The cubs pictured above are among the 1,000 baby lion cubs who are bred every year for no other purpose than to be shot by tourists.

These "Blood Lions" are taken from their mothers within two hours of their birth and are hand reared by their owners who tame them so they are easier to kill. The cubs grow up loving humans and are coddled by hundreds of paying tourists who are told that the lions are being bred for conservation. However, as soon as the cubs grow too big, they are sent to a game reserve where they are stuck in small, crowded pens with dozens of other cats. Pictures of the lions are then taken and put on the Internet so that tourists from around the world can pay thousands of dollars to claim them as the victims of their next hunt in a practice known as "Canned Hunting".

The chosen lions are taken into a different enclosure where they are starved and drugged to make them easier targets. The lion handlers and armed tourists then enter the enclosure in trucks. The starving lions recognize their handlers and often head toward the truck hoping for food but are met instead with a barrage of bullets.

It often takes over 10 bullets to bring the grown lion down, with the animal writhing in agony much of the time. Once dead, the lion's head is presented to its hunter as a trophy and its bones are sold to China for pseudo-medicinal purposes.

This is the fate awaiting these cubs.

As inhumane and cruel as this breeding of Blood Lions is, it is NOT illegal. Please sign this petition to let the South African Department of Environmental Affairs know that legislation protecting these lions must be passed!

Please join us in asking the Minister of Environmental Affairs, Mrs Edna Molewa to ban the practice of canned hunting and blood lion breeding. Today in South Africa over 8,000 blood lions are pacing their pens and awaiting their deaths. The blood lion population is expected to grow to 12,000 in the coming years.

Time is running out for these lions, your support and public awareness is urgently needed to stop this horrific practice once and for all!