Canned hunting banned
Lawrence Seretse | Thursday March 27, 2014 16:29
In a press release issued this week the ministry emphasised its intention to ban canned hunting, the practice in which large carnivores such as lions or other wildlife species are raised in captivity and hunted in small camps with no room for escape or to elude the hunter.
The ministry said that efforts to strengthen legislation to ensure that this “abhorrent and unethical practice does not find its way into Botswana under any guise”, were underway.
“We are committed to conserving our biodiversity; large carnivore included and we do not tolerate cruelty to our wildlife in any form,” read the press statement.
In last year’s lengthy investigations, Mmegi followed and revealed the rampant smuggling of predators by Batswana in association with South African game farmers in the Kgalagadi District.
Mmegi exposed the involvement of Minister De Graaff in the captive breeding of lions in Gantsi and how he subsidised the South African multi-million Rand canned hunting industry. The South African industry caters to the Asian and international trophy-hunting markets.
Towards the end of 2013 De Graaff was permitted to export 22 lions to the Makhulu Game Farm near Boshof in the Free State. Mmegi’s collaboration with Mail & Guardian and Oxpeckers Org. reporters uncovered a fully blown canned hunting facility in which the 200 or more lions were kept captive along with De Graaff’s pride of 22.
It has emerged that South Africa is in the process of developing a biodiversity management plan that may prohibit lions and leopards from wild populations being introduced into captive breeding facilities.
In early 2013, President Ian Khama announced that a hunting ban would be effective as of January 2014.
Another indefinite ban on the exportation of all game animals including captive carnivores was also put in place two months ago. Trophy hunting was banned in favour of photographic tourism.