Still King: Mother Nature's Lions

                Lions are such beautiful, noble animals, aren’t they? When you see one of them sitting there with their long manes and proud faces, it kind of fills you with respect. I have a relative who had the opportunity, a number of years ago, to take a safari in Kenya. She tells me she was fortunate enough to see some actual lions relaxing under a tree, one day. She had a great thrill to see them, even from her considerable distance, but she was quite happy to remain safely in the tour bus.

                Well, as it turns out, not everyone sees it quite that way. Some people look at these amazing creatures and see money. Lots and lots of money. And they’ll do anything to get their hands on it.

                Lion poaching and is a serious and well-known problem. Do you remember the great upset that was raised, last year, over the death of Cecil the Lion? He was an African lion living in a Zimbabwe wildlife sanctuary. He had made a bit of a name for himself as a tourist draw and as the respected subject of university studies. In July of 2015, Cecil was killed by a touring American sports hunter and his guides. The lion somehow ended up out of the safety of the sanctuary and where he was wounded. Then, some hours later, he was killed.
       Read the story.          
                The response, both online and directly towards the sports hunter, clearly demonstrated people’s strong displeasure with the needless killing of our beautiful wildlife.

                Well, charges were laid against the guides, the tourist is no longer welcome to hunt in Africa, Zimbabwe put a temporary ban on trophy hunting, and a new American Law has granted the lions protection. Now the government can ban or restrict the importation of trophies or live cats.

   So we should all be tap-dancing and jumping with glee, right?

                Well, we should. But there’s always a catch.

                In the last couple days, administrators of the park have announced that, as a direct result of Cecil’s death and the subsequent outcry, big game hunting has dropped so drastically that they now have too many lions. They’re saying they may have to destroy as many as 200 lions to balance things out!

                Can these poor cats never get a break?

                But you don’t know the half of it.

                In the last few months, an animal rescue group had to rescue 33 lions from an illegal circus in Peru. The lions were living several to a very small cage. Many were emaciated from malnutrition and some even had their teeth knocked out and their claws removed so they would have no means of self-defense as they were being “trained.” There were many medical conditions uncovered.

                Much of the attention is being given to a stately, older male who’s been living in captivity most of his live. While in the Peruvian circus, the lion developed a cataract in one eye. It is, by all accounts, a treatable condition, but his previous captors didn’t get him the medical care he needed. The cataract was allowed to develop freely for way too long. By the time he was freed, the poor animal was blind in the one eye.

                On top of all that, the lion’s previous captors didn’t give him a proper name. They simply addressed him as “blind”. That kind of says something about their feelings towards these animals.
                You’ll be happy to hear his new caregivers have provided him with a new name. You may now address him as “Joseph”. Now, that’s much better.

                The lions were flown out of Peru and off to an African wildlife sanctuary, where lionesses were reunited with cubs and the young ones found out what it’s like to romp around once again.

                That’s a happy ending for them. Now we’ll just have to wait for the day when those lions can, once again, simply relax in the shade of that Kenyan tree and be quietly admired from a respectful distance.
File:Cecil the lion at Hwange National Park (4516560206).jpg           
Photo by Daughter#3

Comments