PARLIAMENT MUST ENFORCE ITS OWN RESOLUTION: END THE CAPTIVE LION INDUSTRY NOW

PUBLIC STATEMENT 

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25 FEBRUARY 2026

PARLIAMENT MUST ENFORCE ITS OWN RESOLUTION: END THE CAPTIVE LION INDUSTRY NOW

South Africa stands at a constitutional, ethical and political crossroads.

Eight years ago, Parliament resolved that captive lion breeding and the lion bone trade should be reviewed with a view to ending the practice. 

Cabinet reinforced this direction in 2024 by approving a revised Policy Position explicitly committing to close captive lion breeding for hunting and the lion bone trade .

Yet today, commercial exploitation of captive lions continues. This is not a policy gap. It is an implementation failure.

PARLIAMENT SPOKE CLEARLY IN 2018

Following the 2018 Colloquium on Captive Lion Breeding in South Africa, the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee found that the industry:

• Has no conservation value
• Damages South Africa’s conservation image and tourism brand
• Raises serious systemic animal welfare concerns

The Committee directed that:

• Policy and legislation be reviewed with a view to ending the practice
• A full audit of facilities and lions be conducted
• Welfare and health concerns be urgently addressed
• The Department report quarterly to Parliament on progress

This was not symbolic. It was a formal parliamentary directive.

Eight years later:

• No complete, independently verified national audit is publicly available
• No transparent quarterly reporting record exists
• No legally enforceable phase-out timeline has been published
• No clear welfare plan exists for thousands of lions currently in captivity

Parliament must now ask: Has its own mandate been ignored?

CONSTITUTIONAL DUTIES CANNOT BE DEFERRED

Section 24 of the Constitution requires the state to secure ecologically sustainable development while protecting the environment for present and future generations.

The Constitutional Court has recognised that animal welfare is constitutionally relevant within environmental protection jurisprudence.

An industry that:

• Lacks conservation benefit
• Systematically exploits animals
• Harms the national conservation brand

cannot be rationally defended under sustainable development principles.

Continued tolerance of the captive lion industry is constitutionally suspect.

THE LION PROHIBITION NOTICE: A FIRST STEP – NOT THE END

Government announced in July 2025 that it was advancing a Lion Prohibition Notice to ban new captive lion breeding facilities and cub petting operations .

Parliament has now approved the Regulations and Draft Lion Prohibition Notice.

The EMS Foundation welcomes this critical first step. But let us be clear:

• Limiting new facilities does not close existing ones.
• Policy positions do not automatically become enforceable law.
• Administrative engagement with provinces does not equal implementation.

Without binding regulations, audits, enforcement action, transition funding and transparent timelines, the industry continues.

THE DEMOCRATIC ALLIANCE POLITICAL CAPTIVE LION INDUSTRY DILEMMA

The issue has become politically charged. Serious concerns have been raised about potential political conflicts of interest and policy reversals.

Regardless of cosy relationships, alignment with wildlife and hunting industries and party politics, one principle must prevail:

Parliament’s 2018 resolution remains binding in spirit and intent.

Wildlife governance cannot shift with political tides. It must be anchored in constitutional duty, scientific integrity and ethical governance.

THE OUTSTANDING QUESTIONS PARLIAMENT MUST NOW DEMAND ANSWERS TO

Parliamentarians must urgently require the Minister and Department to provide:

1. A verified, independently audited number of all captive lion facilities and lions, disaggregated by province.
2. A legally binding, time-bound phase-out framework for commercial captive lion breeding and associated trade.
3. Public quarterly implementation reports as originally mandated.
4. Clear regulatory instruments operationalising the 2024 Policy Position.
5. A transparent welfare and transition plan for all captive lions.
6. Safeguards preventing laundering of captive-origin lions and derivatives into legal trade channels during phase-out.

Without these, reform remains rhetorical.

SOUTH AFRICA’S REPUTATION AND CONSTITUTIONAL INTEGRITY ARE AT STAKE

South Africa cannot claim global conservation leadership while permitting:

• Intensive breeding for canned hunting
• Commercial cub petting operations
• Lion bone export markets and the growth of illegal trade and laundering
• Continued large-scale captive exploitation

The world is watching. Investors are watching. Ethical tourists are watching.

But most importantly, Parliament must watch.

A CALL TO PARLIAMENTARIANS

We call on Members of Parliament, across party lines, to:

• Reassert oversight authority
• Demand transparent reporting
• Insist on enforceable regulations
• Establish a clear end date for commercial captive lion breeding
• Protect the constitutional integrity of environmental governance

Eight years is not a reasonable implementation period. 

The phase-out must now move from policy promise to legal reality.

South Africa’s Constitution demands it.
Parliament’s 2018 resolution requires it.
The country’s conservation credibility depends on it.

End captive lion breeding. Fully. Transparently. Constitutionally. Now.

Image: ©EMS Foundation 2025 North West Province.

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