The animal welfare organisation Four Paws South Africa says the KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife’s recent killing of escaped lions poses a threat to the survival of the animals, as the number of lions in the country is already decreasing.
Four Paws South Africa spokesperson, MJ Lourens, says contingency measures to prevent the escape of lions from the iMfolozi Game Reserve in northern KwaZulu-Natal should have been put in place a long time ago.
Lourens says the recent escape of two lions from the reserve is not the first to occur.
“In this instance you have to ask, was this the appropriate action to take? Surely other measures should have been taken before you reach the extent where you have to kill these lions. The number of lions in the wild in South Africa are decreasing very quickly, so one has to conserve the number of lions that we have in the country which are roaming wild and free. As we understand, the fence was damaged more than three years ago, and I think there was ample time to have put measures in place to repair that fence with the previous escapes – there should’ve been a contingency plan put in place to prevent something like this from happening,” says Lourens.
