Green Girls in Africa

26/01/2025

Rather chuffed how these mosaics have worked out. The third panel will be in yellows, oranges and reds, but I need to collect the right crockery first.

06/09/2024

23/03/2022

Great new tool launched to help the tourism industry and travelers alike to make more ethical choices when it come to captive wildlife tourism facilities in South Africa. www.WildChoices.org

BREAKING NEWS: WildChoices launches a website to assist the tourism industry and visitors alike to make more informed and ethical choices about captive wildlife tourism facilities in South Africa.

Visit website: www.wildchoices.org

WildChoices applied the
SATSA Captive Wildlife Attractions & Activities Guidelines and Decision Tool to assess 219 captive wildlife tourism facilities in South Africa, based on publicly available information. Application of SATSA’s 6-step decision tree creates one of three outcomes: Support, Support with Caution and Avoid.

“Our assessment outcomes are mapped and delivered in a directory, searchable by multiple criteria, such as name, province, and result. This makes it easy for people who don’t have the time, expertise, or confidence to apply the tool themselves,” explains Gavin Reynolds (one of WildChoices Founders).

“We believe that we can make a meaningful impact on the quality of moral decision-making by tourism companies, tourists and facilities themselves and, in so doing, contribute to enhancing the country’s reputation as the choice destination for ethical wildlife tourism.”

The Blood Lions team is excited to see the SATSA guidelines applied and translated into a user-friendly online tool, and we commend the WildChoices team on their efforts.

The SATSA tool is a great starting point to separate the good from the bad and the ugly. However, a lot has happened since the launch of the SATSA guidelines in 2019, including the publication of the HLP report and Minister Creecy’s intent to close the captive lion industry.

Hence, the proverbial line in the sand now needs to be moved, as was always SATSA’s intention, and this work by WildChoices can assist in the process going forward.”

Browse the website - www.wildchoices.org

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Humane Society International - Africa For the Love of Wildlife YouthForLions Ban Animal Trading South Africa Wildlife ACT - Focused Conservation Green Girls in Africa Daily Maverick Good Things Guy SA-People - for South Africans in South Africa and expats

11/03/2022

Blood Lions is highly concerned with the continued exploitation of captive wildlife in the promotion and marketing of products by brands.

After repeatedly having reached out to GoPro, we were disappointed to see their most recent video that uses footage of interactions with a habituated cheetah.

Comments left on the video include “100% would still pet” to which GoPro responded “proceed with caution”, instead of discouraging the public from interacting with captive wildlife. Interactions or 'petting' wildlife has been condemned by leading conservation and tourism entities, including the South African government, SATSA and social media platforms such as Instagram.

The issue with sharing wildlife interactions on social media platforms, even if the interactions are with its carer or owner, is not only the normalisation of such activities, but also the negative knock-on effect. Members of the public will often want to replicate such wildlife interactions they see online to get that selfie to share.

Ultimately, they end up supporting unethical facilities under false pretenses that they are helping the animals and/or supporting conservation.

View the full clip here: https://www.instagram.com/tv/Caz31BappwC/?utm_medium=copy_link

YouthForLions Humane Society International - Africa Green Girls in Africa World Animal Protection Africa Born Free Foundation NSPCA - National Council of SPCAs Conservation Action Trust

13/12/2021

Education or Edutainment?

"There are some heated debates about the value of captive wildlife facilities and zoos. Aside from the quick gratification of seeing a beautiful big cat in person, what purpose do these facilities really serve? Since there is a lack of evidence to prove the educational and conservation value of animal interactions, the continued justification for engaging in these activities is problematic and unconvincing."

There are some heated debates about the value of captive wildlife facilities and zoos. Many are firmly situated in the belief that animals in small enclosures and cages do not educate visitors or serve an important conservation purpose. There are others, however, who argue that seeing animals in cap...

27/09/2021

Happy World Tourism Day!

Today we are celebrating by encouraging you to THINK BEFORE YOU GO.

❌AVOID Performing animals ❌

The first one of five groups of captive wildlife activities to AVOID, as highlighted by the SATSA guidelines, is supporting facilities which keep and/or profit from performing animals.

