South Africa

South Africa, Our Burning Planet

Behind bars — South Africa's tiger farming crisis and its hidden global implications

Tiger. (Photo: Wiki Commons)

5 Dec 2024

South Africa is the biggest exporter of tigers in the world and, as pressure increases on captive lion breeding, tiger numbers are expected to rise.

There’s something deeply distressing about the most powerful and beautiful cat in the world staring vacantly from behind bars or a diamond mesh fence. A farmed tiger is really not a tiger at all, but an assembly of marketable parts awaiting export. In South Africa, on industrial-scale farms, hundreds can expect that fate.

Tyger Tyger, burning bright,

In the forests of the night;
Human hand and greedy eye

Has dimmed thy fearful symmetry.

With apologies to William Blake

South Africa is the biggest exporter of tigers in the world and, as pressure increases on captive lion breeding, tiger numbers are expected to rise. In answer to a question in Parliament in 2020, then minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Barbara Creecy, said there were 70 facilities keeping tigers in the country.

There have been no recent questions to establish how many there are at present. Being non-indigenous and outside strict policy and regulation, it’s difficult to know.

In answer to another question, the minister said her department did not keep statistics on registered breeders, tigers in captivity or hunted tigers because they were not indigenous animals.

Tiger breeding facilities are located in all provinces, with most in North West. They include captive Bengal, white and Siberian tigers.

Digging for information

A report by the conservation NGO Four Paws, South Africa’s Out-of-Control Big Cat Industry, says 626 tigers are known to be in captivity, but this excludes KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga where numbers were not available. Many more than this are probably to be on breeding farms, some of them Vietnamese-owned.

The EMS Foundation discovered via a Promotion of Access to Information Act (Paia) request, that 40 live tigers were recently exported from South Africa to a single destination in India.

“This may be the largest shipment of tigers ever to be exported,” says Michele Pickover, CEO of the foundation. “It just shows the massive scale of tiger breeding in South Africa, and it’s only getting bigger.”

Tigers are endangered (there are estimated to be only about 5,500 in the wild) which makes them valuable — and profitable. Conservation has resulted in a 40% increase in the wild population since 2021, but it still represents a huge drop from 100,000 about a century ago.

Between 2000 and 2018, the remains of 2,359 tigers were seized globally in more than 1,100 incidents. Many of these had ties to South African farming operations.

Young Sumatran tigers in captivity. (Photo: EPA-EFE/MACIEJ KULCZYNSKI)

According to the Four Paws report, this trade involves a convoluted web of legal loopholes, fragmented regulations and criminal networks.

Breeding farms cater to global markets, particularly in China and Vietnam, where tigers are used for traditional medicine, wine and tonics, jewellery, décor and pets. No part is wasted; their bones are boiled down to a paste, their skins treated and hung up to dry and their teeth and claws are extracted and polished.

The report has identified a large network of commercial breeders, middlemen and traders who operate both legally and illicitly. Facilities open to the public, offering cub-petting experiences, are key indicators of constant breeding cycles. Declawed tigers, crossbred hybrids, and animals exhibiting unnatural behaviours are common sights, says the report, highlighting the inhumane conditions they endure.

Tiger trade links. Graphic: Four Paws

Missing data

Disturbingly, South Africa lacks a centralised registry to track tiger births, deaths and trade. Provincial regulations vary wildly. While some provinces demand permits for transport or sale, others have no rules at all. This disjointed oversight allows criminal groups to exploit legal ambiguities, facilitating the trafficking of big cats and their derivatives.

While national laws like the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act ostensibly regulate activities involving big cats, exemptions and inconsistent enforcement leave gaping loopholes.

For instance, tigers legally imported before October 2020 are exempt from permit requirements, creating a grey area that traffickers can exploit. Moreover, provincial regulations vary widely, with some regions lacking any rules on the keeping, breeding or trade of big cats.

