will be obliterated if this land is turned over to modern agriculture. Bunny hugging doesn’t pay the bills I’m afraid.

The argument that such landowners contribute to conservation is simply not true. The hunting industry and the wildlife industry in general in Southern Africa are extremely harmful for endangered species and ecosystems. Artificial breeding is a time bomb under species conservation. Only a handful of landowners enrich themselves and a very small fraction of profits is going to local communities if at all. If it’s true that emotion has no place in this argument, there is also no place for that strange emotion that trophy hunters feels when killing animals. It is indeed all about numbers and emotion and trophy hunting never played a role in conservation.