The Discovery…

Well it's been almost a year since I've written and on the verge of my next trip I thought I would write again. I wanted to share with you my journey of how Lobby for Lions, my Facebook and Instagram pages, came about and my journey over the last 2 years with animals. This is a rather long blog so you'll be forgiven if you take 2 days to read it. hahaha. I've injected some photos to make it more interesting.

In September 2013, I ventured on a journey to South Africa that would change my view on life and my priorities forever. I’ve always had a bucket list and South Africa was on that bucket list with the experience to pat a lion cub. I had seen photos of some of my friends who had had that opportunity, was jealous of those that got up close and personal with my favourite animal and all I wanted to do was be in their shoes.  Looking back, I’m so grateful that I did not get that chance as what I would have been contributing too would have plagued me for the rest of my life.

Cheetah from Cheetah Rehabilitation Project

At a very young age I’ve always had a fascination with the African lion. It’s beauty and grace, the majesty and royalty, the power of the roar that echoes through your body when you are close to it, the big full mane of the male lion, the cunningness of the female lion and the extreme cuteness of cubs. For me they also represented a part of the kingdom of God. It’s no secret that they are my favourite animal.

Bruiser the Lion from Taronga Zoo

Over the years I’ve still had the passion to travel to Africa. To go on safari and see lions in the wild or to go to a place in Africa and help raise cubs or something along those lines. In 2012 I undertook a Certificate III in Captive Animals at TAFE. This course allowed me to learn how to look after captive animals, it encouraged me to use enrichment, to open my mind and to study closely animals that I have been fascinated by. Our major assessment was to write a husbandry manual. For those of you that aren’t aware what that is, it is a manual on how to look after an animal in captivity, focusing on a species. We were tasked to choose a threatened species animal and naively I thought that this out ruled the African Lion. Little did I know that the Africa Lion is on the verge of becoming an endangered animal! In the end I chose to do my husbandry manual on the cheetah. I chose this animal as not only is it a big cat and that would still be sticking with the feline species, but I also wanted to learn more about them apart from just their speed. And it was a good choice. I poured my heart into that manual, the work I did at TAFE and the endless hours of formatting and it paid off with marks that reflected my hard work. We were lucky enough to do a few trips with TAFE. One of those trips was a trip to Mogo Zoo. On the two days that we were there we assisted in putting up ropes and hammocks in an enclosure that was to be used as a night enclosure for Western Lowland Gorillas being transferred from Taronga Zoo later in the year for them to live out their retirement. It was a lot of fun to be involved in such a great project. On one of the days we were fortunate enough to be able to witness a male lion get a root canal operation performed. Here are a couple of cool photos of that. You can imagine my excitement being so close to a lion. I snuck in a quick touch of his tail.

During my time studying I was volunteering at Featherdale Wildlife Park in Doonside in Sydney’s west. It’s a lovely little park for Australian wildlife with a focus on birds. They have over 2000 birds there! My experience there was beyond words. I got hands on experience in the field of zookeeping from reptiles, to mammals, to birds. I assisted in basic husbandry of feeding, cleaning, enclosure maintenance, enrichment and education. Some of my highlights included doing the reptile encounter, presenting the Tasmanian Devil talk, presenting the Echidna talk, and the maintenance of the koala enclosures. I was privileged enough to hold the koalas transferring them from enclosure to encounter areas and there is nothing like a cuddle from a koala. Working at Featherdale really inspired me and taught me so much about the industry. However it’s not always about cuddling a cute koala! The hard labour certainly comes with the job as well and the jobs that no one likes doing (like raking the farmyard every morning for 2 hours where goats, sheep and cow roam and freely poop! Hahaha)

Following on from Featherdale, I applied for a volunteer position at Taronga Zoo. I applied for Carnivores (which I really really wanted for obvious reasons!), Primates and Ungulates and the Bird Show. With limited experience in all aspects I was very surprised to hear that I had been accepted in the Primates and Ungulates division as well as the Bird Show division. Unfortunately not in Carnivores this time around but that’s ok, my experience came further down the track with that. I was now faced with a decision. In the end I went with the Bird Show. Either decision would have been wonderful but I felt at that stage that the Bird Show was the best fit for me. It combined my love of animals and I would have the opportunity to see how presentations work within zoos and perhaps learn how one day I could educate the public effectively. Over the last year at the Bird Show I have furthered my experience in working with Australian birds and absolutely loved it. The keepers there are a wealth of knowledge and were ever so patient in my learning phases and hurdles. My highlights have included handling some birds, running the show from the technical side of releasing birds and learning telemetry, more training techniques and watching the keepers train the birds as well, from pigeons all the way up to wedged-tail eagles. Here are a few pics for you.

