The event in George coincided with the 'Global March for Lions' undertaken as part of the world wide campaign for the 'Ban Canned Hunting' movement.
Rian Geldenhuys, the local organiser, said, "It is not necessary in this modern day and age to hunt lions. In the days of our forefathers, lions were hunted in order for mankind to survive." He added that the SPCA will be petitioned to stop canned lion hunting as an extremely cruel practice and to get the necessary legislation into place.
David Nicol, a participant in the protest action, said through a loud hailer while addressing the audience, "Lions are drugged and dazed when they are being hunted. It is like taking a tame domestic animal and shooting it down in cold blood. I think it is deplorable and nobody needs the bones of a lion for medicinal purposes as is being claimed."
Another speaker, Alice Adendorf, spoke out against the practice of cub-petting and walk with lions experiences. She said these are the first steps of untold misery for cubs, who are ripped away from their mothers soon after birth. The fraudulent luring of ignorant volunteers who pay for the 'privilege' to 'care for' the cubs who are all destined to be killed in an enclosed camp where they will have no way of escape is another detestable act. Lions are often shot numerous times to prevent 'spoiling' the trophy with a shot in the head, which will be mounted on a foreign wall and the bones exported to Asia for bogus medicine - all for top dollar.
For more information on the the campaign against canned lion hunting see www.cannedlion.org. For any support or contributions, please contact: rian.geldenhuys@gmail.com.
Campaigner David Nicol (left) addresses the audience.
ARTICLE: PAULINE LOURENS, GEORGE HERALD JOURNALIST
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