Tiger Exports To Asia From SA Threatens Survival Of The Species
An animal welfare group has warned that South Africa’s legal lion breeding has spawned a tiger farming industry for commercial exports, potentially posing a threat to the species already in decline.
Breeding lions for commercial hunting and for bone exports towards Asia is legal in South Africa, but in recent years tiger breeding for similar purposes has become more common.
A report by global animal rights charity, Four Paws, showed that 359 tigers almost a tenth of the global tiger population were exported from South Africa from 2011-2020, around 255 of them were sold to zoos.
South Africa has no official count of its tiger population.
Four Paws is asking South Africa to halt the commercial breeding of all big cats, whose populations are declining partly due to trade to Asian countries.
Four Paws’ wildlife expert Kieran Harkins said South Africa is being urged to reverse that role of exporting tigers and take on a leading position in protecting wildlife.
“We are asking South Africa to stop supporting that trade and be a defender of the wildlife, not perpetuating the trade in species on the decline,” Harkin said.