Anthony Bourke's Blog

Bill Travers, John Rendall, Ace, and Virginia McKenna with Christian at Dorking, 1970. Photograph Derek Cattani   

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISTIAN!

Happy recent World Lion Day and International Cat Day

Christian was born in the Ilfracombe Zoo in Devon on 12 August 1969. He and a sister were purchased by Harrods Department Store for their “zoo”, where John Rendall and I, Australians newly arrived in London first saw him. We took him home to Chelsea just before Christmas. After a few months we fortuitously met Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna, who had starred as George and Joy Adamson in the famous film Born Free, where Elsa the lioness was successfully returned to the wild. They proposed a documentary about taking Christian to Kenya, to be rehabilitated by George Adamson.

Christian quickly outgrew London and the Travers built an enclosure for Christian where they lived amongst pretty woods near Dorking, and we moved there. We were very relieved to leave London without having had any safety incidents whatsoever, and having had a wonderful time. The photograph (above) is one of the days we filmed in Dorking for the documentary. We pretended to be “preparing” Christian for Kenya, badly acting non-existent chores etc, although familiarizing him with the crate he was to travel in was well worth it. We treasured the days just having time and no distractions with Christian as this would not last. However, weeks turned into months as we waited to see if the Kenyan Government would give permission for Christian to come to Kenya, and allot a suitably remote area of land. John and I took turns to go to London, and friends visited.

Christian in Dorking with his friend Unity

After very successful acting careers, Bill and Virginia had made several important documentaries and were part of a very formidable generation with real star power advocating on behalf of animals and wildlife: David Attenborough, Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, Robert Ardley’s books African Genesis and The Territorial Imperative, and the Adamsons who were among the first to notice the deterioration of environments etc. The World Wildlife Fund was very influential at the time.

John and I were commissioned by the publisher Collins to write A Lion Called Christian, which we had optimistically begun in Dorking, anticipating a happy if unknown ending. Collins had published Joy Adamson’s Born Free, and we met Mirella Ricciardi who was publishing her iconic Vanishing Africa, with some of the most beautiful photographs of a world that has been under such pressure but hopefully will never vanish. Years later she came to Sydney and all my friends adored her. I also loved the photographs and books by Peter Beard, a mixture and collage of his own wildlife photographs, journals, historical material, entwined with people and images of his rather glamorous New York life.

Christian’s caravan in Dorking

MAIL: I very much appreciate the communications, photographs and news sent to me about your animals and experiences, and the valuable voluntary work many of you do.

Some ask me about donations. Many animal shelters do not have government support and I’m sure your local animal shelter or organization need volunteers, expertise and donations. The records of major animal organisations should be quite transparent in the internet/social media age and try to assess what percentage of the funds go directly to the targeted animals and projects. I would follow your heart – and your favourite animal.

Peter Singer, the famous Australian philosopher who wrote Animal Liberation in 1975, has written about giving donations (The Life You Can Save 2009), and is a very generous donor to many causes. He points out how our Australian dollars, for example, can actually go so much further in less developed nations, especially in alleviating poverty – or helping animals.

Other communications include people lucky enough to have met George Adamson and visited Kora, people thinking and writing about human-animal relationships, artists and photographers sharing their beautiful images, and of course I am asked about zoos. I usually reply that I think they are a necessary evil, although animals are living in captivity for our entertainment. Their well-being must be the priority and strict standards maintained. The work and research on behalf of animals and the environment has to be very important. I do not approve of animals in circuses.

See www.alioncalledchristian.com.au

Jane Goodall

Since Christian’s last birthday we have lost several famous figures in the animal world.

JANE GOODALL: As a young woman her research on chimpanzees was ground breaking and she was a tireless advocate for animals and conservation all her long life. I will never forget her haunting chimp call out at the beginning of a talk in Sydney. She had celebrity status, and the Jane Goodall Institute has influential global reach. I particularly admire the long running project for schools Roots and Shoots. This encourages students to choose and design their own conservation projects, and “making positive change happen”.

Brigitte Bardot with a seal in Newfoundland in 1977

BRIGITTE BARDOT:  She had another sort of fame of course but she was a staunch early animal rights activist and capable of drawing a lot of attention, as she did in 1977 protesting over the slaughter of seals in Newfoundland. She loved and cared for animals all her life but she supported racist Far Right political figures.

Christine Townend Photograph by Jeannette Lloyd Jones

CHRISTINE TOWNEND: My personal loss was my friend and mentor Christine Townend. She founded Animal Liberation in Australia in 1976 and Animals Australia with Peter Singer in 1980. Animal Liberation was a revolution in animal welfare, and both organisations still thrive today. Animals Australia recently celebrated Christine Townend’s life, and their 50 Years.

Christine spent 17 years at Help in Suffering in Jaipur, one of the first animal shelters in India, and later she and her husband Jeremy founded the shelters DAS and KAS in the mountains at Darjeeling and Kalimpore. Sydney-based Working for Animals supports their work and I am on the Committee. I have visited both shelters and they were havens for ill or rescued animals, with all veterinary facilities and caring staff, and with the most spectacular settings and views. One of the main achievements has been the eradication of rabies, although this requires ongoing prevention and management. WFA takes mobile veterinary units out to remote villages.

Given the chaos, disruption and “noise” of the present times, like many other people, apart from the human cost, I worry about how animals are faring in war zones in Ukraine, Gaza, Iran and Sudan. Many pets would have just been left behind. There is often an explosion in the stray populations and a resurgence in rabies. Some animal organisations and individuals are doing all they can for the animals caught in conflicts. An Australia vet Lachlan Campbell has been to Ukraine four times to treat and rescue animals in this dangerous war zone, sometimes working in association with Nowzad.

In Australia, with the “cost of living” crisis, animal shelters are overflowing with rescued and unwanted cats and dogs. I am the Patron of the World League for the Protection of Animals and I see this at our Sydney animal shelter. These shelters do such good work, often not funded by government, and are dependent on over-worked staff and a great number of animal-loving volunteers, who often live with many cats at home.

Larry the Cat

WORLD: Larry has outlasted 6 Prime Ministers at No 10 Downing Street. I always wonder who lets him in and out? Good luck to new PM Andy Burnham and I look forward to learning more about him. He was against Brexit, and although he doesn’t want a “re-run”, he hopes that the UK will rejoin the European Union in time.

What has happened to the world, and a “rules-based order” and friends, alliances and trade globalisation that we just assumed would continue and be dependent on?  It is a fascinating if terrifying time in our history. Even leaders of “democratic” countries invade and murder at will, seemingly unaccountable to anyone, and testing and disregarding democratic institutions and conventions. The civilian death toll is appalling. Where is the outcry? Are we desensitized?

While I have no sympathy for the regime in Iran, I hope this unnecessary war is the undoing of both Trump and Nethanyahu. It has been an amateurish and hellish farce with shocking human collateral damage. I’m so sick of the lies, and not knowing the underlying factors – the “deals”, monetarization, even insider trading.

I will leave it to the International Court of Justice to pass judgement on these men and their alleged war crimes.

But Americans have the chance in the midterm elections to influence history. Although Trump’s polling is deservedly bad, the Republicans are much richer than the Democrats, who seem to be in disarray, and unsure how “Left” to be!

The Israelis also have the chance to demonstrate what they think of a government which by many accounts and reports, had a “disproportionate”” response (72,000 dead Palestinians in Gaza?) after the provocative and horrific attack by Hamas. Do they approve of the encouragement of Settler violence in the West Bank, not to mention the invasion of Lebanon and Iran? This will not give either Israelis or Palestinians the peace and security they deserve, but has ensured more generations of “perpetual enmity”. Have we run out of options?

Antisemitism exists and it has worsened in Australia, culminating in a shocking massacre of 15 Jewish people in Bondi last December. At this present time this community needs greater security. Unfortunately this tragedy became swiftly weaponized, especially by the conservatives, and the government (rather reluctantly) created an Envoy for Antisemitism and a current Royal Commission.

The Envoy wants to monitor our campuses, media, and our educational institutions.

Somehow in Australia there is a disconnect: that people’s reaction to the horrors of what is happening in Gaza is somehow unrelated to the rise of antisemitism. We have all watched on the news the destruction of Gaza and so many civilian deaths, and the Settler violence etc, and of course there will be a rise in antisemitism – everywhere – and it will continue while this Israeli government pursues these policies.

In Australia, should you exhibit humanitarian concerns for the Palestinians, you are branded a Hamas/terrorist supporter, when for me nothing could be further from the truth. Any courageous Jewish non-Zionists who dare speak up are particularly vilified. The Palestinians have been imprisoned for decades by both the Israelis and Hamas.

I object to the accusations of ‘bias” against the ABC by our local Jewish organisations. The Gaza War is censored to Israelis, the world press is not allowed in, and over 200 journalists have been killed in Gaza. We have witnessed too much with our own eyes.

