Live Free
Every year I set myself the goal of celebrating the birth and remember the death of some of the world’s greatest people and rarely I manage to do that. Another ‘problem’ is that every year I discover new names of people that are worth remembering, people who managed to change the world in a better way.
One of the men I discovered this year was George Adamson, a very famous wildlife protector. Born in the British India, during the british occupation, in 1906, he moved to Kenya in 1924. After coming to have Elsa the lioness in 1956, he devoted his time to saving lions and returning them to the wild. In this matter, he was a pioneer of the idea of wildlife preservation and the re-naturalization of lions became his trademark.
He became known as “Baba ya simba” (father of the lion) but for his biography, you can read more here.
Most of us view wild animals through te prism of prejudice. Whether conscious or subconscious, the prejudice is there and is telling us (regardless of what we claim to believe) that animals are inferior, that they lack language and emotional affection and thus their world is completely separate form ours. Just think about it, how many would willingly enter the cage of a wild lion unarmed and fearless, just to pet the animal? How many of us would consider someone completely crazy if we saw someone actually do that?
Well, George Adamson managed to transcend that barrier and enter a world that most people never get to know. He wasn’t the only one though and given the strangeness of life, people that reach this level are strangely drawn towards each other. I wonder how many of you, dear readers, have heard about the story of Christian the Lion ? In 1969 John Rendall and Anthony ‘Ace’ Bourke, two Londoners, bought a lion cub from an exotic pet shop after seeing the poor animal kept in appalling conditions. They raised the lion in their apartment, played with him in a church backyard and when the time came and with the help of George, they released him into the wild jungles of Kenya. What followed were three reunions with the now mature lion and his family.
Isn’t that amazing? Unbelievable I would say. But I think George would say that’s the normal way of things. I think the world “wild” actually means free, not subjected to someone else’s will. Each living creature is born wild and with the gift of free will. George became not a master of lions, but their friend and protector and all the lions he met knew that and treated him as such. Christian and Christian’s two lionesses, even though the latter were always in the wild, all recognized John and Anthony as friends. Watch this, a part of the ‘Christian the Lion’ documentary.
If this was a singular case, I could say it’s a coincidence. But examples like this of human-animal relationship are many - this just happens to be one of the most well-documented. Randell, Bourke and Adamson bridged a gap there, but I’m sorry to say it seems to be gap that’s increasing again.
The “Born Free” foundation is just one of the many wildlife foundations that took charge of continuing Adamson’s dream as well as promoting the movies he inspired (”Lions are Free”, “Christian the Lion”) and they are rather known in my country (Romania) for their involvment in saving the animals in Romanian Zoos.
The few people around the world that can place Romania on the map know that Romania became rather recently a part of the EU and as such, one of the directives that were to be immediately implemented was related to the condtion of zoo gardens. That particular directive demanded some treatment standards, cage sizes, food quality, medical care and so on .. for the animals. Just like education, medical care, research and many other domains, zoological and botanical gardens were things that were completely missing from any political agenda and therefore none of the country’s 41 zoo’s had money to implement the directive.
Consequently, help was asked from other european zoo’s but no help came as no zoo would take the romanian animals. I would rather not describe the conditions in which the animals were/are being kept, they definitely aren’t for the faint of heart. Of course, the prodigious minds of Romanian administration gave the best solution: death by lethal injection.
I will pause for a moment to wonder. Politicians salaries and benefits were increased 6 times since this directive was given, europarlamentary salaries increased from 3000 euros a month to 7000 euros a month. Yet no money could be found to fly these animals to a natural habitat reservation. Isn’t that amazing? Flying and transporation to Africa (for example) would cost about 2000 euros per flight (and it’s not like you have to fly each animal individually). Add to that around 1000 euros for food and other transportation expenses and you might just find that it’s not that big of a dream to actually give these animals the life they were meant to have. Then again, we must think of the poor poor politicians who might have to buy an Opel car instead of that Mercedes limousine. Makes you cry, doesn’t it?
Well, lucky for the animals, the Born Free foundation came into the picture, managing to save some. Among them, Simbad the lion, from the Bacau zoo (not Timisoara as the Daily Mail UK says, or at least the lion in their photos was the one from Bacau, I know since I saw him before while he was still caged) and Achee the lioness, prisoner of a car-park near the Cyprus Consulate. You can help them (and others too) by ‘adopting’ (aka donate a small amount for their food and care). Now they leave at the ‘Big Cat’ Rescue Center at the Shamwari Wildlife Preserve.
Another strange case in our country is that of a man who was keeping wild animals in his back yard (a lion, some peacocks and an australian dog). He was sentenced to suspended jail time, fined and his lion was taken away to (surprise!) the Bucharest zoo. I really wonder what the problem was. The lion didn’t harm anyone (some neighbours complained about the roaring). Now, the lion has to endure the atrocious conditions in the zoo. Therefore, the zoo torture is good, but having the freedom of a backyard (not exactly the kenyan jungle, but still …) is bad? Why?
In the 60’s two guys were going around London’s main street with a grown lion (and mane!) in an open convertible and that was ok (not to mention raising him in an apartment and playing with him in a church), but today a lion in a backyard is bad? Somehow I have the feeling that (well, I don’t know the man’s plans or whatever for the lion, I’m just talking about the idea here) said lion had a chance for better treatment in that yard than in a concrete cage in a zoo. Will he ever be freed? Who knows. I just hope there’s no lethal injection in his future.
In 1989, George Adamson’s story came to a tragic end as he was murdered by Somali bandits while trying to help a british tourist. His dream lives on with the various people he inspired and they are entrusted now with the task of speaking for those who cannot speak themselves.
Sadly, the main challenge these people have to face is plain old human greed as nobody ever moves a finger in this world unless this move brings profit for the individual. There are many exceptions though, but in turn they have to fight everyone else’s greed.
In this light, is it a surprise that many people consider animals to be much more affectionate and compassionate?