What do canned trophy hunting, deadly infectious diseases and Traditional Chinese Medicine have in common? Lions.
The new investigative documentary, Lions, Bones & Bullets uncovers an elaborate, international wildlife fraud with an annual turnover of nearly 100 million U.S. dollars.
On Tuesday 1 November, Marine Dynamics and Dyer Island Conservation Trust, hosted our final Marine Evening for 2022, with the screening of the documentary Lions, Bones & Bullets.
Guest speakers invited to this monthly evening, was the New Zealand-South African duo Director Anton Leach and Producer Jasmine Duthie of the documentary Lions, Bones & Bullets. This power couple’s production company Clawed Hat Films, captures award-winning conservation journeys, from war zones to wildlife reserves. The pair provide full service production for clients globally and remotely from Hermanus, South Africa.
More about the documentary Lions, Bones & Bullets
This internationally awarded documentary was inspired by author Richard Pierce’s book, Cuddle Me, Kill Me, a shocking wake-up call to the legal canned lion hunting industry in South Africa.
Richard Peirce has had a lifelong passion for wildlife, and sharks in particular have fascinated him all his life. He has been fortunate enough to encounter nature’s most iconic animals all over the world.
Richard is a committed wildlife conservationist who now spends all of his time on various projects either trying to contribute to the conservation of specific species, or improve the effectiveness of global wildlife conservation.
In this documentary, Richard Peirce leads the dramatic adventure from lion farms in South Africa to wildlife traffickers in Laos and Vietnam. He makes a shocking discovery that wildlife ranchers in South Africa are farming lions in their thousands to export their bones to Asia for traditional medicine. Richard battles to uncover the elaborate wildlife fraud of processing lion bones into food products which could contain the ‘world’s deadliest infectious disease.’ The heart-warming tale of two lion cubs given a new life, along with positive approaches to wild lion conservation resolves the film with positivity.
Anton said to the audience, that “Lions, Bones & Bullets is a story that needed to be told, shared and debated. Through my work in wildlife docu-series I realised that not enough people knew that lion farming was not just an emerging industry, it was a booming industry. If trophy hunting was dying out, then what was escalating demand?”.
According to Christine Wessels, Public Relations Officer of Marine Dynamics, “it’s time for us to face the truth about the exploitation of our South African wildlife, and we have to support the creators of Lions, Bones & Bullets as well us organisations such as Marine Dynamics and Dyer Island Conservation Trust, in protecting our marine life. Animals being caught, killed and brutally slaughtered for one reason and one reason only, financial gain”.
When the lights went on after the 53-minute screening, there weren’t many dry eyes in the audience. Jasmin and Anton addressed the emotional audience and reiterated the importance of knowing the truth behind these terrible industries, only when you know the facts and truth – you can put pressure on government to stop the extorsion of our wildlife.
To achieve maximum impact and drive change ‘Lions, Bones and Bullets’ needs to reach the widest possible global audience.
Book a screening for your friends, family or colleagues by contacting Jasmine and Anton on the email addresses below:
Jasmine Duthie: jasmine@clawedhatfilms.com
Anton Leach: anton@clawedhatfilms.com
Dr. Louise de Waal, Jacqui Taulor, Jasmine Duthie, Anton Leach and Christine Wessels.
