It has hauled Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Minister Dion George to court to compel him to establish and declare an annual export quota for lion bones and derivatives for 2024 and 2025. No quota has been set for the international trade in lion skeletons since 2019.
The legal challenge, filed in the Pretoria high court in December, “relates to the duty of the minister” to decide and to establish an annual export quota for the 2024 and or 2025 calendar years for the trade in lion bones, bone pieces, bone products, claws, skeletons, skulls and teeth for commercial purposes”, Sapa president Johannes Wessels said in his founding affidavit.
The other respondents cited are the director-general of George’s department and the Scientific Authority.
According to Wessels, the minister’s decision not to declare an annual lion bone export quota, “alternatively the failure to take a decision to declare an annual quota”, has prevented Sapa members and others in the industry from exporting lion derivatives in the years 2019 to 2024.
This is in “breach of the duty to set a quota and continues in breach of such duty and such conduct/failure is unlawful, irrational and unconstitutional”, Wessels said, adding that the .
applicants are lawfully in possession of lion derivatives from captive breeding operations “that they wish to dispose of and export such lion derivatives for commercial purposes”.
Lions need to be protected to avert extinction
‘Major embarrassment’
Lion bones are exported predominantly to Southeast Asia, where they are used as ingredients in traditional medicine, including wines and tonics, as a substitute for tiger bone.
South Africa is home to the world’s largest commercial lion farming industry, according to animal protection organisations Ban Animal Trading and the EMS Foundation.
“Lions are bred, often in appalling conditions, and are exploited for profit at every stage of their short lives. This rogue industry has strong links to international criminal networks, provides a legal channel for the trafficking of illegal big cat parts and fuels the demise of wild big cat populations,” they said.
The organisations said they are “repelled” by the legal action from the lion bone farmers arguing that it was “common knowledge that the trade in lion bones is a major ethical, legal and administrative embarrassment” for South Africa.
They have vowed to oppose the attempt by breeders and dealers to restart the trade, noting that 10 of the 11 applicants have stockpiles of more than 1 530 sets of lion skeletons altogether.
“Should the lion bone farmers secure a favourable judgment, each one of the 10 applicants will coin at least R7 million. Their legal challenge rests on the constitutional protection of economic rights, specifically the right to freely engage in trade, choose an occupation and practise a profession.”
Large stockpiles
In 2017, the annual export quota for lion bones and derivatives was set at 800 skeletons. In 2018, it was set at 1 500 but this was reconsidered and amended to 800. The National Council of SPCAs (NSPCA) challenged the decision to issue the annual export quotas for 2017 and 2018.
In 2019, the high court found that the department’s decision to set the 2017 and 2018 quotas was unlawful and constitutionally invalid because of the department’s failure to consider the welfare of captive-red lions when making the decision. The court placed the onus on the department to consider the animals’welfare when making decisions concerning them.
At the time, the NSPCA said it had opened a number of criminal cases against captive lion facilities “that have neglected, and in some instances, completely disregarded the welfare of their lions”. It was for these reasons that it launched its application as the lion bone quota directly affected the welfare of captive lions.
According to Wessels’ affidavit, the failure to set a quota for many years has resulted in large stockpiles of lion derivatives.
“Members of Sapa have applied for export permits to which the department has responded that no permits may be granted until a quota has been determined by the minister,” he said.
“As a result … the second to eleventh applicants and others in the industry are unable to export lion derivatives, which has resulted in a significant stockpile of lion bone/lion derivatives.”
The stockpile was obtained from lawful hunting activities where permits for the hunting of the captive-bred lions were already issued and “proper records for the stockpile are held, confirming that lion bones/derivatives have been legally acquired”, he said.
He argued that the captive-bred lion industry contributes towards the economy in various ways, with the export of lion bones/derivatives “being a major component”.
“Such export further eases the pressure/threat to wild lion populations as alluded to in the Scientific Authority’s NDF [non-detriment finding], in that the international demand for lion bones can be met from the existing stockpile of already lawfully hunted captive-bred lions (as opposed to the illegal poaching of wild lion).”
‘Any broken bones will affect the value’
The applicants have “suffered and stand to suffer further irreparable harm” in the event that the minister does not comply with his duties, his affidavit said, noting that the bones have the most value soon after the lion in question has been hunted.
“The condition of the bones and derivatives is important and any broken bones will affect the value. The condition of the skull, teeth and claws is of particular importance.
The bones and derivatives lose weight over time. “The industry norm is that a total value for all the bones (and derivatives) would be 15kg for a large lion, while between 10kg and 15kg would easily qualify as medium and less than 10kg would be considered a small lion.”
There is significant weight loss, especially where bones are stored for longer than six years. “This can result in the derivatives of a particular lion falling into a lower eight class, which will cause a significant loss because of diminished value.”
For a complete large male lion, where the bones are in good condition, with the skull, nails (claws) intact and the four big teeth in good condition, a price of R65 000 per set can be reached. For a similar male lion, if the skull and nails are missing or severely damaged, the price drops to R45 000, he said.
An average large female lion where the bones are in good condition, with the skull, nails and four big teeth intact, sells for R55 000 while the derivatives of the same female will only reach the value of R35 000, if the skull and nails are missing or severely damaged.
“On average, a set of lion biomes and derivatives stored for five years will lose a minimum of 25% of its weight. The market is dominated by weight as the bones are sold per kilogram at the end destination.
“A further downside to storing the bones and derivatives for a period of a year or longer is that the main teeth often crack and break as they dry out. This makes a significant difference to the price paid by the end users.”
In the event that the minister fails to comply with the duties either timeously, or at all, in respect of the 2024 annual export quota allocation, the country and its people “stand to lose about R25 million to R50 million in respect of lost revenue for the 2024 calendar year”.
‘Not in the public interest’
Ban Animal Trading and the EMS Foundation said the legal trade — in South Africa and globally — was difficult to monitor and defined by loopholes, negligence and a lack of compassion.
“The legal trade disrespects and harms wildlife, largely ignores welfare considerations, facilitates laundering and stimulates the convergence of wildlife crime. It also creates public health and safety concerns. The legal trade further fuels the decline of wild populations as it supports a market for lions and their body parts,” the organisations said.
“The sale of lion bones is not in the public interest and is unconstitutional. The prioritisation of economic benefits of a handful of people over the public good, public opinion, public heritage and the public future. The … minister must set a zero quota for the export of lion bones to remove the financial incentive to circumvent the law.”
They said Sapa’s legal action was a direct result of inaction by the environment department to properly address lion bone stockpiling and to ensure this practice is prohibited.
“Keeping lion skeleton stockpiles while advocating against the trade sends mixed signals about the acceptability of lion skeletons as a commodity,” they said, adding that a clearer stance through stockpile destruction reinforces that lions, like all wildlife, should not be commercialised.
Peter Mbelengwa, the spokesperson for the department, confirmed this week that Sapa had brought the application.
In a public notice last November, the department invited individuals in the captive lion industry to voluntarily surrender their stockpiles of lion bones and derivatives.
“In South Africa, which has the world’s largest captive lion population of around 8 000, the captive lion industry faces escalating ethical, regulatory, conservation, economic hurdles, as well as misalignment with global conservation trends and persistent animal welfare and other issues. The industry’s deficiency in social license and departure from international norms present formidable problems to its sustainability,” it said.
A report on the captive lion industry, commissioned by former environment minister Barbara Creecy, recommended voluntary exit options, including from activities involving lion bone stockpiles and derivatives.
It recommended the implementation of a programme to acquire and legally dispose of legal lion bone stockpiles, for facilities that comply with the voluntary exit requirements outlined in the report.
