Research overview: captive lion breeding, canned hunting and welfare

Intensive captive lion breeding, associated in some regions with cub petting, walking-with-lions tourism, canned or captive hunting and the bone trade, has drawn extensive welfare and ethical scrutiny. This overview surveys the welfare concerns across this industry: high-density breeding facilities, repeated cub removal to stimulate breeding, inadequate housing and veterinary care, the fate of animals bred for hunting or their skeletons, and the conservation claims used to justify it. It discusses investigations, policy debates and arguments that such breeding offers little genuine conservation value while imposing systematic welfare costs. The synthesis frames the captive-predator breeding industry as a case study in how commercial pipelines shape, and frequently compromise, the welfare of captive big cats.