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ALBERT
AGAINST LION BREEDING
AND ECOLOGICAL RE-INTRODUCTION TOURISM
A CON-CONSERVATION CAUSE?
Thinking of supporting a conservation project working with captive lions in Africa? Think again… the ALERT Lion Encounter/Walking with Lions project based in Zimbabwe, and many other copy-cat operations in South Africa, are conservation scams. There is no conservation benefit in the ALERT, and your time and money will be spent on developing a private business empire - one which has made the owners very wealthy. In the ten years since this project was conceived, well over a hundred lions have been used in this captive breeding and 'reintroduction' project, and not one has been released back into the wild - nor will they ever be. These hand-reared and habituated lions will only ever achieve Stage Two of their project, semi-captivity, in fenced, managed enclosures. Only their offspring are proposed to be released into the wild. We ask what is the need for this convoluted captive breeding project?
For a history of the development of the ALERT project, see Background. We actually provide you with more of their newsletters than are available on their website (which is still just a holding page).
SUMMARY OF ISSUES RELATING TO THE ALERT PROJECT
Captive lion breeding and ‘lion walking’
ALERT was developed as a fundraising extension of a private 'safari park' based in Gweru (Zimbabwe) known as Antelope Park, and which has been breeding and walking lions with tourists for many years. Antelope Park is the captive breeding centre for the project, and its owner, Andrew Conelly, self-styled 'Chairman' and founder of African Impact and many associated companies, is a Trustee of the ALERT charity, which is registered in the UK (despite obvious conflicts of interest in his roles).
ALERT operate their Lion Encounter experience, promoted under the banner 'Walking with Lions' in Victoria Falls (Zimbabwe) in partnership with adventure activity provider Safari Par Excellence (known for short as SafPar).
In discussion on the issue in the forum group Safaritalk, David Youldon gives the following information on stage one of the ALERT programme, where cubs are removed from their mothers and hand-reared for use in ‘lion walks’ with tourists:
“In Stage One the cubs born in our breeding centre [Antelope Park] are taken from their mother at 3 weeks old… Removing the cubs at this young age allows us to train the lions only to the point that they are safe for us to take out on walks from 6 weeks to 18 months old.”
We question the need for a conservation 'reintroduction' project to remove cubs from their mothers, the high level of human contact during this stage, and the need to use the lion cubs in their ‘Walking with Lions’ experience as part of their self-claimed conservation programme. This stage of the programme has already generated one copy-cat experience in Victoria Falls, operated by activity provider Shearwater Adventures and using lions bred at the Harare Lion & Cheetah Park, and more recently another operation in Zambia (where ALERT have also expanded) and also gives legitimacy to the ‘cub petting’ experiences offered by many captive lion breeding facilities in South Africa - lions which face futures being shot in 'canned hunts' (see below).
This high level of human-animal interaction will inevitably lead to incidents such as that which recently occurred at Antelope Park, where a tourist was attacked in the back of the head - see Daily Telegraph - British teacher attacked by lion on safari (04/02/08).
Attacks at another lion walking centre, the Harare Lion & Cheetah Park, highlight the potential dangers - see The Earth Times - Australian diplomat mauled by lions in Zimbabwe (03/05/07) and Newzimbabwe - Lion kills Japanese diplomat in Zimbabwe (11/03/06).
We understand there have been many other incidents brushed under the carpet at Antelope Park, as well as at their Victoria Falls operation, and believe that it is only a matter of time before a serious incident occurs, endangering the life of a tourist - and the lion or lions involved, which will inevitably have to be put down.
The simple fact is that if these lions were not hand-reared to be used in ‘Walking with Lions’ tourist interactions then there would be no need to 'rehabilitate' them. Hand-rearing and human habituation condemns the animals involved to lives in captivity, no matter what 'rehabilitation' takes place.
Trapped in Stage Three
Hand rearing of lion cubs will ensure that these animals are imprinted to humans, and they thereafter lack the instinctive human avoidance behaviour of wild lions. These lions are therefore unsuitable for release into the wild, by the project's own admission, and after they have finished being exploited in lion walks (at the age of 18 months) and 'rehabilitated', will be forever trapped in Stage Three of the project in managed, fenced enclosures, with only their offspring theoretically reaching Stage Four and proposed release into the wild.