Statistically in Australia, up until now Jewish people have not been more discriminated against than any other minority – black people, Muslims etc., while Aborigines suffer much more discrimination than anyone, on a daily basis.

Peter Beard The End of the Game

MIGRATION: Most of us are descended from migrants. Migration is primarily about inequality – people out of necessity courageously seeking a better life.

While the numbers are undoubtedly overwhelming, it is tragic that the Right Wing in particular are weaponizing migration which has actually been such a force for positive change in so many millions of lives and the economies of many countries. Migration needs to be administered closely in regard to numbers, skills, resources, housing, social cohesion etc etc, but in Australia we particularly need migrants/workers in the growing Care, Medical, Hospitality, and rural industries, although these people are also needed in their own countries.

I have reflected on the effects of colonization and migration for many years, staged related exhibitions and written about these issues. Late in life I am still learning just how far reaching the effects of colonisation are, just how courageous and disruptive migration can be, and the reality of generational trauma.

Like others, I was very moved by the illuminating and insightful migration story of author and journalist Omar El Akkad on Radio National. Somehow he was the voice I wanted to hear about the present times, and the book I needed to read and I rushed out to buy his book One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This.

Recently attention has been drawn to Australia’s record on slavery. Apparently some of the early pastoral properties and major colonial buildings in Australia were funded by profits from slavery. The Aborigines were virtually unpaid for their vital contribution to the northern cattle industry. We kidnapped Kanaks from the Pacific to work the sugar cane plantations in Queensland and even today there are migrant workers from the Pacific complaining of exploitative conditions in agricultural jobs.

Christian and John at Kora

AI: Our lives have been captured by the tech companies and social media platforms. The Musks, Zuckerbergs, Bezos etc who are obviously brilliant, and while sometimes altruistic, could make the world a much better and even a sustainable place.

The world is burning with heatwave after heatwave, with the highest recorded temperatures. Fires, floods and droughts – why is there no demand for action? Musk has made a major contribution towards “renewables” with his big batteries for storage, and the revolutionary Tesla electric car. Shouldn’t there be a greater, urgent and innovative response?

The scale and acceleration of AI seems to have taken the world by surprise – and many are already losing their jobs. It seems it is an unregulated field, hard to control, and with conflicting predictions of what the future holds, some frighteningly dystopian. But perhaps AI may solve some of our primary problems – like tackling climate change (successful carbon capture for example), or advancing medical and diagnostic knowledge.

Large Data Centres and their locations are an issue for many countries, with their drain on energy and water, very few employees or local community benefits, and a “hum”.

Christian’s story is now in AI. I found it by accident – or was led to it by algorithms on YouTube. No consent or permissions were sought from me. Don’t check it out – it will only encourage them! It is quite a production with actors photographed in many staged locations. There are some actual photographs of Christian. I felt very strange watching it – disbelief really. There are startling errors and misrepresentations. This is concerning as it is presented as “truth”.  John and I took on the responsibility of Christian together, but in this version John, back in London after leaving Christian in Kenya, is pining for “his” lion and thinking of returning, while I am reduced to a shadow.

Recent Aboriginal GARMA Festival

AUSTRALIA: Like much of the world, we too have had a rude awakening, especially in relation to the USA. Some questioning and criticism has been legitimate (like spending on defence), and some disruption healthy, but everything is so chaotic. Australia has quite successfully stayed under the White House radar as far as possible. We now realise that we can’t rely on the US alliance, can’t defend ourselves, and we are spending $368 billion on submarines that may never be delivered. We are dependent and vulnerable on imports of fuel even though we are a major exporter. We import fertiliser for food production, and even some foods like grains and rice during droughts.

Our alliance with the USA could draw us into a war with China, ironically, our main trading partner.

We don’t manufacture anything. We can’t compete with Asia’s cheaper labour. We don’t back our own inventors to stay here, and we do not fund and encourage innovation with Research and Development only 1.69% of GDP, compared to the OECD average of 2.7%.

Politically, the Labor Party has been cautious, incremental and competent in government. They won convincingly last election although “cost of living pressures” are eroding their support. After the defeat of the Voice referendum, the ALP has gone very quiet on Aboriginal issues, but also the environment.

Despite a humiliating loss, especially of their key wealthy inner-city seats, the Conservative Coalition seem to have learnt no lessons. The Right remains in disarray, unable to decide just how extreme to be or who to support, and all parties are worried by the rise of Pauline Hanson and her all grievance, no answer, One Nation. Her party usually combusts especially over her selection of terrible candidates and autocratic behaviour. I think her current popularity will actually overwhelm her administratively, but she is backed by Australia’s richest woman Gina Rinehart, who is a Trump fan.

Gina Rinehart by Vincent Namatjira. Vincent is one of our most famous artists, and Gina wanted this painting taken off exhibition. But it is such a good likeness!

Getting Murdoched: How Murdoch’s Media Wields Power and Punishment by Andrew Dodd and Matthew Rickettson has just been published although by now we understand the scale and consequences of their modus operandi. Apparently Lachlan is “worse” than his father. I read The Australian and daily I am shocked at the zeal and blatancy of ideological bias, their opposition to renewables and empirical evidence, and many letters to the editor demonstrate racism and a complete lack of empathy, especially for Aborigines and migrants. I think they are seriously misreading the public mood, and clinging to a world that has moved on.

Despite the government’s stated ambition for renewable energy, PM Albanese has approved 36 new polluting projects and almost $15 billion in subsidies for fossil fuels. However Australians continue to take up solar panels and batteries, and electric/hybrid cars are now 50% of new car sales last year. I read that 85% of all additions into the world’s electricity grids is now renewable, and in Australia it is 50%.

Perhaps Trump has inadvertently turned the world against fossil fuels with the Iran War.

In Australia we continue land clearing and compromising koala habitats. We are losing too many species, but have had some success at repopulating, like Campbell’s keeled glass snail on Norfolk Island that was thought to be extinct. There have been many more sightings of sharks and several fatal attacks. Now the Sydney beaches are observed by drones which is much more effective and humane than the controversial shark nets. Lately the disastrous H5 bird flu has arrived in Australia and begun to spread to resident bird populations, so this could be catastrophic, especially for poultry farmers. A new documentary called Sentient will add support for the campaign to stop primates being used in laboratory experiments.

George Adamson, Ace, John and Christian at Kora

KORA: The George Adamson Wildlife Protection Trust has become the George Adamson & Tony Fitzjohn Wildlife Trust. They are now rehabilitating Kora, where the Kenyan Government allotted land for Christian and the rehabilitation of other lions by George Adamson. This is a history I lived, documented in a book, and wrote about last year. Follow the progress of infrastructure projects, recovering and conserving the environment, and community outreach programs.

OLOLO LODGE: If I do return to Kenya one day I think the Ololo Lodge seems like a wonderful place to recover from a long flight, and then go on safari.  An old converted farm house, it is a few kilometres out of Nairobi beside the National Park. Animals on the doorstep. Craig Chapman and his family relocated to Kenya from Australia and the family organise many wildlife tours, stage interesting cultural activities like writer’s events, and are very much involved with projects involving the local community. www.olololodge.com

Finally, I wonder how you cope with the tensions and the news of the day, and how do you relax? It is a juggling act as I think we also have an obligation to keep speaking up about what most concerns us. I love my apartment and my two cats, and the neighbourhood where I can walk to the shops, cafes and parks, with dogs everywhere. Many from the art community live nearby. I read extensively, and listen to interesting writers, various interviewees and commentators, especially on Radio National and Late Night Live. I love most music, and watching sport, from Wimbledon, to rugby league, football’s FIFA, and the Commonwealth Games. Travel and gardening are wonderful distractions, and like nature documentaries, very relaxing to watch on television.

But ultimately, for most of us it is our families, friends and companion animals that are so central to our lives and we are grateful. Thinking about Christian and that I was part of his pride gives me such great pleasure, so I love celebrating his birthday and today we, his loyal fans, wish him HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

One of the first photographs of Christian by Derek Cattani

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISTIAN – TODAY 12th August!

ABC: With the world so unsettled I was unsure what to write about this year, and unfortunately, I had many of the same concerns last year. Recently I received an email from our national broadcaster the ABC. In 2009, soon after our reunion with Christian had become a hit on YouTube, we were interviewed on radio by Richard Fidler on the ABC’s Conversations program. It was an hour long and Richard was so well informed and responsive I think it was our best interview. I have remained addicted to him and co-host Sarah Kanowski ever since.

The program Conversations is now 20 years old and to celebrate they are repeating their interviews with their “absolute favourite guests”. It is an honour, and a testament to Christian’s appeal, that with so many wonderful and fascinating ones to choose from, our interview was chosen. It was aired on the 6th August but is available as a podcast, like Apple podcasts, and search “20th Anniversary Collection: A lion named Christian, and the men who loved him”.

Also http://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/conversations

I listened to the interview and the three of us sounded pleasantly animated. Richard was amused and interested in the story, and it didn’t appear too dated.

