Lion Whispers of Canned Hunting
Yesterday, one of my documentary filmmaking fantasies came true. I got to interview a very special and respected man about lions and the plight they face in Africa because of practices like canned hunting.
I interviewed Kevin Richardson, aka “The Lion Whisperer,” the man, the myth, the lion-handling legend.
Kevin has time and time again dispelled the barbaric myths that in order to work with lions, one has to dominate, possibly beat, and absolutely make them afraid of you. Instead of making lions fear him, Kevin makes them love him. His philosophy is based on mutual respect, love, and points out that these trusting, loving relationships take time. How and why that is such a revolutionary and eye-opening concept is beyond me. Is that not the same process in forming human-to-human bonds?
Moments before the interview with Kevin was upon me, I began to sweat with nerves. I wanted so badly to do a good job, ask the perfect questions that I needed for my documentary, and of course, to come across as a fellow conservationist and as a truly cool lady. I’ve met many celebrities while living in LA, including the iconic Jon Voight, but no one has made me nearly as nervous as “The Lion Whisperer.” Kevin is a man that I respect; he uses his public personae and fun videos to show people the deep spirits of lions (among other animals) and to bring awareness about the danger that lions face in Africa. He is truly a force of good in the world.
When the time came, Kevin sat down across from me as my outstanding team manned and womanned the camera. Despite the vengeful African sun beating down on us, Kevin was as cool as a cucumber and put me at ease. I told him ahead of time what I wanted to get out of the interview, so after my first two introductory questions, Kevin took the reins and just spoke about everything that I was going to ask. Check, check, check- I marked my questions as Kevin answered them all without me even having to ask. Wait, was he using his lion whisperer techniques on me? Was he reading my mind? I hope so. That would’ve been sensational. #IveBeenLionWhisperered
As Kevin veered from the pleasant stories of his lion friends and got into the frightening, saddening and maddening realities of canned hunting, the interview immediately became bittersweet. Although I was euphoric from interviewing Kevin, I was angry that I had to. If canned hunting wasn’t responsible for the pathetic and glory-less murder of thousands of lions each year, I would get to talk to Kevin about warm fuzzy things—like how I much I want to kiss a lion. Oh, I wish…
But since lions are in grave danger, allow me to fill you in on what’s going on. Canned hunting technically has no legal definition, but it is colloquially defined as hunting a captive lion in a confined area; the fight is never fair. As of today, there are 25,000 lions in South Africa, and debatably 6,000-8,000 of them are livestock. Almost 1/3 of the lion population is man-ufactured in breeding farms. Lionesses in breeding farms are forced to birth litters 2-3x a year versus the normal litter every 2-3 years. When the cubs are born, they are snatched from their mothers sides as young as one day old, only to be raised by unsuspecting volunteers from around the world. Many volunteers get duped into thinking that they are paying exorbitant sums to volunteer at African lion sanctuaries, but in reality they are paying money and volunteering at breeding farms that supply canned hunts. The lion cubs are bottle fed by volunteers and are constantly handled. Many tourists come to these places for the purpose of petting the cubs. How could they not?! It seems so innocent and the lion cubs are so cute! In reality, the cubs will never ever be released into the wild. Once the cubs are a little older and past the age of cub-cuddles, they will be forced to go on lion walks with tourists to raise more money for the farm. These are a few practices that you should watch out for, should you ever find yourself at this type of a sanctuary. These farm-bred lions exist solely for the purpose of canned hunting.
When these “hunters” come to Africa to kill, they pay large sums to a guide who caters to their every need on this quest for blood. The going rate for an adult male lion is roughly $30,000. The chosen lion (the hunters can actually pick which lion that they want to kill) is not fed for a few days, so it is ravenous. On the day of the hunt, the lion will be lured to a piece of meat full of sedatives, so the lion will be weak, tired and have low-energy. Then the lion will be released into a space as small as a tennis court, where the hunter can easily shoot it. Since the lion has been hand-raised in captivity, it doesn’t have that necessary fear of humans, so the lion oftentimes hangs out in plain view, making for an easy target. Some hunters use rifles, but many opt for a bow and arrow. Many times these hunters aren’t very good, and it takes them a number of torturous tries to bring down their beast. Once the lion is dead, the hunter gets his picture on top of the lifeless body of this farm-raised, hand-held lion.
Then the taxidermists work their post-mortem magic on the carcass. They skin the body and dry the hide out. The body will be tossed aside and the questionable meat will often be given to starving locals; as a rule of thumb, you should never eat a carnivore because it is highly toxic, but when people are starving they will eat almost any and everything. Since the lion’s face is a complicated mask of skin, it is removed in chunks. The face is glued back together piece by fuzzy piece in a giant puzzle on this reconstructed stuffed animal. The once proud and knowing eyes are scooped out and replaced by those cold, lifeless glass balls. Speaking of balls, even those testosterone-fuelled testicles are replaced with stuffing; yes, it is someone’s high-paying job to reconstruct lion testicles. Once all of the animal’s skin is placed as cleanly as possible on the “body,” the taxidermists apply the final makeup to make the lion look somewhat less like a creepy freak-show exhibit.
Canned hunting has taken these regal beauties and beasts and transformed them into livestock and adult stuffed animals. Lions are not what they used to be; they are not what they are supposed to be.
Humans, we need to stop looking at wildlife and our environment as products. We need to see spirit. We need to operate with love. Wouldn’t the world be a far better and more fun place if we treated lions with Kevin’s love and respect? Maybe then there would be more people kissing, cuddling and swimming with lions rather than shooting them in manmade cages.
If these hunters truly “got it,” and were enlightened beings, then they would have no desire to take the life of a fellow comrade on this planet. Hunting for food is completely understandable and admirable, but hunting for a trophy, hunting to kill is deplorable. How is that different from being a psychopathic killer? That moral issue, however crucial it is, is not the present battle we face. First and foremost, we need to ban canned hunting.
Kevin made a beautiful point yesterday when I asked him, “What can people sitting at home do to help?” He responded, “People need to be responsible for their actions. They need realize what they’re doing. They need to educate themselves about what’s going on. When they travel somewhere, they need to look into things before they just do them. And if you choose to pet a cub, then you need to know what that is doing.”
We must be responsible for our actions.
Roars, Kate Bowen
For more information, please visit http://www.cannedlion.org