i would not want to hunt any animal that wasnt fair chase.that goes for the lion.why do you imply that all cbl hunts are phony and corrupt.why cant they be as fair as a plains game hunt???
Some of them are...
See recent discussion on
https://www.africahunting.com/threads/how-dangerous-is-dangerous-hunting.69388/page-2
and
https://www.africahunting.com/threads/how-dangerous-is-dangerous-hunting.69388/page-3
My own take is that at least a few reputable operators exist out there who go well above and beyond SAPA requirements. To give a specific example, Hans de Klerk hunts lions on his 18,903 acres Wilzenau property in the Kalahari near the Botswana border, typically releases a few every two months depending on what he has booked for the following few months, and is committed to not hunt a specific lion (there are few enough to know them individually) for at least 30 days after its release.
This seems acceptable to me. Sure, 30 days does not return a lion to wildness, no period of time ever does (based on my experience in the US with Mexican Wolf reintroduction) but 30 days are enough for a lion to either starve to death, or return to at least its predatory behavior.
Then, to each our own indeed, but I am personally comfortable with a tracking hunt on foot on 20,000 acres for a lion that had to return to killing for eating for at least 30 days, and I think that I personally favor it over seating in a blind over a bait to shoot a supposedly wild but in fact largely people-habituated "problem control animal" (PAC) on communal or conservancy land, or a tourist-educated animal straying off a National Park to a juicy bait, as many if not most of the lions taken in unfenced areas are today.
The SAPA stamp of approval (2.500 acres and 7 days release period) does not excite me much, but guys like Hans de Klerk and a few others do. To me these are hunts like the tuskless cow hunts: not as exhilarating maybe as the old days, but true hunts nonetheless, and a heck of a lot better than nothing for those who hunt them.
As to those who can afford a $60,000 to $80,000 truly wild lion hunt (including likely a buff and hippo baits) in the Selous or Moyowosi, all the power to them indeed.