In what appeared to a brutal act, a group of poachers killed 16 members of a lion family using poisonous chicken only aimed at acquiring the jaws and paws of the predator.
Sixteen lions have been killed by poachers who hacked the faces and paws off eight of the adults to sell their teeth and claws to be used to turn into black magic potions.
Distraught Gert Blom, 51, who owns Predators Rock Bush Lodge in Rustenburg, South Africa, was surprised when he woke up not to hear his lion pride roaring as usual at dawn.
He went down to their enclosure and found his two male lions and six lionesses missing and followed drag trails to behind a perimeter wall where he found them all butchered.
Detailing the incident, the owner said that the footmarks identified on the backyard indicate that there were at least four poachers, who initially fed the predators with poisonous chicken, after successfully crossing a brick wall and two fences including an electric fence.As soon as the lions were chocked due to the poisonous chicken, the poachers threw them outside the perimeter wall one by one and later took off their paws of the claws and jaws.
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“With the eight dead cubs – six unborn and the two that were almost certainly poisoned from their mother’s milk – that means the poachers effectively killed 16 lions,” said the owner.
‘Two of the lionesses were about to give birth which makes this all the more tragic,’ he said.Luckily one cub named Yoda who did not drink her mothers’ poisoned milk survived and now at just two days old is being bottle-fed milk by Gert.
Traditional witch doctors or healers use the lion body parts to make potions known as ‘muti’ for local customers who believe it gives them powers to ward off evil spirits or bring luck.
Police are yet to make any arrests in this regard.