The interview has made me think of what happened subsequently, although I have written about much of it. I quickly became much better informed about animal rights and issues and more actively involved. This has included protests over canned trophy hunting, to being involved with several animal shelters in Australia and India and speaking at several conferences. All his life John Rendall remained involved with the George Adamson Wildlife Preservation Trust (GAWPT).

In the shop Sophistocat

There were other memorable interviews. The worst was the first. It was on the roof of the Hyatt Hotel at Circular Quay standing on a box to get the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the shot behind us, in a winter gale. It was quite late at night in Australia as it was timed for the American television program Good Morning America. John had had a few drinks as we waited for the interview, but as it turned out in the future, I could always rely on John to talk no matter how late he went to bed. Also, he had been involved with GAWPT in the intervening years and returned quite often to Africa, and unlike me, was up to date about the discussions and debates in the animal and conservation worlds. I had been immersed in my art career in Australia, and had begun travelling more frequently to India, which included exhibitions of Aboriginal art for the government.

In an advertisement break I heard the American hosts saying to each other “some people think the lion footage of the reunion with the lion is faked”. I was furious, freezing, and I had very little to say. After this I said to John. “That was terrible and a wasted opportunity. I have to educate myself immediately, and we should decide on some key points about animal welfare and issues that we think are important to discuss, and be concise about it”.

We always of course talked about Christian, and George Adamson and the work of GAWPT, and the environmental and wildlife crises the world faced. This included climate change, and the many animals facing an extinction vortex. We were also critical of zoos and the trafficking in wild animals or their body parts.

This photograph won an award for Derek Cattani.

Another memorable interview was on the Oprah Winfrey show in Chicago a year or two later, although it was Ellen DeGeneres who had first shown our reunion with Christian in Kenya footage. By then we had revised our original 1971 book A Lion Called Christian. It was Oprah’s Friday panel show with 3 others. The guest before us was Facebook/META’s Mark Zuckerberg. For months Oprah’s assistants had been emailing us the questions we were to be asked and in what order.

On an advertisement break we were rushed onto the set along a corridor lined with monitors previewing Christian, and many of the staff sitting and watching and clapping. For some reason I found this intensely moving. I was ushered into a chair beside Oprah. I couldn’t believe I was sitting beside this icon. Her skin was glowing and her makeup stunning. It was painted on. We had also been sprayed earlier in a very flattering light gold.

Oprah went immediately off script and turned to ask me why so many millions of people loved our reunion with Christian. Forgetting our rule about brevity, I went on a lengthy rave about all the reasons why: it was a unique human-animal connection; he was gorgeous and charismatic; some people thought we would be eaten; the world was depressed by the Global Financial Crisis and needed cheering up etc etc. While I think the interview went quite well I have never watched it. I found it very nerve-racking.

In New York we went on Good Morning America. While waiting John had a cigarette and chatted with Martha Stewart. We also went on The View. We met Whoopi Goldberg having a smoke beforehand in the parking lot. She showed us a photograph of Christian on her iPhone for whenever she needed cheering up.

The host who looked after us the best was Wang Lifen in China. She was regarded as China’s “Oprah Winfrey”. She cleverly went on air in a wig so was not widely recognised on the streets. She was a “Young World Leader” and had visited Australia several times. She flew John and me to China and really looked after us for several days. She was the only one that took us out to dinner, and made her driver available for a trip to the Great Wall of China, and around Beijing to the Forbidden City, and the then quite new large art precincts. It has been my one and only trip to China and I found it fascinating.

She had a studio audience which she managed very well and spoke in Mandarin, English, and French when we crossed to Switzerland for a related interview. She was very impressive and I have googled her since and she is described as a “businesswoman and entrepreneur” – no doubt a very successful one.

The Kings Road, Chelsea

So much has happened since the ABC interview. Most importantly and sadly John died from complications from Covid in 2022. Then George Adamson’s assistant Tony Fitzjohn also died. He had set up the George Adamson Wildlife Preservation Trust (GAWPT) which John had actively supported. Tony’s widow Lucy and  their son are continuing the work and are rebuilding Christian’s camp at Kora. They are also building infrastructure necessary for tourism and the protection and rehabilitation of the ecosystem and habitats, and working with local communities. GAWPT has become The George Adamson and Tony Fitzjohn Wildlife Trust. See koraproject.org

KORA: I have been discussing with Lucy Fitzjohn the origins of Kora for inclusion on their excellent website, and for the planned historical education centre. It is my understanding that George Adamson, after being contacted by Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna of Born Free fame about Christian, was particularly interested in seeing how a 5th generation European born lion would fare back in Africa. George would build a pride of lions around him. A documentary of this “experiment” would be made and the film company was to pay 750 English pounds a year for the “exclusive use” of a suitable area. There was a long delay while George checked remote locations and Kenyan politicians decided if this was a good idea. Ultimately, they thought it would be good for tourism.

Coincidentally, Boy a seven-year-old lion used in the filming of Born Free and one of the few to be rehabilitated, had been found injured in October 1969, just before we bought Christian. He was being nursed back into health by Joy and George Adamson at Naivasha for 9 months and was now ready to be returned to the wild. He would make a suitable head of the proposed pride, if he would accept Christian.

To many of us Kampi ya Simba at Kora is a sacred site for Christian and the establishment of the Kora National Park (gazetted in 1973) is one of his enduring legacies. Although the vegetation is rather inhospitable (which is why it was chosen), it is beautiful in its own way, especially down by the nearby Tana River. George viewed Kora as a monument to “the cheerful, mischievous, and courageous” young lion from London.

Last year in June Christian’s photographer Derek Cattani died. He sensitively and quietly built up a very good relationship with Christian and his wonderful archive of photographs has really contributed to the ongoing interest in Christian’s story.

When I look on YouTube now, there are many stories of “owners” of big cats especially, or “wild” animals, reuniting with each other. I think Christian was lucky to get in on the early days of YouTube and social media, and as years of his amazing life were so well documented and illustrated, our story keeps featuring prominently. All the lion photographs on this blog are by Derek Cattani. See www.derekcattani.com

John and Derek actively supported the lion cause with talks and fund raisers for GAWPT, while Derek was a Trustee and then a Director of LionAid.

It was the documentaries by Bill Travers and the film company about returning Christian to Kenya from London that have also been a major contribution to the story still being of interest. Bill Travers’ wife, now Dame Virginia McKenna, still actively supports the Born Free Foundation run by their son Will. I remember a photograph of him as a very young child looking in to Christian’s enclosure in their garden in Dorking. Christian has an intent look which always worried us about him with children. Our 3 indulgent friends and owners of Sophistocat on the Kings Road, Jennifer Mary Taylor, John Barnardiston and Joe Harding are all still going strong.

Our editor Adrian House also died. His book The Great Safari: The Lives of George and Joy Adamson would make an excellent film. Both George and Joy were larger than life, but in very different ways.

A film about Christian remains in limbo with SONY who own the rights but seem to have no intention of making it.

It was when Whitney Houston’s song I Will Always Love You was added to our reunion footage with Christian that it became an internet sensation with over 100 million hits, after which we stopped counting. We remained very grateful to Whitney. When she sadly died in 2012 much of her work disappeared off YouTube, including our reunion. That is why we have kept a record of her version here.

John, Christian and Ace at Dorking, UK

WFA: I became involved with Working for Animals with the legendary Christine Townend. She started Animal Liberation in Australia, then Animals Australia with Peter Singer. After running an animal shelter Help in Suffering in Jaipur for 17 years, she and her husband Jeremy set up two animal shelters in Darjeeling (DAS) and Kalimpong (KAS). Both shelters are very successful and you can follow them on www.workingforanimals.org.au and they are active on Instagram and Facebook.

I have had a long affair with India and taken two exhibitions of Aboriginal art there for the government and collected and exhibited Indian tribal art. I have had memorable animal experiences, especially seeing tigers in Ranthambore, and the Asian lions in Gir, but I also have spoken at major conferences in Jaipur and Delhi. I was the light relief!

WLPA: I am presently the Patron of the World League for Protection of Animals Inc, based in Sydney. www.wlpa.org. I adopted Harry the tuxedo cat from them, the most charismatic cat I have ever met. I blogged about him last year. Unfortunately, he was an unpredictable biter, perhaps hurt by earlier experiences, and he was more dangerous than Christian ever was to live with. Sadly I had to return him and he remains at the shelter with the imperious presence of an alpha male (or top dog!) I have since adopted two gorgeous and loving black kittens who are bonded twin sisters and growing fast.

Christian at Dorking

In the intervening years we have come under some criticism. When the debate about canned trophy hunting in Africa was a big issue before COVID, we were criticized for buying Christian and setting a bad example, encouraging the trading of wild animals. I think this is a legitimate point to make, and it was all part of our education. There are more tigers – often badly inbred – in American private hands than are left in the wild. The documentaries on Joe Exotic became an international hit which illustrated the sad reality for most animals in captivity and some of the characters involved.

