Profit E-Magazine Issue 205

The cruel business of buying and selling lions

By Shahab Omar

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n the 2nd of August this year, Lahore’s Safari Park Zoo announced that it was auctioning off 12 African Lions.

The news garnered a lot of attention, particularly from animal rights groups that called out the auction and the trade of exotic animals that has run rampant in Pakistan over the years. The auction itself was completely legal, particularly since it was taking place among a select group of registered lion breeders in Punjab. But just because it was legal, does not make it right.

You see, Pakistan has a lion problem.

And the problem is that it is ridiculously easy for anyone to find and buy a lion cub on the market, raise it in their home, and then keep it as a pet in cruel conditions. The system by which these lions are bought and sold is painfully simple, and no laws exist to make owning these creatures that belong in the wild illegal.

There are, of course, some official restrictions but they are easily circumvented.

Essentially, lions are bred in an official capacity by breeders registered with the wildlife authorities and the FBR. These registered breeders raise and breed big cats like lions and tigers and then sell them ahead to anyone that wants to buy them.

The law of the land requires that anyone buying these animals adheres to a specific set of SOPs, which includes having a certain amount of space to keep the animals in, and other such conditions. In practice, while the

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wildlife department claims they have agents constantly checking in on lion owners, these creatures are often kept in callous conditions.

Owners that have nothing about their care and are afraid of the beasts remove their nails and teeth, giving them food that is not meant for them resulting in an incredibly poor life for these animals.

How to buy a lion

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t the heart of this is the fact that it is legal to buy and sell these animals.

The process is pretty simple. Take the recent sale of the animals at Safari Park. The animals were being sold at auction to registered breeders because the park had a surplus of animals that they could neither keep nor needed. The breeders would then use the animals to breed more cubs, which they would then sell at their farm houses or through brokers to regular people that want to keep them as pets.

Yes. It is that simple. You just need to walk into a breeder’s farmhouse, pay the money, and walk away with an endangered species of animal in the backseat of your car.

These breeders run a largely unregulated business, but within the circle of breeders and zoos these animals have a closer eye on them.

There are currently 10 breeders in Lahore that are registered, and they are selling lion cubs anywhere between Rs 400,00 to Rs 600,000.

Qaim Ali, a lion breeder based in Lahore, told Profit that the breeding and business of lions is becoming easier in Pakistan and now the

practice of keeping this wild animal in homes has gained momentum.

“I have three African lions at my house, two females and one male. If I put the expenses in front, keeping them is definitely not a cheap hobby. A male lion needs to eat 10 kg of meat per day while a lioness eats five to seven kilograms of meat per day. In our country, people have started feeding milk and curd to cubs, which is not actually their food because it is a wild animal. Now, since inflation is high and their food is expensive, their prices in the local markets have also increased. They are sold in two ways in the local market. The buyer either buys it through a broker or directly from the farmhouse. We advise people that whenever a lion or its cub is purchased, it should be taken from the farm house. There are two reasons for this. First, buying directly from the farm house eliminates the broker’s profit. Secondly, a letter is also given to the buyer by the registered farmer under which he can keep this wild animal in his house, whereas brokers cannot give any such letter,” he said.

It is these brokers that he mentions that make things particularly difficult and cruel.

When official breeders sell lions, those lions are chipped and registered which means they can be tracked. That means the wildlife department can run welfare checks on them. If the lion is not being treated according to SOPs, it is confiscated and the breeder and buyer both are fined. Of course, compliance with this is low. This is because most people do not buy directly from breeders and instead buy from middle-men. Even buying from breeders