Countries party to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) have recently failed to ban the international trade of lion body parts. Instead, only the trade of bones, claws and teeth from wild lions is banned, and the sale of captive-bred lion parts will continue.

CITES is charged with ensuring that trade doesn’t threaten the survival of wildlife. Yet this agreement will put the approximately 8,000 captive South African lions in jeopardy. Not to mention the increased potential for illegally poached and hunted lion body parts to make it to market.

Lions are a vulnerable species and we should be doing everything in our power to protect them. We should not be allowing trophy hunters like dentist Walter Palmer to glorify their hunt by bringing home lion bodies. Neither should lion bones be shipped over to Asia for tonics. But the policy set by CITES allows exactly that.

I believe that we can use this petition to bring the international community together again to demand justice for lions. Last year we did it for Cecil, this year let’s do it for lions as a species.

We already know that a better policy to protect vulnerable animals is possible. CITES accepts that the commercial breeding of tigers for body parts drives illegal poaching of tigers. We just need to make a big enough impact so that CITES members wake up and apply the same logic to lions. That’s why your signature is so valuable.

Please sign the petition to urge CITES members to help save lions from extinction by supporting a ban on the sale of all lion body parts.

Thank you for taking action,