Once I was invited to speak at a conference in Melbourne by people that were campaigning against canned trophy hunting. I checked the website to see the details and was horrified to read that people were invited to hear the “notorious story of Christian the lion”. I cancelled. I did not want to be portrayed as a “sinner that had seen the light”.

Canned hunting advocates were citing Christian’s rehabilitation as an example of why hunted wild lions could simply be replaced by zoo bred lions. This is of course spurious, as is the assertion that income generated by hunting funds conservation.

I am quite open to having most of these discussions or debates but, overall, I think Christian’s story is about the animal/human connection and love, and that animals and our environment have to be protected, and that he has been a great ambassador for this.

I think more people, especially younger ones, acknowledge the science about climate change, but the fossil fuel industry remains a formidable opponent. The climate wars go on, holding investment in renewable energy projects back. Time is running out. We have all witnessed the weather getting more extreme, more often, from flooding to fires with a disastrous effect on lives and habitats.

We have seen projects and information about “rewilding” emerge, and huge corridors and related tracts of land for conservancies set aside for animals which I think is an excellent idea. In India they have been trying to “re – construct” the traditional corridors for elephants that have been interrupted and obstructed by roads and railways, resulting in many deaths. One corridor now even goes through a hotel foyer! More recently, the value of oceans is being recognized, and the damage of “bottom trawling”. I am looking forward to Ocean with the legendary David Attenborough, who has had to face criticism that his nature documentaries gloss over some issues like plastic pollution. Overall, however, he advocates so effectively for our natural world, and what we have lost in his lifetime.  

Meeting Boy at Kora

WORLD: Given the Trump induced chaos in the world, one of the few positives is that we have all had to reconsider or define our “values” and the world order that we took for granted, so arbitrarily disrupted. We have had to question our alliances and allies, our relationship with America and the region, our supply routes and economic dependencies, and our inability to defend ourselves.

I remain defiantly woke and in favour of DEI – Diversity, Equality and Inclusion. Life and opportunities for the majority of people are very unequal, and racism is endemic. I never thought I would live to see in an allied Western democracy such questioning and disregard for truth, laws, constitutions, science, education, the arts, global health etc., and a total lack of empathy for the less fortunate. Time will tell just how resilient the American economy is, but the uncertainty, capriciousness and chaos must make investing and planning decisions very difficult. Who said we live in a society not an economy?

The shadow over the recent year has again been watching Gaza reduced to rubble, with starving Palestinians herded like animals, as the world stands by. The disproportionate response and number of deaths cannot be justified or excused, nor can the attack and taking of hostages by Hamas. Unfortunately, while anti-semitism certainly exists, it has been weaponized and accusations of it is used to close down legitimate criticisms of Israel. The West Bank is being illegally taken over by Jewish settlers, making a “two state solution” impossible. Finally the world seems to be saying enough is enough, including some very courageous Israelis. Unfortunately I have no faith in the leaders of either Israel or Palestine.

Somehow the Ukrainians courageously fight on, while Putin plays games with Trump.

Our reunion with Christian

AUSTRALIA: Luckily the Labor Party was convincingly returned in an election in Australia, although we are still hypocritical about energy sources and fossil fuels. Our animal extinction rate is among the worst in the world, and land clearing continues unabated, especially in my home state of NSW.

The conservative opposition in Australia (with active help from the Murdoch press) buried the referendum to give Aboriginal people at last a “voice” on issues that involve them. The Voice Referendum unfortunately illustrated our racism and ignorance about our Aboriginal/settler history. To me it is just commonsense to ask Aboriginal people how best to deal with the many disadvantages and inequalities they live with daily. But people are recovering from the loss and are regrouping and the fight for justice goes on, despite government ambivalence and a lack of commitment.

Emily Kam Kngwarray Big Yam Dreaming 1995

TATE MODERN: One of our most famous Aboriginal artists, the late Emily Kam Kngwarray is exhibiting at the TATE MODERN in London until 11 January 2026. She only started painting late in life. I was fortunate to stage several exhibitions of her work, and my sister and I were lucky enough to see her painting a large black and white masterpiece Big Yam Dreaming in Central Australia in 1995. I videoed, while my sister swept the leaves off the canvas for her. This footage of the painting has been shown in various documentaries. This was an extraordinary privilege to witness, as has so much of my career working with Aboriginal artists.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISTIAN. You are still not forgotten……nor will be, long after we are gone.

Writing the blog this year I marvel yet again at Christian’s life. Along with my wonderful family and friends, being part of Christian’s journey has been another great privilege that has enriched my life.

Christian in the Moravian Close. Photograph Derek Cattani

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISTIAN!

I love this photograph of Christian. He looks so handsome and cute. We took him to this garden every afternoon on the Kings Road, Chelsea. The studios in the garden were originally Sir Thomas More’s stables. It was peaceful, usually without people, and safely enclosed. We could relax. Actually it was a graveyard for the Moravian Church, a sect that bury their dead vertically. The vicar did not mind that Christian played there, until he got bigger and Christian one day took an interest in one of his visiting grandchildren. He reacted differently to children and we always had to be very vigilant. The fact that he was growing so quickly precipitated our need to leave London. Christian was not aware of it, but already at this size we could not have controlled him if we had had to. Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna built an enclosure for him in their large garden in the country at Dorking. That was where we waited long months for permission to take him back to Africa.

Christian and Ace Eternal Hug  Artist Jaiwei Shen Oil on canvas 213cms x 167cms

The artist Jaiwei Shen painted this in 2013. He was a “propaganda” artist for the Chinese Government before he emigrated to Australia. We both lived in Bundeena, just on the edge of Sydney and I thought he wanted to meet me because I was an art curator, but it was the story with Christian that intrigued him. He has painted very famous people, often commissioned, like Princess Mary of Denmark and political figures, and has painted some quite extraordinary, huge and important “history” paintings of China. He painted a smaller, quicker portrait of me as a “study” which I like very much, and which he generously gave me.

I think it is an excellent portrait of Christian with a very good likeness. It is based on “the Hug” which is on YouTube, which is Christian jumping up into my arms – his greeting for me as I entered the enclosure in Dorking. Jaiwei said he nearly went mad painting all the fur – which he did beautifully – and he hadn’t realised the fur on lions was so varied and individual!

The Hug

“If this doesn’t make you cry you’re dead inside” – a sentiment I don’t particularly like, but our “reunion” clip with Christian in Kenya seems to be doing the rounds on Facebook, Instagram etc with this quote. The clip seems to resurface every 3 years approximately. It looks like it will go on and on…way past my life which is rather touching! See clip here

I am so heartened that many of you still contact me (see photo below) or read this blog, and that Christian remains an inspiration or important in many of your lives. Perhaps he is reminding us of the possible relationship between humans and animals. Perhaps he is just a wonderful and exceptional animal that touched so many hearts and remains a special memory to you.

A young fan reading Christian’s book

Despite so many pressing problems in the world, we still have a duty of care for animals, and I can’t help noticing the companionship and just how attentive and loving so many people are with their animals even if they walk their dogs while looking at their Iphones.

The indefatigable Jane Goodall has recently been in Australia, and now aged 90 she urges people not to give up hope and still have optimism about the survival of the animal kingdom. Good to glimpse Sir David Attenborough attending Wimbledon. What legends!

Wimbledon and the Olympics have been a welcome distraction from most of the news.

WORLD: Last year I wrote about the depressing state of the world in many respects and an almost universal failure of leadership. It is still the same unfortunately, although ironically, living back in the city I am extremely happy! The swing to populist leaders is alarming (although PM Starmer in the UK is a welcome change) especially with their lack of empathy for refugees, migrants, multiculturalism or obvious social and economic inequalities. I am proud to be described as “progressive” and “woke”, although it is a word now used so disparagingly. The ABC, our national broadcaster, is constantly under attack for “bias” especially from Rupert Murdoch’s media of all people! I find it my most trusted news source and I learn so much from a variety of programs.

Unfortunately these days there is such a gap between conservatives and progressives, amplified by our selective sources of news and information, that reaching a consensus and solving major problems, now seems out of reach. This is personified by the pre-election tussle in the USA, almost equally divided between the Trump supporters and haters, and the unbridgeable gulf between them. While Kamala Harris is an unknown quantity, Trump has proven to be too erratic and disruptive, and as has been demonstrated, is a serious threat to democratic values.

Putin undoubtedly “invaded” Ukraine, unprovoked, although he does see Ukraine joining NATO as a threat. Hamas provoked Israel in a violent deadly attack that must be condemned, but nothing happens in a vacuum, and Israel needs to examine their long unresolved relationship with the Palestinians. 700,000 settlers living in the West Bank illegally, make a “two state solution” almost impossible. The Israeli reaction has been in the eyes of many a “disproportionate” response, and while Israelis deserve to live in peace and security, on the news each night we see too many deaths of innocent Palestinian women, children, aid workers and journalists, and Gaza reduced to rubble. Anti-semitism – like Islamophobia, is to be condemned, but should not be confused with legitimate criticism.

