I am ready to take on all comers in terms of defending captive raised lion hunting. Bring 'em on!
Having gone on a CBL hunt, I can tell you it is an amazing experience - or at least mine was. The hunt for the lioness to date has been the most exhilarating time of my life. Nothing like sticking a cat with an arrow from 15 yards and nothing between you and her but 0.4 seconds if she decides to charge.
I was told by my PH and others can dispute or verify this, but he said captive bred lions are more dangerous than the wild version.
My first PH told me the exact same thing. The people who say the animals are "tame" are full of it. The animals have lost their fear of man. This does not make them tame or domesticated, but rather makes them very dangerous because they will be far more likely to stalk you.
I was on the receiving end of one mock charge and two actual charges from the female lion. And the male lion that I hunted two days later started stalking our party and as we followed his tracks, we found his tracks following ours.
I suppose it is high time for me to put up the hunt report...
My master plan is to hunt one of those CBL next year in the Kalahari, then find a legal lion on the secondary taxidermy market and that along with reproduction skull and claws will represent the memories of my hunt.
I have a replica of the skull from the male lion I hunted in my office already and there is a lion at a local taxidermist that has been abandoned that I am hoping to buy. Although it isn't "my lion", he looks very similar to mine. In fact, I will need to make a call and see if I can get it. I figure that would be one step up from getting the fiberglass replicas that I have been offered for my elephant hunt.