So here is where the story dives in… In July last year I decided that it was time for another overseas adventure and England and Europe were on the cards again at the time. Unfortunately those plans fell through due to a change in circumstances but this turned out to be a fortunate case for me. I wallowed over the course of the weekend, with only 4 weeks to go til my planned leave from work was meant to be taken. Do I still go to England and Europe and just change the plans? Do I cancel my leave and just settle into my new job? Do I go somewhere completely different? I’ll admit, I was upset but I wasn’t going to let that get me down. So… I decided it would be best for me to go somewhere else… now to choose where… After thinking about it for like a day, I decided that Africa was the best fit! So within the next week, I planned, booked and got everything in place to leave in 3 weeks and it was the best decision I have ever made. You can see my journey in my other blogs…

Before travelling to Kevin Richardson’s sanctuary, I stayed in Johannesburg in a small hotel. The hotel owner was trying to encourage me to go and visit the Lion Park in Johannesburg. I looked into it and saw that you could have experiences with lion cubs amongst other animals and it seemed like an interesting place to visit. So one morning I enquired how I would get there. The hotel owner was going to charge me an exuberant price to drive me there and back and to be honest I was a little worried of travelling by myself to get there so in the end I decided not to go, knowing that the next day I would be seeing an abundance of lions at the sanctuary anyway. This turned out to be the second best decision (the first being to travel to Africa) I’ve ever made.

Upon arriving at Kevin’s sanctuary I started to ask many questions. (All staff and guests and Kevin were very patient with me!) During the course of my questioning, I learnt about canned lion hunting. This made me sick to my core and still does. The thought that lions were being farmed and bred just to be shot or killed by a bow and arrow made me want to throw up. The day I found out about it, I had enquired about Lion Park in Johannesburg and whether it was worth visiting or not. I was immediately told to avoid the place like the plague. Why? I asked. The lionesses there are breeding machines. Within a day of birth the cubs are pulled away from their mother to be hand raised, petted and ‘cuddled’ by tourists for money making ventures and when they are too old for all of this, sold off to hunting farms. The lioness immediately goes back into oestrus to produce more cubs. Think like it is for the puppy mill in Australia, only replace puppies with lions.

 

Gabby, one of Kevin's lionesses.

One of the workers at Kingdom of Wildlife Sanctuary gave me some material to read to learn more about the practice. Tourist places and volunteer places that allow you to touch a cub or walk with lions or have your photo taken with lions in it all contribute to the canned hunting industry. This industry is large scaled. Places posing as lion sanctuaries and continually spreading lies about why the cubs are not with the mother are all involved in this industry. Lies such as “The cubs were rejected by the mother” Or “They will grow up with a better life this way” Or “The mother died” are all lies that owners of these sanctuaries tell unsuspecting visitors and volunteers. Yet the life of these lions is to make money for these so called ‘sanctuaries’ to be injected into the hunting industry. And when you think about it… it all starts to make sense. How could every litter be rejected by the mother? How is it possible for a cub to have a better life without it’s mother? How come they have SO many cubs? Where do these cubs go when they are too old to be held by tourists and guests? Some places will make you believe that those cubs go to sanctuaries to live out their lives, or they are released into the wild. FACT: It is not possible to release a captive bred lion into the wild. These lions are too habituated to humans and do not have the necessary skills to survive in the wild. They may be king of the jungle but that does not mean that they do not have threats.

The cold hard truth is that these lions and their cubs are bred for one purpose and one purpose only and that is to ultimately be shot by wealthy trophy hunters. These hunters have the ability to come to these ‘farms’, select the animal they want to shoot, then bait is put out for that animal to make it easier for the hunters to find the animal in what is already a confined ‘hunting’ space and then when the habituated animal comes for the bait, it is greeted with a shot to the stomach. No hunter will aim for the head and for a quick ‘painless’ kill of these animals because they want that head to be in tack for their trophy for their wall.

Kevin Richardson and Thor

In recent months the world has been outraged by people like Melissa Bachman, Kendall Jones, Aaron Neillson and many other heart breaking ‘trophy hunt photos’ that have gone viral. So what am I meant to do about it? I thought about this for a long time. What can I do? I’m just a girl from Australia. So far removed from Africa. What difference can I make? Well… making a difference doesn’t have to be huge. After returning to Australia, I knew that with the knowledge I had learnt, I couldn’t sit back and watch it happen and not do anything about it. So Lobby for Lions was born. A simple, effective way to reach people. Social Media. We have this at our fingertips so why not use it. I created a facebook page. It didn’t take long to get up to 500 likes and I’m now close to 800 likes. I also started an Instagram page Lobby for Lions too which now has close to 700 followers. However, for me it’s not about the popularity of the page. It’s about spreading awareness and getting the word across and if over the course of this I only educate one person and that person changes their plans when in Africa, then my work is a success. And so far so good. I get so excited when people come to me and ask me for advice. I’m certainly no expert on the matter but I am willing and open to share my experience and the knowledge that I have. For every one person that I tell, they will hopefully tell 10 other people and thus the domino effect.

I joined in the Global March for Lions and connected with like minded people in March this year. We raised awareness and even made it to Channel 7 news! In a month we march again... This time including Elephants and Rhinos. I am organising this along with some other dedicated women who I met at the Global March for Lions.

I’m certainly not alone in this and have found support all over the world in people that are in the same fight. From London to Sweden to America and South Africa. People are banding across the world to make a difference and to fight to get this act banned. Global Marches are happening, petitions, people changing importing laws and making each step count. It’s encouraging and makes my job that much easier to keep spreading the word.

I go back to South Africa this year in October. I take with me two friends who I told about the canned hunting industry who did not know about it before. I hope they get to experience what I did knowing that their contribution is going towards something good and not evil.

Stay tuned here for my Africa blog which will come in October. I’ll aim to blog as often as I can so you can get a first hand feeling of what it’s like. J