Really? Humankind!

"There's an assumption that lion has replaced tiger in the market, and therefore there's a decline of pressure on tigers, but that's not the case."
"The demand for tiger and other big cats marketed as tiger is so huge that not only is it consuming farmed tigers, but wild tigers are also still being poached."
"[The legal trade in lion parts] stimulates demand and perpetuates the desirability of these products."
"So long as there is a demand, there is going to be pressure on the world's remaining tigers."
Debbie Banks, Environmental Investigation Agency, London

South Africa claims that a stockpile of bones has been created by restrictions on international game hunters taking home their “trophies” STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN/AFP/GETTYIMAGES

"We also believe that around 90 per cent of the lion skeletons that went to Asia still had their skulls, which means they were not hunted or the skulls would have been kept as trophies."
"Growing an industry which slaughters lions in abattoirs specifically for their bones is indefensible and cannot be justified."
Michele Pickover, director, conservation charity, EMS Foundation

"Today’s landmark decision was reached in the High Court in the matter NSPCA vs Department of Environmental Affairs. The decision is with regard to the South Africa’s controversial lion bone trade. The trade of lion bone in 2017 and 2018 was ruled unlawful and unconstitutional . This judgement reiterates the 2016 Constitutional Court judgement. We celebrate the ruling and we must now work towards shutting down this industry which harbours approximately 14,000 lions in captivity."
Conservation Action Trust, 6 August 2019

By N KOLLAPEN JUDGE OF THE HIGH COURT, GAUTENG DIVISION, PRETORIA - 6TH AUGUST 2019

In December 2015, lions were added to the Endangered Species List by the United States. Leaving Americans free to continue shooting lions in legal hunts throughout Africa, they had to prove the hunt had benefited lion conservation if they wanted to carry home the trophy. South Africa operates a program they call "put and take" hunts. And most certainly those who take advantage of the brave opportunity to kill a lion that is bred with hunting facilities for these "put and take" hunts do not qualify.

Lion breeders in South Africa breed lions specifically for the purpose of exporting their skeletons. The market for lion parts in Asia is booming. And there they are identified as tiger parts. It is a vastly lucrative business and it is rising in popularity. Speculation has it that a ban by the United States instituted in 2015 when imports of captive-bred lion trophies were outlawed may have spurred this trade in lion parts.

This is all linked to a rather serious oversight in an international treaty that prohibits buying and selling products made from any big cat species. The sole exception is the African lion. Their skeletons, including claws and teeth, may be traded, as long as the animals have been bred in South Africa in captivity. The majestic king of beasts bred in captivity so it can be eviscerated, the body parts and bones sent to Asia for 'cultural' purposes.

Prior to the ban, over 8,400 captive-bred lions were housed in South Africa's breeding and hunting facilities, many destined for these "put and take" hunts, where tame animals are released within a fenced-in hunting camp to give a hunter the thrill of stalking and shooting the animal. Researchers surveyed 117 facilities in South Africa's breeding program, keeping or arranging hunts of captive lions, to determine just how the ban had affected the lion breeding industry. Should quotas constrain their business, half of the respondents in the survey planned to turn to illegal trade.

Prices for live lions were tracked by the researchers, seen to drop up to 50 percent -- with over 80 percent of respondents claiming that the ban had affected their business, others reporting staff lay-offs and being forced by circumstances to euthanize lions. The international bone trade attracted about 30 percent of the respondents where prices for skeletons rose over 20 percent since 2012.

Skeleton exports increased in the year following the ban, from 800 to 1,800 lions, with female skeletons selling for $3,100 on average and male skeletons priced at $3,700. An annual export quota for captive-bred lion parts was mandated for South Africa in 2015 by the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species. South African authorities then set a quota in 2017 of 800 skeletons.

While tiger products are wildly popular in Asia, lion bones are meant for use in producing tiger bone wine. Claws and teeth are transformed to jewellery. Additionally over a five-year span, Panthera, a conservation organization, documented a 68 percent decline in Limpopo National Park, Mozambique of their lion population, where in 2017, 21 lions remained. In Namibia and Mozambique, researchers reported finding lions with faces, paws or toes removed.

Researchers are examining whether and how demand for legal big cat products affects poaching, according to Michael 't Sas-Rolfes of University of Oxford in Britain, one of the survey researchers of South Africa's lion industry. The new ban, he warns -- on lion bone exports -- may exacerbate poaching, not merely fail to curb it.