More on white lion exploitation.
The canned hunt industry is controlled by tight syndicates that exclude outsiders from facilities where lions are bred to be killed. Footage of lions bred for canned hunts at Timbavati show them to have defects due to inbreeding and confinement: bone defects, missing tail tufts, hinquarter paralysis and, in one individual, an open wound on the forehead that resembled a bullet hole. Some cubs bred for canned hunts have required open heart surgery, indicating a damaging level of inbreeding. Those cubs got treated just so they could survive to adulthood and be shot.
The hunters are mainly foreign tourists who want a white lion trophy. The lion is penned in a small enclosure and the trophy-hunter shoots it from behind the fence. Being used to humans, the lions may go to the fence to investigate their visitors. Many of the hunters have no experience of killing and shoot the captive lion several times before it dies.
Pictured above is Brutus, who has found sanctuary at Drakenstein Lion Park.