Kimera the horse visits my friend’s house in Brazil and loves his cat and dog

AUSTRALIA: Our issues here, like much of the world, seem to be cost of living, housing shortages, debates over energy and migration, the effects of social media and AI and a shocking epidemic of domestic violence and youth crime.

It is back to the future here in Australia. The conservatives lost power at the last election, and several of their prize wealthiest electorates. But nothing has been learned. They still continue the “climate wars” and one of their few new policies is nuclear energy which is currently banned in Australia. This seems a tactic to continue with fossil fuels for decades (and we are the world’s third biggest exporter of them), and to sabotage investments in renewable energy.

You don’t have to be a scientist to observe that our weather has become increasingly extreme in both frequency and intensity around the world. We have all experienced the hottest June on record and many have suffered through heatwaves, bushfires and floods.

To me and many others, the saddest thing that happened in 2023 in Australia is that a referendum to give Aboriginal people a “Voice” to Parliament failed. It was to be advisory only and on issues that affect Aboriginal people directly. It should have been just commonsense, as they are in the best position from lived experience to know what is effective for them. They have never been properly consulted, just told what is best for them by non-indigenous bureaucrats and politicians.

The government did not conduct a good campaign, and failed to gain bi-partisanship with the conservatives, who seem to oppose everything unless it directly benefits them personally. No referendum has succeeded without bi-partisanship. It was a very unpleasant, divisive and racist debate. However 40% of Australians did support it, and a new very articulate leadership of younger Aboriginal people has emerged.

Unfortunately, the government has now lost courage and is no longer talking about a Treaty or a truth-telling commission. They are also sitting on the fence about the environment and energy and agreeing to new coal and gas fields.

Dr.Mohit at our animal shelter in Darjeeling.

WORKING FOR ANIMALS (WFA): Our two animal shelters in India continue to do wonderful work for the animals and communities in Darjeeling and Kalimpong. See our website www.workingforanimals.org.au, and our most recent newsletters for an update. Funding and sponsorship are an ongoing concern as it is for most equivalent organisations. We staged a fund raiser that included paintings by our founder Christine Townend, photographs of India by our President Jeannette Lloyd Jones, while I donated some Indian tribal artworks, particularly Madhubani works on paper. The exhibition was successful at raising awareness and funds for the shelters. We thank all those who contributed to making it a success, and particularly Adrian and Ann Newstead who own the gallery in Bondi.

I am very much looking forward to an overdue visit to India in late January 2025.

Harry

WORLD LEAGUE for the PROTECTION of ANIMALS (WLPA): After my elderly cat died last year, my niece steered me towards thinking about another cat. At the WLPA shelter there was a most handsome young black and white “tux” that behaved as the alpha male and disliked all the other cats. Of course I was immediately attracted to him. I brought Yamur home to my apartment, renamed him Harry, and he was a force of nature and one of the most charismatic cats I have ever known. He was very affectionate and engaged, but for some reason would occasionally and seemingly for no reason, bite ankles – or hands. He may have been badly treated when he was young.

I have never been unable to manage a pet before. Christian was easy in comparison – he was predictable and affectionate. Lions, unlike cats, live in prides and family harmony is important.

I consulted a very helpful cat behaviourist Chris O’Neill. You can see his blog here http://www.catology.com.au/blog/. He reminded me that cats are wild animals, even though so many colonise us effectively and affectionately.

Chris recommended medication which had no effect, and distracting toys for him etc. Unfortunately I was always on edge with visitors (and cat bites are very infectious), and after another seemingly unprovoked confrontation, I very reluctantly returned him to the shelter. I visit him every week and I think Harry finds the shelter much more stimulating with other cats (even if he doesn’t like them), and staff and volunteers coming and going, rather than just at home with me even if my apartment is very nice!  

WLPA have just moved into new premises, and Harry has a large enclosure of his own and seems to still dominate the other cats and staff. Unlike all the other cats, he is allowed out of his enclosure from time to time and roams around.  While sweet to me on my visits he still can’t resist the occasional bite to staff or volunteers so I do worry about his future, the quality of his life, and the unlikelihood of him ever being adopted. I have to admit I find the situation quite heart-breaking.

WLPA has a “no kill” policy and has quite a population of cats at the shelter that have had difficult lives, and their behavioural problems make it unlikely that they will ever be rehomed. But WLPA offer them a safe and friendly environment but of course always have to seek support and funding. Cats can be sponsored for the year for approximately $400. They have a very good success rate at rehousing many cats.

Thanks to Harry, I am now the Patron for WLPA and you can see more information on us at http://www.wlpa.org

Can anyone solve the problem of cats with this biting problem? A friend has suggested cannabis oil…..although apparently most Australian vets do not prescribe this.

We are staging a fund raiser this September 1st between 4pm and 7pm at WLPA Unit 6 41 -43 Higginbotham Road Gladesville (02 98174892) and I am going to talk about my many cats and how they have come in to my life. The highlight no doubt will be showing some photographs of Christian.

KOALAS: An excellent documentary on koalas has been made by Georgia Wallace-Crabbe and Gregory Miller. A koala is a national symbol and a very cute animal. Their very existence is threatened by forest clearing, disease, and the spread of urbanization and roads. For more information. Governments seem to express concern for their future, allot areas of land for them, then allow logging to continue!

In Australia the government has finally banned the live sheep export to the Middle East by 2028. Of course West Australian sheep farmers are objecting vociferously. A latest report on the greyhound industry that was nearly closed down a few years ago, highlights ongoing problems like the death toll on those dogs not fast enough or after their racing days. The horse racing industry faces many of the same issues. There is another campaign against puppy farms, with the health problems of many dogs from this cruel industry becoming more and more apparent.

Christian and Ace at Kora

THE GEORGE ADAMSON WILDLIFE PRESERVATION TRUST (GAWPT): After the sad death of Tony Fitzjohn who was George Adamson’s assistant for 18 years, I am very glad to hear that his wife Lucy and son Alexander are continuing Tony’s work with GAWPT. In a recent communication Lucy sent me their newsletter from 2023.

I am in awe of their achievements already and their ambitions for Kora which was of course where Kampi ya Simba camp was established for George Adamson to build a pride of lions around Christian for their rehabilitation. GAWPT, to be renamed The George Adamson and Tony Fitzjohn Wildlife Trust, is overseeing infrastructure projects, rebuilding the camp, and very importantly, working with local communities. In conjunction with the Kenya Wildlife Services, they are safeguarding and rehabilitating the ecosystem, protecting and restocking wildlife, and encouraging the growth of tourism. Now there is even the Adamson Bridge over the impressive Tana River. I view the Kora National Park as yet another aspect of Christian’s legacy – HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISTIAN!

Never Stop Missing You

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISTIAN!

SONG: What better way to celebrate a birthday than with a song! I have a treat for you. Earlier in the year I received this email: “Hello Ace, I wanted to share with you that years ago, after learning and falling in love with the story of Christian the lion, I was so inspired that I wrote a song. Years later, I’ve only just now recorded the song for YouTube. I thought you might like to hear it. I hope you like it and realise what a huge impact the beautiful story had on so many people. Christian’s memory lives on. Kindest regards, Gemma Shepherd”. Listen here.

Naturally I just adored the song….and cried. I loved that it was from Christian’s point of view. People often comment “you must miss Christian so much”, or “how could you let him go?” – but never consider Christian’s perspective. My thanks to Gemma and her brother Sam. I enjoy their other material as well. Bryan Seymour helped to produce the song and spent many hours editing the video. My thanks to Derek Cattani for his photographs and the Born Free Foundation for permission to use the vision from our original documentary. 

WORLD: I am going to try and not go on too much about the state of the world: terrible leaders terrorising their own populations or their neighbours, or waiting in the shadows like Trump; millions of refugees; and extreme weather disasters – floods, storms, hottest days ever, fires etc.

AUSTRALIA: I like our new Australian government who are intelligent and trying to make up for the 10 years of policy-free conservative inaction – for example on climate change, energy policies etc., and are reconnecting us internationally. The government is still, however, compromising on fossil fuels and our gas and coal exports, which keep our economy afloat of course, while we supposedly “transition” to renewable energy. Habitat destruction continues seemingly unabated.

The government is trying to establish through a referendum an Aboriginal “voice” to parliament to advise – only advise – on issues that concern them. It is proving to be depressingly divisive. Both sides of politics have continually failed Aboriginal people and despite the billions of dollars spent, many live in abject poverty with minimal opportunities. Most statistics about their lives remain appalling, so isn’t asking them for their advice about themselves just commonsense?

