RSG interview with André Mentz – President South African Predator Association
The latest media attack on the lion breeders in South Africa is a rehash of the old debate between animal rights activists and genuine sustainable-use conservationists.
Many animal rights organisations in South Africa are constantly working to bring our legal wildlife industry into disrepute. What they are doing is disloyal to our wonderful country.
They cannot make sweeping adverse statements about lion farming by lumping the activities of all lion farmers together. The truth is that most lion farmers operate in a legal and acceptable manner whilst only a few behave in an unacceptable fashion.
And to say that all lion farms are badly managed is simply not true.
We all know that many journalists operate in an unscrupulous manner by inciting emotions, sensation and shock within the public domain, whilst making no attempt at all to tell the truth. And some, particularly, thrive in representing the wildlife industry in a negative light.
The topic has flared up again at this time to pressurise the Honourable Minister Barbara Creecy’s High Level Panel into banning captive bred lion farming as she prepares to finalise her findings for presentation to parliament.
Many of the anti-lion farming comments are based on personal preference prejudices which have no basis in truth.
This campaign is obviously being driven and funded by foreign countries and their animal rights NGOs for their own financial reasons. And therein lies the gravest of dangers for South Africa’s wildlife.
People should be aware of the fact that the unique South African wildlife industry is beneficial to the well-being of many South African families and more benefits are still to come.
The wildlife industry is an important participant in the agriculture and tourism industries in South Africa.
Concerning the value of the lion industry, one should realise that there is a place for everybody under the sun and that the lion-related tourism facilities are legal and are regularly visited by government officials and veterinarians for health and quality control reasons.
The possibility of contagion of humans by zoönotic diseases resultant from and by lion farming activities is greatly exaggerated and is being used by the animal rightists as a huge red herring. The fact that owners of pets the world over, who are in daily contact with their animals, showing no sign of being infected with zoönotic disease, is proof of this falsehood.
It is absolutely unfair and it is unscrupulous, therefore, to blatantly declare such so-called facts without any proof.
_________________________
A translation of Andre Mentz’ interview on RSG
Powerful churches and sects of all flavours need a Devil to draw followers’ attention away from the habits (!) of their own authoritarian and rich elites. Righteousness of the fight provides willing donkeys to do all the unpaid hard work. Praise the Lord and pass the collection plate £££.
Powerful and rich white Western politicians take the knee and profess contrition for past privileges in order to draw gullible followers’ attention away from their own continuing White privilege. Manufactured guilt and affront provides unpaid willing donkeys to do the hard work. Wave the banner and rattle the collecting box £££.
Vast international businesses feature multiracial or green advertisements and packaging in order to draw consumer’s attention away from their own immense, global, tax free plundering. They provide chicken feed funds to woke organisations who respond like junkies and do the donkey work. Save the world and ring the till £££.
Blood lions???? Powerful eco-fundamentalist elites need “evil “ lion breeders and “cruel” trophy hunters to feed believers and fuel the media. Their present eco-jihad keeps public attention away from their own political and financial harvesting. “Blood lions” provide politicians and celebrities with cost-free sanctitude and they in turn rally animal lovers and people suffering from obsessive animal love disorder into doing the donkey work free of charge. While followers gaze solemnly upon the memory of “Cecil” and contemplate the bloody bones in a Chinese remedy, they won’t notice the £££ donations being quietly trousered as operating expenses.
None of the eco-elites suffer, of course. The cost is always borne by the poor and by the environment, by the duped, hard working donors and by the willing donkeys who eventually die in a sorry puddles of disillusionment when the penny finally drops, but never into their pockets. It was always thus.
Hardship, too, for hard working lion farmers, their families and staff. Lions? This campaign has nothing to do with lions. This is the place where larceny marries treachery in the Palace of foreign Eco-Colonialism.
Treachery, you ask? The Honourable Minister might consider this epic statement:
“….economic growth is not the answer for improving rural livelihoods…Promoting wildlife trade as an economic benefit does a disservice to those hundreds of millions of vulnerable people the Resource Africa letter claims to want to help. The Lion Coalition letter has the correct position, we must ban wildlife trade to protect biodiversity and those living in rural communities all around the globe”,
This cretinous catch-all garbage was written by a Californian eco-fundamentalist and published by a South African not-for-profit*, to their shame. It includes the position that economic upliftment by using South Africa’s living resources would be BAD for rural people, a position that defies common sense, logic and economics. It acts in contravention of Section 24 (b) iii of the country’s constitution, and also works against the Government’s efforts to use South Africa’s natural resources responsibly to lift its population while conserving the country’s magnificent wildlife.
I can understand foreigners indulging in emotional theft about South Africa in order to steal donations by misrepresentation – after all, foreigners have been stealing from Africa for four hundred years. But for South Africans to act as accessories to this eco-colonialism is unforgivable.
John Nash
*https://emsfoundation.org.za/who-stands-to-benefit-if-the-wildlife-trade-continues/