‘Lion walking’ in Stage One requires a constant supply and turnover of young cubs, and results in over breeding of lions. The ALERT project already has a surplus of lions which have gone through this first stage of the project, and which are now kept in ‘temporary’ enclosures at their Antelope Park breeding centre, awaiting release into Stage Two, for which the project has insufficient land or funding.
These ‘rehabilitated’ captive-bred lions can only be released into relatively small areas, such as fenced-off game farms and private reserves. In such cases, invasive management will always be necessary, such as spaying of females and removing of older males to prevent inbreeding and intra-specific conflict. In such cases these males will have to be placed elsewhere – requiring additional fenced areas - or they will be conveniently sold to middlemen who then sell them to be used in 'canned hunts'? All of these areas will also need to be constantly stocked with prey species, which will come from where? The wild? Or perhaps they will use domestic animals... further eroding claims of 'rehabilitating' these lions into wild situations.
We believe that the high levels of management and funding required to maintain Stage Three of the project are unsustainable, and that the project will not even be able to 'rehabilitate' the 100 or more lions which have already passed through the 'Walking with Lions' stage - a number which increases every year and with every lion walking operation that is established - of which there are currently two sites in Zimbabwe (at Antelope Park and Victoria Falls), and another soon to be established in Livingstone (Zambia).
Canned hunting and sale of lions to South Africa
During the early development of the ALERT project, Antelope Park have admitted that 37 of their captive bred lions - which they had used in their tourism 'Walking with Lions' experience - were sold and exported to South Africa. Another two lions were sold to a captive breeder in Zimbabwe.
“A total of 39 lions have been sold by Antelope Park since the current owners acquired the property in 1987. 37 of those lions were sold, in two groups, one in 1999 and the majority in 2002 to a captive centre in South Africa... Two further lions were sold to a private breeder within Zimbabwe, not associated in any way with hunting, in 2005. ” (ALERT Press Statement 11/02/08)
These exports happened some years after the exposure of the ‘canned hunting’ industry in South Africa, as shown in The Cook Report and Carte Blanche TV exposes in 1997, and the ultimate fate of these lions would have been well known to the owners of Antelope Park, despite their claims otherwise.
There is a large demand for captive bred lions in South Africa, with many concerns over animal welfare standards and their use in hunting safaris - so called ‘canned hunts’ - and without doubt these lions would have ended up either in breeding programmes to supply this demand, or being shot themselves in canned hunts. Why else would their lions have been of so much value to be sold and exported, if not for the 'canned hunting' industry?
On the ALERT support group in Facebook , David Youldon, the ALERT Chief Operating Officer, made the following statement (which has since been deleted!):
“It is possible that some of the lions that we sold to South African breeders were sold on a number of times and ended up in the canned hunting industry and this is entirely regrettable.”
Despite this admission, Antelope Park and ALERT still to this day claim that none of their lions have been sold to canned hunts, conveniently drawing a line between themselves and Antelope Park. However it is not difficult to see that Antelope Park were 'clearing the decks' of un-wanted and un-necessary animals from their breeding programme in preparation for launching their ALERT project, and that these sales are therefore directly related to the establishment of ALERT, which was being developed as a concept as early as 1999.
We also understand that more lions were sold to South Africa than Antelope Park and ALERT have admitted, and urge them to openly publish the details of these sales, including the age and sex of all individuals sold, as well as the sale destinations.
Release into the wild?
The ultimate aim of the project’s program is Stage Four – the release of ‘wild’ born offspring from 'rehabilitated' captive lions (in Stage Three) into the wild.
“We already have significant interest from governments for National Parks and private reserves across the continent from the Ivory Coast to Mozambique for stage four release sites.” (TripAdvisor).
The claim that releasing captive bred lions into national parks and wild areas will serve any conservation purpose by augmenting lion numbers is wholly unsubstantiated. It fails to take into account the genetic structure of lion sub-populations, disrupts natural patterns of wild lion social structures and far from providing conservation benefit the released animals may, in fact, introduce deleterious genes or diseases into established wild lion populations, or otherwise alter the local adaptations of naturally occurring genetic stocks.
