Born Free Foundation - Keep Wildlife in the Wild

In a major expose, the Sun newspaper today (June 10th) revealed the darker side of World Cup tourism to South Africa, with visitors being encouraged to gun down wild animals in between football matches.

The article highlights the appalling practice of canned hunting, in which lions are bred in captivity and then "released" into a fenced off area where wealthy tourists pay top dollar to shoot their victims.

Born Free's founder, Virginia McKenna expressed her horror:

"I’m disgusted – canned hunting is for the sad and the sick. Imagine: you go to a ‘canned hunting ranch’ and the owner guarantees that you will kill the animal of your choice – a lion, for example.  How can he do that – because the lion has no chance of getting away. It’s in an enclosure, it cannot escape, it may even have been drugged or hand-reared to make it more approachable. No kill - no fee. What a concept! The South African government has promised to shut the whole ghastly canned hunting business down – the sooner the better! Wild lions need our help and our protection – there may be as few as 25,000 left across the whole of Africa.  Born Free is doing what it can to help – you can too"

Our CEO Will Travers, giving the humane alternatives said :

"The England Team got it right! They went on safari in search of Big Game before our Big Game on Saturday. They wanted to see animals and admire them in the wild – not blow them away in some ridiculous, sick moment of misguided glory. Well done Fabio! On behalf of Born Free I urge all fans travelling to the World Cup to totally reject any temptation to waste their time, waste their money and waste the lives of South Africa’s magnificent wildlife. If you want to see wild (and rescued) lions – head for Born Free’s Big Cat Rescue Centres at Shamwari, near Port Elizabeth."

Warning. The video below contains upsetting footage of the canned hunt of a lion taking place in South Africa