Lions back on the agenda

Liberal Democrat Senator David Leyonhjelm has spoken out against Federal Environment Minster Greg Hunt’s ban on lion trophy imports, saying the ban will hurt conservation efforts and won’t save the lion.

Senator Leyonhjelm, who will table a disallowance motion in the Senate later this year, called out Minister Hunt on his claims that he introduced the ban to protect vulnerable African lions, pointing out that African countries and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) did not support his view. The Senator expressed his views in an opinion piece to The Sydney Morning Herald.

This comes as the ABC’s Lateline program ran a surprisingly balanced piece detailing the often-misunderstood captive-bred hunting of lions, which is actually legal on private land, with certain stipulations. ‘Canned hunting’, of course, is illegal.

It is important to note that the SSAA understands canned hunting to be any activity that doesn’t adhere to the Threatened or Protected Species (TOPS) Regulations (2007) regarding captive-bred lion hunting. Listed activities such as the use of poisons, traps, baits, immobilising agents, or trapping an animal against a fence or small enclosure where there is no fair chase, are deemed illegal under these regulations.

The SSAA congratulates Senator Leyonhjelm on promoting the conservation benefits of sustainable use hunting.

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