South Africa ? The hunting of lions and other big cats bred in captivity purely to die at the barrel of a gun will be outlawed under legislation that comes into force next year, the government said Wednesday.

The Department of the Environment said the new regulations will make it illegal for anyone to kill large predators raised in an enclosed reserve to blunt their survival instincts.

It said it would also ban the shooting of lions, cheetahs and leopards in a “controlled environment,” where hunters had an unfair advantage over the beasts, as well as forbidding the killing of tranquilized animals.

“The department shall never condone unacceptable hunting practices … including the so-called canned hunting,” it said.

South Africa is famous as home to the Big Five – lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant and buffalo. Its flagship Kruger National Park attracts hundreds of thousands of camera-toting visitors annually. Some 9,000 privately owned game farms and other government-run reserves also offer visitors a taste of the wild.