Conservation agency, Blood Lions, has welcomed the decision by the Department of Environment that South African farms will no longer be allowed to participate in the practice of captive breeding of lions.

Minister Barbara Creecy made the announcement on Sunday and said a high-level panel had identified that the captive lion breeding industry poses too many risks to the sustainability of wild lion conservation.

She says her department will now put processes in place to halt the sale of captive lion derivatives – such as lion bones and hides – and the hunting of captive bred lions.

Director of Blood Lions, Pippa Hankinson says this brings to an end the practice of canned-lion hunting.

Hankinson says the industry has no conservation value whatsoever.

She says conservation agencies have been calling for this ban for years.

BREAKING NEWS: This morning at a stakeholder’s feedback meeting in Pretoria, Minister Creecy of @environmentza made a crucial & long-awaited step towards changing the status quo of the commercial captive lion breeding industry in South Africa.

READ MORE: https://t.co/XwpcsnAGQi pic.twitter.com/IJxCegNJNx

— Blood Lions Official (@Blood_Lions) May 2, 2021

“We believe this is a significant shift in thinking and a fairly clear mandate from the minister to everyone that this has got to be phased out.” – Ian Michler, Blood Lions Director

via @NatGeohttps://t.co/aQtUUc7AMR

— Blood Lions Official (@Blood_Lions) May 4, 2021