Lion bones a growing business in Asia, will push the lions in Africa to extinction
After the cruel hunt, the bones are sold to the Asian markets, to be used in a wine or made into a cake.
1. The sting in the tail
The ruthless exploitation of the lion does not end with the canned hunt.
Squeezing the last buck out of the lion, the breeder now sells the bones to the Asian market.
The lion's bones will be sold to the Asian markets to make lion bone cake for medicinal purposes, regardless of the fact that there is no medicinal value in them. These bones fetch millions of dollars and the industry is growing.
2. Millions of dollars for old bones
The bones are fraudulently marketed in Asia as Tiger bone wine or cake.
3. Looting wildlife for profit
The concoction includes lion bones, deer antler, turtle shells and monkey bones.
4. Wine or cake sir?
After boiling, the concoction is added to rice wine for the Chinese market, and compressed into tiger bone cake, which is favoured in Vietnam.
5. The extinction card
Chinese shamans regard the bones of wild lions and tigers as being more potent than those of captive-bred animals.
The growth of the lion bone trade is going to cause an horrendous upsurge in the poaching of wild lions, who are already under threat from persecution and hunting, thereby pushing them closer to regional extinction in Africa.
What you can do
1. Write to the S.A. Government to end this industry. All SA conservation authorities emails can be found at our What You Can Do page.
2. Inform tourism agencies in your town why they should only send their clients to ethical locations.
3. Write to S.A. Embassies/Consulates in your country asking them to end this industry.
4. Do not engage in cub petting.
5. Do not engage in lion walking.
6. Do not volunteer to take care of lion cubs.
7. Seek celebrity action to raise awareness of the SA canned hunting industry.
8. Spread the word of what is happening to our wildlife heritage on social media.