Further to this attempts to reintroduce a species, if poorly conceived or implemented, may actually obscure the conservation issues that led to the decline of the species in the first place – and thus may detract from, rather than add to, conservation aims. The threats to wild lion populations are not addressed by this project and the key causal factors in the recent dramatic decline in lion populations - conflict with humans (persecution and hunting) and habitat loss – are left unanswered.
There is no need for a re-introduction program with the African lion. Given reasonable protection from human-related mortality and sufficient habitat and prey resources, wild lions have the capacity to rapidly and naturally repopulate a depleted area. In addition to conserving local genetic adaptations, the advantages of natural recovery versus captive bred introductions include greater stability to pride structure. Moreover, a naturally recovering predator population will exist at a density that is appropriate for both game populations and available habitat, thereby reducing the risk of conflict with humans and livestock.
We are of the opinion that there are very few, if any, vacuums left in Africa where free-ranging lions can be reintroduced - and if areas are identified for reintroductions, wild caught (from over-populated managed areas) and translocated animals (from conflict areas) will always be preferable.
Call to can captive breeding programme
David Youldon has previously stated:
“Once we have our Stage Two and Three release sites fully operational we will only be breeding at a level that our release sites can support, and if we have to shut down any part of Stage One such that we do not have lions retired from Stage One with nowhere to go, then we have always stated that we will do that.” (Facebook).
He has also added:
“Stage Three and Four are unproven as yet, and we still have work to do on making sure that our protocols for stage Two are perfected, but we are making huge progress on that front, and through much consultation we are confident that our plans for Stage Three and Four will work, but we will obviously have to review, as we do with everything, once we get to that point.” (Facebook).
We believe that to continue operating Stage One of the project, the captive breeding of lions and their commercial use in ‘Walking with Lions’, without suitable Stage Two and Three release sites secured, is irresponsible. They have used over 100 lions in this project since establishing their second Stage One lion walking operation in Victoria Falls (in 2005), and to claim that they will only limit Stage One once Stages Two and Three are 'fully operational' is just crazy. How many lions do they need for Stages Two and Three?? Stages Three and Four of their project are, by their own admission, as yet unproven (they haven't even started Stage Three yet!), but they are happy to continue to breed lions for use in Stage One... and now at three different sites (Antelope Park, Victoria Falls and now Livingstone, Zambia). If each site needs about 10 lion cubs every 12 months, that is a turnover of 30 cubs every year... come on guys, this is nothing more than commercial exploitation under the name of conservation!!
We call on ALERT to immediately halt all lion breeding in Stage One of their project, ‘Walking with Lions’, and associated 'voluntourism' programme until suitable Stage Two and Three sites have been identified and secured for the lions that have already been used in Stage One (and which are currently held in 'temporary' enclosures at the Antelope Park breeding facility). I believe that they should not restart such operations until all these lions are at least 'rehabilitated' into Stage Two, and that Stages Three and Four are fully tested.
FURTHER DETAILS
THE CONSERVATION ANGLE
The main argument against this project is that leading lion researchers have united to state that they see no conservation merit in the project - see Joint Statement (Aug 2006) and statement by Dr Sarel van der Merwe (Dec 2007).
For more information see the Conservation Angle
THE ZAMBIA EXPANSION
This has serious implications for ALERTs planned expansion into Livingstone, Zambia, which is in full progress at the moment, despite a supposed moratorium on developments within the UNESCO World Heritage Site (until a development plan for the area has been agreed and implemented). Their actions are the latest in a long line of developments in Zambia which threaten the status of the area as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Are these the actions of a conservation-minded and ethically-aware organisation?
For more information see the Zambia Situation
ETHICAL PERSPECTIVES
Boycott lion breeding and reintroduction projects?
We therefore ask the question - is it time to call for tourists and tourism agents to boycott captive lion breeding centres, lion walking and interaction experiences and companies which directly support them? We believe so. If not the 'fat-cat' owners of these unethical operations will continue to make large sums of money from exploiting captive animals and well-intending conservation volunteers through distorting conservation aims and perspectives - and also encouraging 'copy-cat' operations - whilst legitimate big cat conservation research continues on shoestring budgets.
For more information see the Ethical Perspectives.
Can you help?
If you have any comments, advice or information which can help us in our work to highlight the issues relating to the ALERT project, please email - emailquentinjones[at]yahoo.co.uk
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