👉Why avoid activities with performing animals?
1️⃣ The animals don’t have freedom of choice
2️⃣ There is unnecessary hands-on training and handling involved
3️⃣ The animals are forced to exhibit unnatural behaviour
4️⃣ It serves no educational value
5️⃣ It serves no conservation value

In order to perform in a public show or display, the animal would have undergone some form of training, often involving corporal punishment, tethering and/or food deprivation.

Performing animals may include: elephants, predators, primates, cetaceans (aquatic mammals such as dolphins and whales), birds and reptiles.

To access the full guide, visit:https://www.satsa.com/wp-content/uploads/SATSA_HumanAnimalInteractions_Final_6-1.pdf

22/09/2021

We need YOUR help! Please sign the below petition in support of among others ending the captive lion breeding industry in South Africa.

Urge South Africa to Implement a New Deal for People and Wildlife Without Further Delay

21/09/2021

Follow Blood Lions campaign over the next few weeks, when we unpack the SATSA Captive Wildlife Activities Guidelines and Tool to help you make ethical and animal-friendly decisions when visiting captive wildlife facilities.

THINK BEFORE YOU GO

In celebration of Tourism Month and in the lead up to World Tourism Day, we will be unpacking the SATSA Captive Wildlife Attractions & Activities Guidelines, which were launched in October 2019 to help tourists determine which types of wildlife tourism are considered ethical and which are not.

In 2019, SATSA drew a firm line in the sand concerning captive wildlife attractions in South Africa’s tourism space, which is a dynamic concept based on ethics.

They identified activities with captive wildlife to avoid, such as wildlife interactions and circuses, which also included captive breeding of big cats, canned hunting and the trade in animal body parts.

Their stance is also aligned with the High-Level Panel sentiments that were recently published in a draft Policy Position paper by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment.

Join us over the next few weeks as we dive deeper into the world of ethics and wildlife tourism.



YouthForLions Green Girls in Africa For the Love of Wildlife EMS Foundation Humane Society International - Africa World Animal Protection Africa FOUR PAWS Conservation Action Trust Wildlife ACT - Focused Conservation

10/08/2021

On World Lion Day, the international community celebrates our iconic lions and raises awareness on the plight of these majestic animals in the wild, as well as their captive counterparts.

World Lion Day 2021 holds a more positive connotation as we are celebrating the beginning of the end of the commercial captive lion industry in South Africa. Here, over the last couple of decades, a commercial captive lion industry was allowed to grow to a size of 400+ facilities holding anything between 8,000 and 12,000 lions, along with hundreds of other indigenous and exotic big cat species.

However, following the High-Level Panel majority recommendations to halt and reverse the domestication of our iconic lions, Minister Barbara Creecy announced on the 2 May 2021 that South Africa would no longer breed captive lions, keep lions in captivity, or use captive lions or their derivatives commercially.

Since that announcement, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment took further steps and gazetted a draft Policy Position document for public participation on the conservation and ecologically sustainable use of elephant, lion, leopard and rhinoceros. We are now awaiting the final Policy Position paper to be published and the implementation process to be started.

Nevertheless, we need to be vigilant and keep the conversation going, to drive the necessary change that is now within our reach; a South Africa where lions are no longer exploited for commercial gain.

This year, we have more hope than ever for our lions on .

07/07/2021

Another accident involving an international volunteer and a captive cheetah. This hands-on interaction needs to stop.

Support the Government's Policy Position document that is now out for public consultation in terms of stopping the captive wildlife interactions.

24/02/2021

What a wonderful, bright and informative YouthForLions website - well done guys!

Guess what? We officially have our very own website!

www.youthforlions.org is now LIVE.

Browse our new website where you can learn fun facts about lions and other predators, download resources and take action against the captive lion breeding industry in South Africa.

A massive thank you to Stop Poaching Now for their contribution from their eRace Extinction event in 2020, which made this all possible.

Let us know what you think - we hope you love it as much as we do!

Blood Lions Green Girls in Africa EMS Foundation Humane Society International - Africa World Animal Protection Ban Animal Trading South Africa World Youth Wildlife Summit Durban Youth Council