The sale of lion bones is heading back to court with a 235-page application by lion breeders demanding that the Environment Department set a CITES export quota for 2025. The subtext is a clash between free trade and animal wellbeing. In 2019, a Gauteng Division of the High Court judge found an application by breeders to renew the lion bone export quota to be "unlawful and constitutionally invalid". He said it failed to consider the welfare of captive lions raised and killed for their bones. Lion breeders have been simmering with anger ever since. In December last year, 11 members of the SA Predator Association (Sapa) filed a notice with the Gauteng Division of the High Court in Pretoria to contest the ban. The Environment Department counter-filed, saying it will oppose the application. Surprisingly, neither Sapa nor the minister, or his Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE), disclosed the existence of these legal proceedings at the time. The stage is now set for a challenge which will hinge on whether the right to free trade trumps recent legislation concerning the wellbeing of animals. In an attempt to make their case, the massive application by breeders reveals the sheer scale of their operations. There’s another case in the works brought by hunters which will superheat the issue further. We’ll come to that in a moment. In response to the Sapa application, two conservation NGOs, Blood Lions and Humane World for Animals SA, have implored Environment Minister Deon George to "stand firm and resist the demands of a select few lion farmers who will all financially benefit from such a quota at the expense of lions". According to a press release by Ban Animal Trading and the EMS Foundation, "it is common knowledge that the trade in lion bones is a major ethical, legal and administrative embarrassment for South Africa. This rogue industry has strong links to international criminal networks, provides a legal channel for the trafficking of illegal big cat parts and fuels the demise of wild big cat populations. Keeping lion skeleton stockpiles while advocating against the trade sends mixed signals about the acceptability of lion skeletons as a commodity."