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Moving Targets: The ‘Canned’ Hunting of Captive-Bred Lions in South Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2018

Richard A. Schroeder
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Abstract:

So-called canned hunts take place within fenced private game ranches and typically target animals bred in captivity solely for that purpose. Thousands of semidomesticated lions form the focal point of South Africa’s canned-hunting industry. Notions of animal welfare, “fair chase,” and conservation have been deployed to varying degrees to sway public opinion surrounding canned hunts in South Africa and abroad. While state regulatory efforts have largely failed to date, the Campaign Against Canned Hunting (CACH) has successfully promoted stricter controls on the importation of lion trophies in Australia, Europe, and the United States, in part by highlighting the recent death of Cecil, a charismatic lion shot by an American bowhunter in Zimbabwe.

Résumé:

Les chasses dites en « boîte » ou chasse au trophée ont lieu dans des fermes d’élevage de chasses privées clôturées, elles visent généralement les animaux sauvages élevés en captivité dans l’unique but de mourir chassé. Des milliers de lions semi domestiqués constituent le point focal de l’industrie de la chasse en « boîte » de l’Afrique du Sud. Pour influencer l’opinion publique sur les chasses en « boîte » en Afrique du Sud et à l’étranger, les notions de bien-être des animaux, de chasse équitable et de conservation ont été déployées de façons diverses. Alors que les efforts de réglementation de l’État ont largement échoué jusqu’à présent, la campagne contre la chasse en « boîte » (CACH) a favorisé avec succès des contrôles plus stricts sur l’importation de trophées de lions en Australie, en Europe et aux États-Unis, en soulignant en particulier la mort récente de Cecil, le lion charismatique tué par un chasseur américain de chasse à l’arc au Zimbabwe.

Keywords

trophy huntingSouth Africaanimal welfareconservationlions
Type
Articles
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 61 , Issue 1 , April 2018 , pp. 8 - 32
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2018 

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