Barbaric scandal of lions bred to be shot as Tory peer calls for UK ban on import of captive lions
AS a Tory grandee, he is used to rubbing shoulders with Westminster’s big beasts — and now Lord Ashcroft is trying to save the King of the Jungle.
The former Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party is calling on the UK to ban the import of captive lions which are bred for rich men to kill.
He mounted a probe into the sickening and barbaric trade in South Africa where four times as many of the animals are bred and kept in captivity compared with those in the wild.
The investigation involved an undercover sting using former Special Forces personnel to uncover the salesmen flogging lions to be shot.
Billionaire Lord Ashcroft spent a six-figure sum on Operation Simba — named after a lion his investigators were desperate to save — and twice flew to South Africa himself.
Now the peer has now written to Environment Secretary Michael Gove calling on the UK Government to ban the import of captive lions and other endangered species as “trophies” for hunters, as well as animals’ body parts.
No decent human being can accept or tolerate the way that some people are treating this majestic animal
Lord Ashcroft
Lord Ashcroft said: “I had realised long ago that the vile people who perpetrate this misery on lions would go to almost any lengths to make money.
“No decent human being can accept or tolerate the way that some people are treating this majestic animal.”
Lord Ashcroft was spurred into action after seeing a disturbing rise on social media in the number of “kill shots” — photos of hunters posing with the animals they have killed.
Now his year-long probe has revealed lions are being routinely slaughtered by wealthy trophy hunters, including some from the UK, who pay thousands of pounds to shoot captive lions bred on farms in horrendous conditions.
Firms are also harvesting the bones of big cats to use as trinkets and in traditional quack medicines sold for huge sums in the Far East and China.
And the investigation even uncovered that lions are being bred with tigers in a bid to keep up with supply.
It found lion skins are being smuggled into the US via Britain and are hidden within deer hides to trick customs officials.
According to the probe, 54 lions were killed in a squalid slaughterhouse at a so-called eco-farm in just two days.
Sickening photos show body parts stacked up in overflowing plastic bags, while their innards and carcasses are spread across the floor.
Other captive-bred big cats are also being shot inside enclosed hunting areas surrounded by electric fences in a barbaric practice known as “canned” lion hunting.
‘SAFARI BOSSES GIVEN CHOICE OF 16 LIONS TO KILL’
As part of the probe, an undercover investigator posed as the representative of a wealthy American client looking to make such a kill.
He made contact with professional hunter Patrick de Beer, known as “The Lion Man” and boss of Mugaba Safaris, who emailed him photos of 16 captive male lions so he could choose one to shoot.
Wealthy clients pay anywhere from £10,000 to £42,000 per lion, depending on the size and quality of their mane.
After the investigator chose an older male called Simba, De Beer described the 11-year-old lion as a “very good cat with a dense mane” over WhatsApp. He added: “I am sure the client will be very pleased.”
After haggling over the price, De Beer and the investigator settled on £17,700 for the American hunter to shoot Simba, with half being paid in advance as a deposit.
The hunt was arranged for last October at the Kalahari Lion Hunting Safaris, an exclusive hunting ranch on the edge of the Kalahari desert.
The investigators had no plans to kill Simba and postponed the hunt. They made an excuse that their client had been in a car accident in the US.
The team now hoped they could find a way to save the big cat. But the captive lion had now been released into a hunting area with no one to kill him.
This prompted De Beer and Freddie Scheepers, who runs the ranch, to hatch another plan to make even more money out of Simba before he died.
The pair decided to offer a cut-price deal to Brit Miles Wakefield, 48, who was staying at the ranch for six nights hunting game, to shoot Simba with a tranquilliser dart.
The blood sport enthusiast, who works as an insurance loss adjuster in London, paid the duo £3,076.
South African law states lions can only be shot with tranquilliser darts for “for veterinary, scientific, conservation or management purposes” under the supervision of a vet.
'HEARTBREAKING'
Wakefield has since said he believed he was taking part in a “legal operation to relocate a lion in the interests of the health of the animal” and claims De Beer and Scheepers misled him.
The hunt was filmed. Footage of the heartbreaking video, which Lord Ashcroft’s investigators have managed to obtain, shows a distressed Simba leap up in shock after being shot and attempting to flee.
After posing for pictures, the men loaded the unconscious big cat into a trailer before being moved to a holding area so the fictitious US hunter could kill him as originally arranged.
In February this year, Lord Ashcroft’s undercover investigator, posing as the wealthy American, travelled to Scheepers’ ranch.
But after being taken to Simba, he revealed he instead wanted the lion to go to a rescue sanctuary.
It was the start of a two-month battle to try to free the lion. Investigators handed over £1,500 to the ranch and, last week, a vet humanely sedated the big cat ahead of his 11-hour journey to a sanctuary at a secret location. In a touching video of his release, one of his rescuers shouted: “Yay, Simba!”
De Beer said it was not a hunt and that Wakefield paid for Simba’s upkeep in return for the opportunity to shoot him with a dart.
Scheepers also denied it was a hunt, insisting they had darted the big cat to move it to another enclosed area after the original hunter pulled out.
I felt that I had a duty to bring the horrific findings of my investigative team into the public domain
Lord Ashcroft
He has also said Simba would not have survived where he was and claimed it was the “first and only time” a client had paid to dart a lion.
Lord Ashcroft plans to send a dossier of his findings to authorities in South Africa and hopes its government “is shocked and embarrassed into action”.
He is also demanding the UK follows the US, France, the Netherlands and other nations by closing a loophole that allows the import of hunting trophies of captive lions.
The peer added: “I know some people in South Africa will resent being told what to do by an outsider.
“But I felt that I had a duty to bring the horrific findings of my investigative team into the public domain.”
“It’s a form of cruelty and abuse that must be halted now.”
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