The proudly South African documentary ‘Blood Lions’ snapped up an award at The African Travel Week Travel and Tourism Awards this week.
The Award shines a spotlight on “exceptional individuals and businesses which have written the most compelling stories in the book of African travel for 2019/20.”
The Blood Lions campaign was launched following the release of the Blood Lions feature film documentary in July 2015.
Currently, in South Africa, an estimated 10 000 – 12 000 predators, mostly lions, tigers, caracals and cheetahs, are held in captivity for commercial purposes.
Many are used in exploitative tourism activities, such as cub petting, ‘walking with lions’ attractions, as photo props, and in voluntourism.
The next stages in their short and unethical lifecycle are the captive (“canned”) hunting for their trophies and/or the legal export of lion bones to South East Asia for traditional medicine, contributing further to the escalating commoditisation of these wild animals.
The mission of the Blood Lions Campaign is to reach a broad global audience to increase awareness and knowledge around interactive captivity wildlife attractions and “canned” hunting, demonstrating that these can never be sustainable tourism options.
It is a “call to action” to not only affect behavioural change around how to treat wildlife ethically, but also to precipitate change in policy through garnering support from the world’s most influential individuals and organisations.
Photo credit: Sharon Bishop – Blood Lions Supplied
Acknowledgement: Tyler Leigh Vivier – Good Things Guy