Christian in the Sophistocat window, King’s Road, c. January 1970

FILM: Earlier in the year I received an email from a very nice woman whose adored dog had died prematurely. She was inconsolable until her nephew suggested she look at the documentaries of Christian. These had a healing effect on her and we corresponded. It was close to my own heart as I had just lost my cat. I have tried to be stoic and not too dramatic about it as my cat was 18 years old and had had a very good life. She outlived her equally divine and gorgeous brother by quite a few years, and she accompanied me back to the city where we both settled into apartment living.

Another email was from a woman in Ukraine saying how much she enjoyed seeing Christian’s videos. I wondered if Christian’s story had provided some respite or distraction from life in a war zone, although this person chose not to refer to the conflict. The devastation and future of Ukraine is on most of our minds. Incidentally, Animals Australia has been very active in Ukraine with Emergency Grants Programs, assisting Warriors of Wildlife to successfully rescue and relocate some lions from zoos, rescue animals from the flood when the Kakhovka Dam was destroyed, and helping to rebuild the Sirius Shelter, the largest animal shelter in Ukraine. Our thanks to them and to the many organisations and people that do such amazing work on behalf of animals globally.

I thought this birthday I would write about why I think SONY who owns the rights to Christian’s story SHOULD make the film. Unfortunately they don’t seem to have any intention to do so. A sympathetic director and cast could possibly capture and define why Christian’s story strikes such a chord with so many people. It is a phenomenon I don’t fully understand myself.

I do not see many films and usually prefer documentaries. As a director I would ruin a film by being too didactic and polemical, at the expense of the “entertainment”. Perhaps a suitable director could find a balance. The only film in a cinema I have seen since COVID was Tar with the incomparable Cate Blanchett. I adored it and thought it was a clever mixture of “entertainment” which also dealt very effectively with serious issues. Cate has a new film out, The New Boy directed by Warwick Thornton about the clash of Aboriginal spirituality and Christianity.

Personally, I have no need for the attention a film could generate. I have never let this story define my life. I think we have already been blessed many times over by the way Christian’s life unfolded, and the worldwide interest it has generated – at first in the early 1970s with our book A Lion Called Christian and documentaries, and then when the clip of our reunion with Christian in Kenya became an internet phenomenon in 2008/2009 – an antidote for the gloom of the Global Financial Crisis. Our original book and the revision in 2010 has been translated into over 20 languages.

As a film…..the story is a good one with a happy if open-ended ending! I know many of you know the story but I am describing the elements I feel are important so many years later! It offers the chance to discuss many issues still relevant today. From humble beginnings – a small zoo in Devon where Christian’s parents lived in a cage, Christian was hand reared by staff and he and his sister sent to the famous Harrods Department Store in 1969. All the issues about conditions in zoos, the roles of zoos, the trade in wild animals etc could be touched on and are as unresolved today.

Should we have been allowed to buy a lion cub? Obviously I now think no. In America, there are more tigers in private hands than there are left in the wild. Recently, President Biden enacted the Big Cat Public Safety Act supposedly ending the trade in pet big cats, and their exploitation.

The film would have famous film stars! Christian met actor Bill Travers when he serendipitously came into the shop Sophistocat. He and his wife Virginia McKenna had become huge global stars because of Born Free, the film based on the rehabilitation of Elsa the lioness by Joy and George Adamson. The Adamsons themselves were two very colourful characters in their own right and among the world’s first conservationists to observe and comment on worrying changes in the environment.

This is a hint to a future film maker – Born Free the film and book were huge worldwide successes and actually changed the perception of millions of people towards animals – that they were sentient beings.

Born Free changed the lives of Bill and Virginia who became well known animal activists, and of course were appalled that Christian was for sale in Harrods and that we were allowed to buy him.

Some people think we were motivated to “save” Christian from a life of captivity. In fact John Rendall and I were young, naive and had just travelled from Australia for the first time. We just thought we could do as well as anyone in trying to find a better fate for Christian, and it was an adventure into the unknown! A possible option was the private zoo set up by wealthy John Aspinall on an estate out of London. Interestingly, his son has tried to return some of the animals his father collected to their natural habitats where possible. We also checked out the lions at Longleat Safari Park, one of the first “game parks” established in 1966.

Other people think an appeal of the story is of a less regulated time when young people could have foolish adventures, and childhoods and lives were much more geared to being outside and experiencing and enjoying the natural world.

Of course the context for the film would be “Swinging London”. We certainly had a good time. I had Australian friends that did make much more valuable creative and cultural contributions however. It was the tail end of the 1960s and the end of the Carnaby Street and King’s Road heyday. The dominance of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones was diminishing, and was heading towards David Bowie, punk rock and Vivienne Westward, who would in a few years open her shop Sex near us down the end of the King’s Road, Chelsea. It was an exciting time of transition with the most amazing confluence of events in 1969 alone.

We were lucky to have the excellent photographer Derek Cattani as a friend who documented much of Christian’s English life. His photographs have contributed to keeping the story alive. While it looks like we took Christian with us everywhere in London – we didn’t. Most photographs were taken during a few separate days of shooting (in a borrowed Mercedes Benz) to locations like Trafalgar Square and Kensington Gardens. Christian actually had a very regimented life with daily exercise in a historic walled garden (a graveyard!) down the road.

Christian was a great responsibility. There was Christian’s wellbeing, then the safety of all of us around him. He had a beautiful, friendly nature but we had to anticipate and eliminate any sources of frustration. John and I had been friends in Sydney and brought complementary strengths to our co-ownership of Christian. We managed this very well but we actually led, and went on to live, very separate lives. Because of our different personalities we had very individual relationships with Christian which some of you have commented on over the years.

Bill Travers had contacted George Adamson in Kenya who was keen to “rehabilitate” a lion who was several generations removed from his African origins. This was a wonderful solution, to be funded by a documentary, that we had not even imagined. As Christian rapidly got too big for his life in London a compound was built for him in the country near Dorking where the Travers lived.

We waited rather impatiently there for several months while Kenyan politicians made up their mind whether Christian should be allowed to come, and where George could be allotted some land not wanted by anyone else or too close to villagers. While it was wonderful to be with Christian, and we did accustom him to the crate he was to travel in, it actually was a time of frustration and tensions between all of us. John and I took turns to go to London. Friends from London visited, including Christian’s special friend, the actress Unity Bevis who had been in Fellini’s film Juliet of the Spirits and improbably had lived with a lioness in her apartment in Rome.

All of this and the INSIDE STORY of the whole adventure was communicated in my letters to my parents in Australia. In the first COVID lock down I revisited and edited these letters which had been kept by my mother.

Christian at Dorking by Derek Cattani 1970

Finally in Africa, as Australians we were better at handling the climate, driving on the roads and in due course handling the lions! Christian – and the English film crew, were exhausted by the heat!

The land allotted to us in NE Kenya was quite arid and unattractive. Christian quickly adapted, and at Kora George assembled a pride of orphaned lions around Christian. The highlight of the documentary was Christian meeting Boy, the older male that George had known since filming Born Free and had brought in to be the alpha head of the pride. Would he accept Christian who was now nearly old enough to be considered a rival?

George wrote that Christian, “the cheerful, mischievious, and courageous young lion from London” grew very big and strong and was rehabilitated very easily. Christian knew to submit to Boy who tortured him for months before they become very close. The local male lions in the area never let these introduced males establish themselves in their territory however, although they mated with the females.

We flew out to Kenya one year later and received an amazing welcome by Christian. This footage was discovered and put on YouTube in 2008 by an American arts student, and once Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You was added, grew into an unstoppable internet sensation of over 100 million hits, bringing Christian’s story back. It was one of the first viral sensations – part of the attraction apparently was wondering if we were going to be attacked as Christian ran towards us! See here.

John and I revised our book…and went on a media tour which included the Oprah Winfrey show. It was a chance to talk about: the problems facing wild animals; the preponderance of private zoos and dubious breeding practices; shrinking natural habitats through human population growth, urban expansion and the need for arable lands; and of course climate change.

George Adamson had no desire to ever leave Kora. He was assisted by the personable and most able Tony Fitzjohn to live on in Kora for many years, and over 30 lions were rehabilitated. There were dramas of course – Boy fatally attacked George’s African assistant and was shot, lions were taking the cattle of villagers, drifters were coming into the area from the north and finally George was murdered in a hail of bullets.

Looking back, many legacies flowed from these events. The area at Kora was designated a National Park. Tony Fitzjohn went on to found the George Adamson Wildlife Preservation Trust which amongst other achievements, helped revive endangered populations of black rhinos and African wild dogs. John remained in London, married, and continued his connection to Africa and GAWPT. I am hoping GAWPT continues despite the deaths of Tony Fitzjohn and John last year. Both are greatly missed.

I returned to Australia and became a curator of Aboriginal and colonial art primarily. My concern for First Nations people probably stemmed from my time in Africa when I realized I knew nothing about our own Indigenous people, or my own colonial family history and the effects of colonisation.

