Tangential to the thread, if true this would have the *real* hunters rolling over in their graves.
http://travel.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/travel/news/article3333595.ece
From The Sunday Times
February 10, 2008
African lion encounters: a bloody con
Chris Haslam reveals the gruesome truth behind big-cat conservation projects which British holiday firms champion
Chris Haslam
It’s the latest attraction for tourists visiting southern Africa, but conservationists are warning that walking with lions is – quite literally – a bloody con.
Dozens of private game parks across South Africa and Zimbabwe offer, or have offered, tourists the opportunity to walk with, handle and be photographed with lion cubs.
Excursions to some, such as the Aquila Private Game Reserve, outside Cape Town, and the Seaview Game and Lion Park, in Port Elizabeth, are offered by tour operators such as Kuoni, Virgin Holidays and the Holland America cruise line.
Antelope Park, in Zimbabwe, charges about £20 for a 90-minute lion encounter it describes as “not just a very privileged photo opportunity, [but] the chance for you to become a conservationist”. The park’s African Lion Environmental Research Trust (Alert) programme is enthusiastically supported by Sir Ranulph Fiennes, who, on his www.7summits.com website, praises its efforts “to help steadily increase the number of lions into areas carefully protected from poachers”.
The Sunday Times, however, has learnt that, far from being released into the wild, as many as 59 lion cubs raised at Antelope Park have been sold to big-game-hunting operations to be shot for sport.
http://travel.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/travel/news/article3333595.ece
From The Sunday Times
February 10, 2008
African lion encounters: a bloody con
Chris Haslam reveals the gruesome truth behind big-cat conservation projects which British holiday firms champion
Chris Haslam
It’s the latest attraction for tourists visiting southern Africa, but conservationists are warning that walking with lions is – quite literally – a bloody con.
Dozens of private game parks across South Africa and Zimbabwe offer, or have offered, tourists the opportunity to walk with, handle and be photographed with lion cubs.
Excursions to some, such as the Aquila Private Game Reserve, outside Cape Town, and the Seaview Game and Lion Park, in Port Elizabeth, are offered by tour operators such as Kuoni, Virgin Holidays and the Holland America cruise line.
Antelope Park, in Zimbabwe, charges about £20 for a 90-minute lion encounter it describes as “not just a very privileged photo opportunity, [but] the chance for you to become a conservationist”. The park’s African Lion Environmental Research Trust (Alert) programme is enthusiastically supported by Sir Ranulph Fiennes, who, on his www.7summits.com website, praises its efforts “to help steadily increase the number of lions into areas carefully protected from poachers”.
The Sunday Times, however, has learnt that, far from being released into the wild, as many as 59 lion cubs raised at Antelope Park have been sold to big-game-hunting operations to be shot for sport.
