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There were 698 lions killed by humans between 1980 and 2018 in the areas surrounding Etosha National Park - an average of 22 lions per year, although researchers say this number is likely an underestimate. A new study found there was no single reason behind the killings.

Emaciated lions, open wounds, pens covered in faeces, no shelter in blazing sun, cubs on rubbish dumps, lacerated paws  - the images displayed on the screen were shocking. But Douglas Wolhuter of the National Council of SPCAs (NSPCA) was on a mission to make parliamentarians understand the cruelty involved in captive breeding. It was both an impassioned plea to shut down lion breeding facilities and harsh criticism of the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) for failing to implement its own recommendations.

The National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA) called for the removal of legislative red tape and an improvement in the judicial system when it came to captive animals. The NSPCA made a clarion call for specialised courts to handle wildlife cases and also to expedite cases in the judicial system, during a presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Forestry, Fisheries and Environment on Tuesday.

The National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA) has warned that little to no progress has been made in shutting down South Africa's captive lion breeding industry, despite a series of government commitments and legal recommendations. During a briefing to the portfolio committee on environment, forestry and fisheries on Tuesday, National Chief Inspector Douglas Wolhuter said that "nothing has changed" - highlighting ongoing welfare violations and a continued lack of enforcement, despite a government-backed plan to phase out lion farming.

The report, produced under a Service Contract with the European Commission, provides an in-depth analysis of illegal wildlife trade trends based on seizures reported by EU Member States to Europe Trade in Wildlife Information eXchange (EU-TWIX) system. The illegal trade in wild species is a critical threat to biodiversity; valued at a staggering $23bn each year, it devastates ecosystems and fuels crime.

A Chinese businessman who has been facing charges of dealing in controlled wildlife products over the past eight years left the Windhoek Magistrate's Court as a free man yesterday, after his case was struck from the court roll. The state alleged that the five men illegally dealt in four elephant tusks in Windhoek on 11 June 2014.

Regional Court Magistrate Leopoldt Hangalo yesterday struck the case of a Chinese businessman, Hou Xue Cheng and his Namibian co-accused Hamutenja Hamutenya on a count of dealing in controlled wildlife products, from the court roll. The reason was that no docket nor witnesses were before the court. The magistrate said the matter has been coming from 2014, and the State failed to get their affairs in order for it to start. He cancelled the bail of N$100 000 for Cheng and N$5 000 for Hamutenya, and ordered it to be refunded to the depositors.

Poisons like cyanide can be a deadly weapon for poachers, allowing them to kill dozens of animals without needing access to firearms or the backing of criminal syndicates. Wildlife poisoning is on the rise across Africa, targeting elephants as well as pushing endangered vultures toward extinction. A new study says Zimbabwe, which a decade ago witnessed some of the deadliest mass poisonings of elephants, has developed a sound basis for curbing poisonings by tightening laws to criminalize intent to use poison to kill wildlife.

Strides made with hefty sentences and fines for criminals endangering game rangers and animals. When Jimmy Mashopane of Winterveld, north of Pretoria, was arrested for shooting, killing and mutilating nine white rhino in a Free State game reserve, taking 14 horns estimated at more than R500,000, veteran prosecutor Antoinette Ferreira threw the book at him. That one of the rhino was a month away from giving birth "only enhances one's sense of abomination", judge Phillip Loubser said.

A court in Uganda has sentenced two men to 17 years each in prison for poisoning to death six lions in Queen Elizabeth National Park. Last year, the bodies of six tree-climbing lions were discovered at the park in southwestern Uganda, making headlines around the world. All of them had been poisoned, their heads and paws cut off and their carcasses left to attract vultures, which were then also killed by the poachers for their body parts.