Billionairebusinessman Lord Michael Ashcroft's new book Unfair Game, reveals thesickening practices carried out at 333 farms in South Africa. Lions in theseillegal farms are bred and butchered for their skeletons.
Ashcroft, through his book and an accompanying film, has detailed how 12,000 lions are being bred in Africa only to be shot dead by tourists.
The Daily Mail has published the excerptsof the book where the philanthropist has explained how the abuse ofcaptive-bred lions in South Africa has become an industry.
"Idescribed the hideous phenomenon of ¡®canned hunting¡¯, whereby lions bred incaptivity are drugged and released into a relatively small area and then shotby a tourist who has paid many thousands of pounds for the privilege. It is notso much a chase as an utter farce. The photos of people standing triumphantlyover these wretched beasts once they are dead are sickening."
Unfair Game details a covert operation bysecurity services, including ex-British soldiers, to expose the vile industryby using a dealer as an undercover ¡°double agent.¡±
The most serious claim by Lord Ashcroft is that the lions which are born in captivity are raised in such disgusting conditions, that they could spread fatal diseases such as tuberculosis and botulism.
He said the cruel trade represents ¡°oneof the worst crimes against nature¡± he¡¯s ever heard of. His book includesdetails surrounding the deaths of 54 lions in two days, on one farm, before they were skinned.
"Thousands of lions are bred onfarms every year; they are torn away from their mothers when they are just daysold, used as pawns in the tourist sector and then either killed in a 'hunt' orsimply slaughtered for their bones and other body parts, which are veryvaluable in Asia's so-called medicine market. In between, they are poorly fed,kept in cramped and unhygienic conditions, beaten if they do not perform forpaying customers, and drugged," Ashcroft said in the book.
Thebook further goes on to say that, "This sinister system has sprouted up inplain sight in South Africa, inflicting misery on this noblest of beasts onan unimaginable scale."
Therevelations come after Ashcroft commissioned two undercover operations namelyOperation Simba and Operation Chastise - over two years.