BROEDERSTROOM, South Africa — Lions raised in captivity in South Africa are set loose in enclosed areas where hunters, many from the United States, gun them down. The toll: about 1,000 lions each year.
Kevin Richardson hopes his movie “White Lion,” which was shown at the Seattle International Film Festival in June and opened in a few U.S. cities this month, will give people second thoughts about participating in such hunts.
“I just can’t understand how anyone would want to shoot a lion that is clearly confined to a finite space with absolutely no hope in hell of ever escaping the so-called hunter,” said Richardson, a self-taught “Lion Whisperer” and first-time film producer.
“Canned lion hunting, in my opinion, is likened to fishing with dynamite in a pond and then calling yourself a fisherman.”
“White Lion” is about a rare white lion, who as a cub is cast out of his pride because of his color. He is near starvation when he befriends an older lion who teaches him the ways of the wild.
Trophy hunting is big business in South Africa, worth $91.2 million a year, according to the Professional Hunters Association of South Africa. Foreign tourists pay up to $40,000 to shoot a lion.
The government promotes hunting as a revenue source and calls it a “sustainable utilization of natural resources.” Provincial governments sell permits allowing hunters to kill rhinos, elephants, even giraffes. Hunters killed 1,050 lions in 2008, the last year for which figures are available, according to the South African Predator Breeders Association.
The hunters’ association says 16,394 foreign hunters — more than half from the United States — killed more than 46,000 animals in the year ending September 2007.
Almost all lions hunted under permit in South Africa are bred in captivity. But a new report by Animal Rights Africa says animals that wander out of the huge Kruger National Park into neighboring private reserves have become fair game.
Richardson cares for 39 lions at his 2,000-acre Kingdom of the White Lion in Broederstroom, where the film was shot.
He’s been attacked by his lions twice. Once during filming, a lion named Thor grabbed Richardson’s arm and pinned him against the cage holding the camera crews.
“I thought: There goes my arm, and it’s my own fault. I was provoking him to get a fight sequence,” Richardson said. The lion stared him in the eyes for a few seconds and releaed him.
On the Web
The movie: www.whitelionthemovie.com
Kevin Richardson’s page: www.lionwhisperer.co.za
Professional Hunters Association of South Africa: www.phasa.co.za
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