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South African lion breeders are allegedly part of an illegal network that smuggles lion and cheetah cubs from Botswana to stock local farms, The Times reported on Monday.

The newspaper reported that at least five South African lion farmers were mentioned in an investigation into cases where cubs were smuggled to lion farms in South Africa to cater for the international trophy-hunting market.

"I don't want to say lion breeders as a whole are involved, but there are definitely five or six people that I know of," conservationist Sarel van der Merwe told the newspaper.

"The guys in the Problem Animal Control Group [a government body that deals with 'problem' predators in Botswana] all have cellphones. Instead of reporting problem animals to their superiors, they call farmers in South Africa."

If the problem animal was a lioness, she would be shot and her cubs smuggled out.

According to the report, Hawks spokesman Paul Ramaloko could not confirm any investigations into cross-border animal smuggling.

The Times reported that canned hunting (trophy-hunting animals in an enclosed area) was banned in South Africa in 2007.

The SA Predator Association appealed against the ban and won the case in the Supreme Court of Appeal in 2011.

Sad! It's even sadder that corrupt officialdom is at the heart of most such cases!

With the massive decline in the lion population (as well as leopard and cheetah) in the past few years, and the problems of deteriorating gene pools, because only the strongest and best looking lions are slaughtered as trophies to hang on walls and skins used as mats in front of fire places, a photograph is all we might have left of those gorgeous animals in a few years time... sad, so very, very sad.

Very sad.