Conservative peer Lord Ashcroft has made an emotional call to the government to follow the lead of the US and the Netherlands and ban the import of "barbaric" captive lion trophies.

:: WARNING: Article features descriptions of animal slaughter and a graphic photograph

It comes as he reveals his findings from an investigation in to lion farming in South Africa.

In the year-long investigation, called Operation Simba, he claims that lions are being bred en mass, with the aim of killing them and using them in "medicine" or as trinkets in the far east - so that hunters can make a profit.

He also revealed that wealthy trophy hunters, some from the UK, pay thousands of pounds to shoot the captive animals, often from short distances, so they can be photographed with them and take the skin as a reward.


In his investigation, he followed one person, allegedly from Britain, who paid £3,000 for a lion named Simba to be released into a compound, so that he could shoot it and be photographed with it.

Image: Simba was eventually released into the wild. Pic: Lord Ashcroft

Simba was later rescued by the peer's team and released into the wild.

Lord Ashcroft also shows evidence of a text conversation he had with a British man who advised him of the best way to smuggle the dead animals into the UK.

He says the slaughtered lion skins are being brought into the country inside deer carcasses, making it almost impossible for them to be detected by customs officials.

Image: Lions are bred so they can be killed and their bones sold on. Pic: Lord Ashcroft

His probe into the lion farms also showed that in the space of two days, 54 lions were killed in a single slaughterhouse, so that their bones could be harvested and sent to companies who want to use them in "traditional" Asian medicine.

Reporting in the Mail on Sunday, he said: "Dead lions, some skinned and others waiting to be skinned, littered the blood stained floor.

"A pile of innards and skeletons lay elsewhere inside. While discarded internal body parts were piled high in overflowing black plastic bags on a trailer outside."

Image: Lions are slaughtered on an industrial scale. Pic: Lord Ashcroft

The harrowing findings did not stop there though, as he also discovered that lions and tigers were being cross-bred, in an attempt to create bigger, and "more imposing" animals, that are worth more to those who want to hunt them.

Lord Ashcroft has vowed to lobby the government over what he calls the "failure to close a glaring loophole" that encourages imports of lion skins into the UK.

The number of lions in the wild has fallen dramatically over the last 100 years, with only an estimated 20,000 left, compared to around 200,000 a century ago.