S. AFRICAN LION CUB PET ZOOS SELL LIONS TO BE SHOT BY TOURISTS ONCE THEY GROW UP - The LION WHISPERER who has dedicated his life to give sanctuary to the lions he saved

©http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/. Unauthorized duplication of this blog's material is strictly prohibited.   Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full credit and link is given to Otters and Science News Blogspot.  

Link to this post: 
http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2014/12/s-african-lion-cub-pet-zoos-sell-lions.html  - Thank you for visiting my blog.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

The following are excerpts from the script of "The Lion Whisperer," which aired on CBS 60 Minutes on Nov. 30, 2014.

 

Kevin Richardson

Clarissa Ward interviews Kevin Richardson, who has created a sanctuary for lions whose fate as adults - once their role as cubs at a petting zoo is over - is to be shot by tourists at a "canned hunt," where the trapped lion has nowhere to escape.   

• Our guide is South Africa's self-taught animal behaviourist, Kevin Richardson, known as "The Lion Whisperer".
• We visited his sanctuary, a few hours outside of Johannesburg, where he spends most of his days with his 26 adopted lions.
• He has known them since they were cubs, when Richardson worked at a lion cubs park for tourists.
• The cubs' fate, once they grow up, is to be sold to another park to be shot by tourists.
• He looks the lions in the eye, gets down to their level, lies down on the ground with them. 
• Richardson is just one of the pride.
• The biggest misconception about lions,' he says,  'is that they are mindless, man-eating killer. In fact, they are really just big, scared animals that are designed to kill, because that's how they've evolved. But the truth be known, they'd rather run away than confront.'

 

Photo from Kevin Richardson's website, where you can make a donation.

http://www.lionwhisperer.co.za/

 

Continue reading

Clarissa Ward pets cub lion at The Lion Park

Kevin Richardson started this sanctuary to protect his lions from a multi-million dollar industry that he was once a part of.

 

For years, Richardson worked at The Lion Park, one of dozens of places in South Africa where tourists pay top dollar for the privilege of petting lion cubs.

 

The parks breed their lions constantly to ensure a supply of cubs year round, but once the lions reach maturity, they are too dangerous to be near tourists.

 

Places like The Lion Park claim that their older cats are sent to live out the rest of their days in good homes.

 

Kevin Richardson: Well, the question I have is where are these good homes? Because I'd like to visit a few of those good homes myself, and maybe even some of my cats could go to these good homes. The reality is there aren't any.

 

The cubs actually end up in something called a canned hunt, where for prices up to 100,000 dollars you can go into an enclosure and shoot a lion.  It's entirely legal but online videos from animal rights groups and hunting operations show how brutal it can be.  An animal that has been petted and fed by humans since birth makes a pretty easy target.

 

Chris Mercer runs a campaign to try to get canned hunting banned.  'You put the lion into the enclosure. And then the hunter comes and shoots it and takes it out', he says.

 

Most of the tourists who pay to play with cubs believe that they're helping the animals.  'Whenever you pet a lion cub', says Mercer, 'you are directly enriching the canned lion hunting industry. And I hope that anybody watching this program takes this to heart.

 

Chris Mercer

Clarissa Ward: What percentage of cubs in these facilities do you think end up in hunting operations?

Chris Mercer: Virtually all the cubs that are petted in this country are going to be shot sooner or later.

 

Clarissa Ward: How do you know that?

 

Chris Mercer: Well, we know that there is no other market for adult lions other than the hunting industry. Lions eat meat. Meat's expensive. So every day that that huntable lion remains with the breeder is money lost. They have to get rid of it. And it's the hunting operation that takes it.

 

Rodney Fuhr

The cub-petting business has spent years trying to hide that fact. Journalists went to The Lion Park where Kevin Richardson started out.

 

His former boss, Rodney Fuhr, claims that by allowing people to interact with lions, parks like his raise interest in the species and so they aid conservation.  But later on he admits his lions do indeed end up being sold to be shot by tourists.

Read the full script here:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-lion-whisperer/

Or watch the show on the November 30, 2014 episode on CBS 60 Minutes
http://www.cbs.com/shows/60_minutes/video/hMl1etAck9hlzfgVdkGGajK5NkygaES4/war-and-hunger-swiping-your-card-lion-whisperer/


KEVIN RICHARDSON - THE LION WHISPERER
http://www.lionwhisperer.co.za/

*****************************************************************************