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A dramatic undercover video shows that a recent trophy-hunting convention is still promoting trips to shoot captive-bred lions in Africa, despite previous public assurances its practices had been stopped, according to a report.
Animal welfare activists for the Humane Society of the United States captured the footage last week at the annual convention of Safari Club International (SCI) in Reno, Nevada.
SCI is among the nation’s largest trophy-hunting groups and its yearly gatherings typically draw thousands of attendees and hundreds of vendors selling firearms, overseas safari trips and items made from the skins and bones of rare wildlife.
In the video, captured by the humane society last week, tour operators said the lions for sale were bred in captivity. Typically, the lions are raised in cages and small pens before being released into a larger fenced enclosure. Once reaching young adulthood, customers pay to shoot them and keep the skins, skulls, claws and other body parts for trophies.
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“They’re bred in captivity. They’re born in captivity, and then they’re released,” a salesman for Bush Africa Safaris, a South African tour operator, says in the video. “There’s guys who are going to tell you something different on the floor, they’re going to bulls--t you, that is what it is.”
Salesmen from two other safari operators also confirmed they had captive-bred lions for sale, including advertising a "bargain rate" of $8,000 for a ranch in South Africa.
Multi-day safaris for hunting wild lions can easily cost 10 times that -- money that hunting advocates say helps support anti-poaching and conservation efforts in cash-strapped African nations.
“Canned lion hunts have no conservation value and are unethical,” said Kitty Block, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States. “Lions bred for the sole purpose of being hunted for a trophy is an industry built on a conveyor belt of exploitation and animal cruelty.”
This image from video provided by the Humane Society of the United States shows a four-lion taxidermy at the Safari Club International's 2020 annual convention, that was held Feb. 5-8, 2020, in Reno, Nevada. (Humane Society of the United States via AP)
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In 2018, SCI issued a policy opposing the hunting of African lions bred in captivity, which the group said is of doubtful value to the conservation of lions in the wild. After the humane society captured video of canned hunts being sold at the SCI convention last year, SCI issued a statement pledging not to accept advertising from any operator selling such hunts, nor allow their sale in the vendor booths rented out at its annual convention.
In a statement Wednesday, SCI said its policy against captive-bred hunts had not changed and that it would investigate the issue.
“Safari Club International (SCI) proudly supports the right to hunt; however, SCI does not condone the practice of canned hunting by our members, outfitters, or other partners,” said Robert Brooks, a spokesman for the group. “As sportsmen, we believe hunting is best enjoyed when certain fair chase criteria are met.”
Schalk and Terina van Heerden, the owners of Bush Africa Safaris in Ellisras, South Africa, did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press seeking comment.
“This convention does nothing other than celebrate senseless violence toward wildlife,” Block said about big-game hunting. “Wild animals are not commodities to be sold, with their deaths something to celebrate. This needs to end.”
This image from video provided by the Humane Society of the United States shows taxidermy at the Safari Club International's 2020 annual convention, that was held Feb. 5-8, 2020, in Reno, Nevada. (Humane Society of the United States via AP)
In addition to the canned hunts on offer, vendors at the SCI convention were advertising a $350,000 hunt for a critically endangered black rhino in Namibia and $35,000 for a guided polar bear hunt in Canada.
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One safari outfitter from Africa was offering a $25,000 “Trump Special,” inviting hunters to “make your own drone strike” by shooting a buffalo, sable, roan antelope and crocodile in a single trip.
The Trump administration consistently has moved to expand the list of nations from which the heads and hides of imperiled African elephants, lions and rhinos can be legally imported back into the United States as trophies.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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