Christian the Lion and the Hypocrisy of the Extreme Animal Rights Movement
By Zuzana Kukol, July 30, 2008
There are probably not many animal lovers who haven’t read the article or
seen the latest YouTube sensation
“Christian the Lion” . It tells the
heartwarming story of a pet lion bought in 1969 and raised in the apartment
by two Australians living in London. It is not a surprise that pretty soon
the lion was outgrowing the apartment and new arrangements needed to be
made.
That is when the Australians met actors Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna
who had just finished filming the movie “Born Free” about a real
lioness Elsa, who was reintroduced to the wild. The actors personally knew
and portrayed George and Joy Adamson, the real people behind the movie, who
raised and released their lioness Elsa back into wild.
The Australians contacted George Adamson and ended up taking their lion,
Christian, to Kenya where he was released into the wild. (As a responsible
exotic animal owner, I have to say that getting a lion and raising it in an
apartment is a very irresponsible act. Anybody who wishes to privately own
big exotic cats needs to have proper caging set up before getting the
animals, as they grow very fast.)
The hit Christian the Lion video takes place in 1972 when the
Australians, Anthony “Ace” Bourke and John Rendall, returned to Africa to
reunite with their pet lion. The lion, which is supposed to be a killer in
many people’s minds, not only remembered his former family, but gave the two
guys many big hugs. It is this strong loving emotional bond between a
human and the ‘beast’ that captivated the attention of many million viewers
and brought them to tears.
Author with her own pet lion ‘Bam Bam’, bred and born in the USA (Photo Scott Shoemaker)
Until now the public had no clue captive born and raised exotic cats are capable of love and a bond this strong. This is something we, the pet exotic animal owners, know and experience everyday. Until now nobody believed us.
Happy pet lion licking the hand that feeds him (Photo Scott Shoemaker)
What many do not know is that the son of the actor Bill Travers is Will Travers, CEO of Born Free USA which united with the Animal Protection Institute (API), an extreme animal rights (AR) group that actively pushes for bans on exotic animals in captivity.
The group that often uses questionable methods to accomplish their goal
The group that would rather see these animals extinct than saved in captivity
The group that is now selling the DVD in the UK and making money off of the very sweet bond between a human and lion that made this footage famous, the very bond this group wants to eliminate by pushing for exotic animal bans and for closing the zoos
On the group’s
website Will Traves, CEO, says “This lion used to live in my garden” and
“My late dad (Bill) filmed this great adventure”.
Another page of the API/Born Free propaganda ridden website claims:
“…lions, tigers, cougars, wolves, bears, monkeys, alligators, and venomous
snakes and other reptiles — pose grave dangers to human health and safety.
By their very nature, exotic animals are unpredictable and are incapable of
being domesticated or tamed. and “States must act now to pass laws that
ensure that the private ownership of exotic animals is prohibited”.
Yet, their own, API/Born Free, CEO Will Travis lived with a lion in his garden, his family and friends were filming movies with captive and wild lions, and nobody was killed or even lost a limb to a big cat.
What better proof does the public need to see the hypocrisy of the animal rights movement that wants to ban the exotic animal ownership under the guise of public safety, even though the numbers do not add up? On average, one person dies in the USA every year as a result of a captive big cat attack. The majority of the fatalities are the owners/handlers themselves, aka, an occupational hazard.
The public needs to
wake up and realize the dangers of the
extreme animal rights movement, whose final
agenda is no animals in captivity for any reason, be it pet or food.
Copyright © REXANO 2008
www.REXANO.org