“The presence of other carnivores in captivity, particularly tigers,” says Dr Mark Jones, Head of Policy at the Born Free Foundation, “indicates an emerging trend that may replace lions under industry pressure”.

“By failing to clamp down on the escalating captive breeding and export of tigers and tiger parts and derivatives, South Africa is not only allowing the continued suffering of hundreds if not thousands of sentient animals, but also undermining the efforts of tiger range states to protect the fragile remaining populations of wild tigers. Action must be taken to shut this industry down without delay.”

Illegal markets

The commercial trade in tiger parts has been globally banned since 1975 under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. Despite this, the illegal market persists, posing significant threats to wild tiger populations. South Africa’s role in this trade is particularly concerning, as it undermines international conservation efforts.

NGO Traffic’s Wildlife Trade Portal documented 98 separate seizures of big cats or their parts between 2004 and 2024, including cases where tiger carcasses were misdeclared as lion bones or even engine parts to evade scrutiny.

While tiger farming in South Africa is legal, as live animals and their body parts move East they increasingly enter trafficking networks.

According to an extensive study by the Wildlife Justice Commission, the tiger trafficking community in Southeast Asia is closely connected and operates cohesively, ensuring a steady supply of clients and product.

A tiger in the wild . (Photo: Wiki Commons)

Many traffickers also have access to ivory, rhino horn, pangolins, bears, primates and rosewood, indicating that they are not specialised but deal in a variety of high-value wildlife commodities.

In a report entitled Year of the Tiger two years ago, Kieran Harkin of Four Paws flagged the tiger trade in South Africa as being of concern.

“It is clear that South Africa is overtly allowing tigers and other big cats to be intensively bred for a commercial trade in their body parts,” she wrote. “This is unacceptable as the farming of tigers for commercial trade has detrimental effects on wild tiger populations.”

She called on the South African government to shut down the big cat breeding industry to help reverse the decline of all big cats, and not just tigers.

At the time, the report noted that an average of 36 live tigers a year had been exported over a 10-year period, as well as 54 tiger hunting trophies. Between 2018 and 2024, the recent Four Paws report found 30 incidents related to illegal trade and the seizure of big cats (including lions, tigers and leopards) within or from South Africa.

Problems of enforcement

Even when laws exist, they are rarely enforced. Authorities seldom visit commercial tiger farms, says Four Paws, and records of births, deaths and trade are largely absent.

This regulatory vacuum not only facilitates the illegal trade of big cat parts, but also undermines global conservation efforts, as South African exports feed the demand that drives poaching and trafficking worldwide.

Four Paws found interlinked tiger syndicates operating in the Free State, North West and Limpopo that have direct connections to Asian markets and advertise tiger derivatives online. They also sell tiger parts and offer cub-petting experiences, which require constant breeding. Some have links to the trade in rhino horn.

South Africa’s government has taken some steps toward reform.

In 2024, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment published a revised National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act policy aimed at better defining animal wellbeing and sustainable use. However, this revision has yet to be promulgated.

Tiger. (Photo: Wiki Commons)

Similarly, a ministerial task team recommended ending the captive lion industry, including intensive breeding and commercial exploitation. While these initiatives are promising, their focus on lions leaves other big cats — particularly tigers — vulnerable.

Proposals

To combat the escalation of tiger farming and export, Four Paws has called for urgent reforms:

Ban commercial trade: End all commercial breeding and trade of big cats and their parts, with a complete phase-out of captive facilities by 2030.

Strengthen regulations: Establish a centralised database for monitoring all captive big cats, incorporating microchip tracking, DNA registration, and unannounced inspections.

Close Loopholes: Harmonise provincial regulations to eliminate inconsistencies that allow illegal trade to flourish.

Global Cooperation: Align South Africa’s policies with international standards, particularly the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, and lead global advocacy for stricter protections for big cats.

Public Awareness: Educate consumers about the devastating impact of the exotic animal trade to reduce demand for big cat products. DM

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