I involved myself in animal rights issues and protests and blogged about them. I began visiting India year after year, and I am on the Committee of Working for Animals which runs two animals shelters in India. They were established by the legendary Australian Christine Townend, who previously had founded Animal Liberation in Australia, and was co-founder of Animals Australia with Peter Singer.

“Canned hunting” became a phenomenon in the last decade with lions in Africa bred to be petted as cubs, then hunted and shot. COVID seemed to dampen this enthusiasm although the practice continues. John and I of course were major offenders with our petting of Christian! Canned hunting operators claim they are supporters of conservation, and that Christian’s story demonstrates how diminishing wild populations of lions can simply be replaced by ones bred in captivity. However, this is not the “rewilding” of flora and fauna, which is a positive more recent development.

Another positive change has been the attitudes of the Masai and Samburu tribes. While once it was a rite of passage to kill a lion, they now realise it is more important to preserve lion numbers and work to protect their livestock. Also, local villagers have accepted changes to live alongside wild animals. Tourism and the animals are a major earner for these economies, and also provides jobs for locals in the service of tourists or as park rangers etc.

Changing weather and drought has led to the growth of huge refugee numbers in Africa since our time, and expanding human populations compete with animals for habitats, and arable land (and water) for food production.

Christian by Ace Bourke 1972

I have left the best or most important element of a film until last. All of this story was on the shoulders of one brave, loving, handsome, charismatic young lion that instinctively trusted us, and Christian somehow magically swept us all along on his incredible life story and destiny.

Is the chief appeal that Christian escaped a life of captivity, and against all odds, was set free?

Or do we identify with the story because of our own relationships with our companion animals, and the interspecies unconditional love and trust?  With COVID lock downs, people became even more attached to their cats and dogs, and there is a plethora of television programs on their behavior and animal shelters and adoptions.

I think there is a film there! What do you think?

Do leave a comment if you wish, expressing why the story of Christian appeals to YOU.

Today is Christian’s birthday and we give thanks.   HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISTIAN!

John Christian and Ace in the UK. Photograph by Derek Cattani

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISTIAN!

I look forward to my annual blog and marshalling my thoughts about what to write and what to say about Christian. I am so blessed to have had him in my life, and it doesn’t feel like over 50 years ago!

I hope you have managed the last difficult year and COVID-19 is very much still with us. Some people have returned to a more “normal” life – with many travelling internationally again, and attending quite public events. My cat (now 17 years old) and I have moved back from the beautiful outskirts of the city at Port Hacking and the Royal National Park to the inner city of Sydney and I am adoring it. I am however very wary of COVID and do not attend public events and always wear a mask. Unfortunately we are having a winter acceleration of infections.

I think our companion animals have entertained and comforted many of us, and there have been increased adoptions from animal shelters which is a positive.

Apart from COVID, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has cast an ominous shadow over the world. One worries not just about the displacement of the population, the deaths, the trauma especially for children, but all the animals affected or even abandoned. Nine lions were rescued from a zoo in Ukraine by Warriors of Wildlife with support from Animals Australia, and an Australian group has gone to Ukraine to feed and look after as many abandoned domestic animals as possible. Extreme weather events are being experienced all over the world with loss of life, and in Australia fires and floods have displaced and killed many millions of animals.

John and Christian in Sophistocat. Photograph by Derek Cattani

JOHN RENDALL: Sadly, several key participants in Christian’s life died this year. John Rendall who I “bought” and shared “custodianship” of Christian in London in 1969 died of Long Covid in January. John Rendall was uniquely social and sociable. We would not have had our adventure with Christian without the other one’s encouragement and I will be forever grateful. We brought complementary strengths to the experience. John lived life to the full, as they say, and had a successful career in London in the field of publicity and public relations. His death received quite a lot of press attention. I think Christian changed his life and, in my opinion, engendered John’s most valuable life’s work which was remaining involved with Africa and animal conservation. He was instrumental in the foundation, support and funding of the George Adamson Wildlife Preservation Trust.

Born Wild: The Extraordinary Story of One Man’s Passion for Lions and Africa by Tony Fitzjohn

TONY FITZJOHN: Tony was as charismatic as John but in a Boys’ Own Adventure way. He was George Adamson’s invaluable assistant at Kora for 18 years. He recently died of cancer. I think working with George Adamson also gave his life a sense of purpose and direction. He enabled George to remain at Kora for years longer than he may have, and on George’s death, then very successfully ran the George Adamson Wildlife Preservation Trust founded in 1979.  In Tanzania he rehabilitated the Mkomazi National game reserve which was upgraded to a National Park in 2006. It now has migrating elephants, less endangered African wild dogs, black rhinos and the engagement of the local villagers. Tony’s latest plan was to “rehabilitate” George’s camp at Kora and I imagine that this may not now proceed.

Christian adored both Tony, John and George, and I know he loved me too. He expressed this to us in different and individual ways. I think Christian was Tony’s introduction to lions. Needless to say, we were all completely under Christian’s spell.

The Great Safari: The Lives of George and Joy Adamson by Adrian House

ADRIAN HOUSE: This year we also lost Adrian House who was our wonderful editor of A Lion Called Christian at Collins in 1969/1970. Adrian was involved in the film company that produced the two original documentaries on Christian. He wrote an excellent book about the larger than life Adamsons and their volatile relationship. He handled us all with good humour and diplomacy.

Virginia McKenna, Bill Travers, Christian, Ace and John in Dorking. Photograph by Derek Cattani

I recently exchanged emails with Virginia McKenna who is still living in Dorking where we built an enclosure for Christian after leaving London and before we left for Kenya. We shared memories of Christian and his influence. She and Bill Travers had their lives changed by being cast in the classic film Born Free, and then “the death of Pole Pole at London Zoo was the catalyst”. Pole Pole was a two year old elephant that starred with them in An Elephant Called Slowly in 1969. After filming in Kenya she was gifted to London Zoo which Bill and Virginia found very distressing, especially when Pole Pole had to be euthanased in 1983. This led to them founding the Born Free Foundation. She thinks young people have a “surging interest” in protecting our wildlife and is optimistic about the future.

So I have been reflecting on how Christian influenced all of us. I know I briefly flirted with the idea of working with the World Wildlife Fund who were very influential at the time, and I was – quite sensibly – brushed off! I returned to Australia and I think it was my exposure to African people that made me realise I knew nothing about our own indigenous people. My career has primarily been as an art curator in Aboriginal art. They are the world’s oldest people – at least 60,000 years, and I have watched as their extraordinary art has received deserved international recognition.

WORKING FOR ANIMALS: However, because of Christian, a mutual friend introduced me to Christine Townend who had started Animal Liberation in Australia in 1976 and then Animals Australia with Peter Singer. We share a love of animals and India, but I am in awe of her achievements. Both organisations are still very influential today. I am on the Committee of Working For Animals and we run two animal shelters in Darjeeling and Kalimpong in India, founded by Christine and her husband Jeremy. Because of COVID, we are very overdue for a visit.

So this involvement is part of Christian’s legacy, and from the emails and communications I have had with many of you over the years, Christian and the animals in our lives have influenced us profoundly.

Christian’s mother Mary in Ilfracombe Zoo.  Photograph by John Rendall

CHRISTIAN’S ERITREAN HERITAGE: Mehadi Sayed in Canada keeps me very well informed. He sent me this information about Christian’s heritage. In 1942 Christian’s grandfather was sent to the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo from Eritrea, where lions are now nearly extinct. He was renamed Yehuda, and his friendly nature was remarked on. Yehuda’s cubs were sent to other zoos, and Mary, Christian’s mother, was sent to Ilfracombe Zoo in Devon. Christian’s father Butch, came from the Rotterdam Zoo. They were the most handsome couple but their lives was miserable and somehow Christian escaped their fate.

Butch in Ifracombe Zoo.

AUSTRALIA: Like most countries our handling of COVID-19 has been by trial and error. In my opinion the best thing we have experienced in Australia is a recent change of government! After 9 years of conservatives in power it is hard for me to point to any achievements. We are in an energy crisis as a result of their climate-science denialism, there was no vision or overdue reforms and they left us a trillion dollars in debt – so much for them claiming to be the best managers of the economy! They campaigned rather than governed.

A recent 5 year State of the Environment report was, typically, kept from the public by the previous Federal Government, and after years of their neglect (and from the state governments) we have suffered a “catastrophic loss of wildlife and habitat”, “whole ecosystems are collapsing” and there has been a completely unsustainable and scandalous rate of habitat land clearing. 33 species have been made extinct since 1788, and another 120 species are threatened. Even our iconic koalas are in danger.

Apart from COVID, monkey pox is lurking, the varroa mite is spreading through our bees, and foot and mouth disease is on our borders in Indonesia.

FERAL CATS: I am a cat person as most of you would gather, although I love dogs as well and grew up with them. Now back in the city I hardly see any cats, who like many dogs, live in the surrounding apartments. I would not want to have a dog in an apartment. However, I love seeing the joy on the faces of the mostly small dogs when they are out for their walks – many of them heading to the nearby wonderful Rushcutters Bay Park beside Sydney Harbour. I adore seeing them all play together in such a friendly fashion.

