South Africa’s High Court Declares Lion Bone Export Quotas Unlawful

The High Court of South Africa declared the government’s annual commercial 2017-2018 export quotas for lion skeletons from captive breeding operations unlawful and constitutionally invalid, as they didn’t take into account of the welfare of the animals.

About 200 captive lion facilities in South Africa generate about 500 million rand ($33 million) annually in fees, according to estimates from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

South Africa has been criticized at home and abroad for allowing lions to be killed in captivity by hunters for trophies, a practice also known as canned hunting, or others who sell the bones to markets in Asia for traditional medicine ingredients. Former Environment Minister Edna Molewa had established export quotas of 800 lion bones in 2017 and 1,500 lion bones in 2018.

The “process by which South Africa sets annual export quotas for trade in lion skeletons, bones, bone products, claws and skulls for commercial purposes,” Judge Jody Kollapen said in his Aug. 6 ruling that set aside the ministry’s quotas.

Hunting captive lions is “abhorrent and repulsive due to the animals’ suffering,” Kollapen added.

Karen Trendler, a manager at the National Council of the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which filed the application against the ministry, said, “We are excited that the importance of wildlife welfare has been legally recognized in South Africa.”

What’s Next

With those quotas now invalid under its Constitution, South Africa is now legally obliged to consider animal welfare in all of its wildlife conservation decisions, according to Ross Harvey, wildlife conservation researcher at the nonprofit Conservation Action Trust.

“The judgment strongly rejects the view that adaptive management of wild animals can arbitrarily be divorced from ethics,” said Harvey said in an Aug. 7 interview.

The landmark decision, however, doesn’t stop captive breeding and trade in lion bones in South Africa or put an end to setting up of export quotas in future.

Barbara Creecy, South Africa’s new minister of the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries, has not yet set the export quota for lion bones for 2019.

The department didn’t respond to Bloomberg Environment requests for comment.