Each year 600 lion hunting permits are sold in Africa with 556 of those going to Americans.
Photo taken by Mary Purvis
Filmmakers Dereck and Beverly Joubert, who live in Botswana and document the lives of lions mentioned this on Nightline last night. Their documentary “The Last Lions” will air during National Geographic’s Big Cat Week.
With Africa’s big cat population declining rapidly for a variety of reasons, lions are having a hard enough time without hunters butting in.
How do we stop these hunters before they butcher lions into extinction? They have all sorts of excuses why it is ok to hunt these majestic creatures. Do they think there is a bottomless pit of wildlife to kill for their enjoyment, and that they are here just for them to hunt?
Somehow the selling of these hunting licenses must be stopped, and awareness is the first step.
If this is not stopped along with other atrocities against big cats, then there is a good chance that our great-grandchildren will never see a big cat in the wild, and that infuriates me no-end.
National Geographic channel’s Big Cat Week commences Sunday, December 11th with the airing of “The Last Lions” on Friday, December 16th.
The link for the Nightline segment is below:
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/jouberts-film-worlds-lions-expose-peril-big-cats/story?id=15117528
National Geographic’s web-site has further information: www.causeanuproar.org
Please pass the links along – it’s so important!