I have always felt guilty however, about the destruction to wildlife by introduced feral cats and foxes.

Numbers of feral cats in Australia fluctuate wildly between estimates of 2 million to 5 million. There are supposedly 4.9 million domestic cats. Another guestimate is that 2 billion native animals are killed each year by cats and foxes. To attempt to curtail this there has been cruel baiting, trapping and shooting of these animals. There needs to be more of a campaign to encourage domestic cats to be kept inside. My cat was in shock for a week when we moved and didn’t eat, but has now adjusted to apartment living. There are successful feral-free fenced off sanctuaries and off shore islands. A recent  article in Australian Geographic said other efforts have included: controlled exposure of native animals to a limited numbers of cats, in the hope they will change their behavior to effective learned avoidance, which would hopefully lead to genetic generational change; that some Aborigines living in remote, mostly desert, areas are very skillful at tracking, catching and eating the cats; through genetic engineering create only male offspring and that these genetically modified cats would lead to a collapse in populations.

A Family of New South Wales c.1792

This image, by artist William Blake is based on a sketch by my ancestor Philip Gidley King, who later became the third Governor of NSW in 1801.

THE FIRST, FIRST FAMILIES: Later this month I am exhibiting my collection of colonial artworks which are primarily etchings from the first publications of journals after the First Fleet arrived to form a settlement in NSW in 1788. This of course is regarded as an invasion by Aboriginal people. I have collected images that relate to my colonial family, and early representations of Aborigines, especially any that my family came into contact with. My work in this field has been described by a reviewer as “exorcising my colonial family ancestry”!  In Australia we are presently debating the Uluru Statement from the Heart by Aboriginal people calling for a constitutionally enshrined “Voice” to parliament, truth telling and an overdue treaty. I will be supporting this in any way I can. The exhibition now previews on www.crossart.com.au/next and after opening on the 27th August will be online on www.crossart.com.au

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISTIAN and I wish all of you the best for next year and stay safe.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISTIAN!

One of the last photos of Christian, with George Adamson

I look forward to Christian’s annual birthday blog. I love it when many of you add your birthday wishes to him as the world wakes up country by country on August 12th. It does seem ironic that New Zealand and Australia are ahead of the rest of the world! Pandemic permitting, I am about to move back to the inner city of Sydney from the outskirts after many years, and trust I will be online to post your birthday wishes as they come in.

I appreciate that that quite a few of you Christian fans and cat lovers keep in touch over the years, like Hélène in Canada and William in Florida. William recently emailed that he is supporting the Herd Elephant Orphanage in South Africa, where he follows their activities on video updates. With the lack of tourists, and the pandemic in Africa, people are choosing to support – and follow – animal organisations in this way.

Barbara also emailed quite recently that Christian “was certainly a handsome boy with a very charming personality”. He was innately even-natured and personable – but I think we gave him the room to develop his personality as many of you no doubt do with your “companion animals”. Of course love and trust were also big factors.

Earliest photograph of Christian and his sister in Harrods

Mehadi emailed me the photograph at the top of the blog (sourced from my 2014 blog!), and the image above out of a magazine article. I think it is the earliest photograph of Christian (left) and his sister I have seen. Mehadi, now living in Canada, grew up in India near the Asiatic lions in Gir which I have also been fortunate to visit. He points out how the Asiatic lions were nearly extinct until Sir Muhammad Mahabat Khan 111 initiated what may be the first lion conservation effort and today there are more than 400 lions.

Scarface (Source: Ecowatch)

Mehadi also mentioned the death of Scarface in Kenya in June. The famous Masai Mara lion lived until about 14 which is a long life in the wild. He was identifiable by the scar above his right eye, and had a long reign as the head of several prides. Mehadi hopes that Christian, who “revived” his interest in lions, also lived a long happy life and said “thank you Christian! We dearly remember you. Your charisma continues to enthrall people like us and many more to do meaningful work for conservation”.

I think with our various lockdowns we have fallen even more deeply in love with our animals. I know I have with my cat, and I hope she does not resent the move back into the city just as many people are moving out! The pandemic has probably affected all of us in various and sometimes unexpected ways, and I know many of us in Australia are still traumatized by the bush fires of 2020. My thoughts with people in Canada, America, Turkey and Greece facing equally terrifying fires, while there have been huge floods in Europe, India and China.

The latest IPCC climate change report confirms that greenhouse gas concentrations have increased, that urgent action is required, and that Australia is “lagging”.

New Chinese Book Cover

BOOK: It is good news that there is to be a new edition of A Lion Called Christian in Chinese. Some of you ask if a film about Christian will ever be made, and unfortunately it seems unlikely. After contacting me, a UK producer on my advice then wrote to SONY asking “is there any way we could progress a TV drama based on the story of Christian?” SONY, who own the rights (seemingly forever) replied “Thank you for your note but we are not interested in releasing rights.”

LONDON LETTERS: In early COVID I assiduously read and edited all the letters I wrote to my parents in Australia from London between 1969 and 1973 and commented on them from the perspective of 50 years later. One day I may publish them. My 21 year old self had grown up under decades of conservative government and even a White Australia policy. The letters illustrate a rite of passage and the attempts to find a career, experiences many of you could relate to. Naïve as I was, in the letters I do have an opinion on everything, and come across as very intolerant and very judgmental. Some key people in the animal world do not come out of it well, but neither do I. Unlike some of the humans, Christian’s behaviour in contrast just shone in every aspect – like pure gold!

The letters describe in detail how I REALLY felt about the experience with Christian, and explain why I returned to Australia and how it had changed dramatically, especially with new Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. I had finally became politicised, and found the career that I was searching for. It was, as they say, “under my nose”. Many of my friends were artists, and visiting galleries was a favourite pastime. Why not make a career out of what I love doing? I became a gallerist and curator. I think witnessing the flowering of contemporary Aboriginal art and its international acceptance has been the highlight of my life.

I am now writing up key incidents in my family colonial history in Australia, concentrating on our relations and encounters with indigenous people. Most colonisers and invaders dispossess the indigenous people, and are still failing to acknowledge or compensate. Our Aboriginal people are the oldest living race on earth, and have had to be particularly resilient to survive.

We marvel at their achievements particularly in the arts – their wonderful art works, films, stars like David Gulpilil, or the dancers and productions of Bangarra. But while there is a well-educated younger generation coming through that hopefully will force change, most still live in poverty, with shocking suicide and incarceration rates, and are subjected to ongoing racism and marginalisation.

The Lion Who Came To Stay (Book cover: Source Booktopia)

This book by fellow Sydney-sider Victoria Mackinlay is about her grandfather who was asked as a school boy in England in the 1930s what present he would like from India. He replied “something alive”. It was thought an elephant was impractical but an obliging Maharaja sent a young Asiatic lion called Singh. They spent an idyllic summer together in a rather grand sounding country home, but of course Singh grew quickly and ended up in London Zoo.

I feel very lucky that this was not Christian’s fate.  

AUSTRALIA: Our conservative government never fails to disappoint. They have still failed to respond after four years to the Uluru Statement from the Heart from our Aboriginal population. This was a most generous, thoughtful and unthreatening way forward, beginning with a “Voice” to Parliament, to advise, not overrule, on Aboriginal issues. After 8 years of conservative government there is still not a viable energy or climate change policy, and they remain hostage to the fossil fuel industries and Rupert Murdoch. There have been no necessary and overdue reforms, no transparency or accountability, and we are trillions in debt.

Australia was lucky initially with the pandemic as we closed the borders, and they remain closed, heartlessly leaving 35,000 Australians still stranded overseas and unable to return. A scandalously slow vaccine rollout leaves most of the population threatened at present by a new outbreak of the very transmissible Delta variant. Unfortunately the Government Opposition is ineffective.

The Great Barrier Reef (source: The Guardian)

On a more positive note our state governments do seem to be a little more aware of climate change and environmental problems. There were heavy losses of wildlife in the bushfires of 2020 which left us all scarred. Our koalas are in danger of extinction and we do have to act urgently to protect their shrinking habitats from urban development and land clearing. Hump back whale populations have increased – and are presently migrating up our east coast. The Federal Government was very offended that UNESCO recently threatened to list the Great Barrier Reef as “in danger” and urged Australia to take “accelerated action at all possible levels” on climate change.

There remains a failure of leadership around the world and the pandemic has illustrated this. At least Trump lost the election but he has not gone away. He has left an appalling legacy of creating doubt over news reporting and scientific facts as well as unleashing conspiracy theories. Modi in India, like Bolsonaro in Brazil, scandalously allowed the virus to spread.

Christine Townend, Ace and writer Jeffrey Masson

WORKING FOR ANIMALS: This photograph was taken by WFA President Jeannette Lloyd Jones when Jeffrey Masson, distinguished writer about animal behavior, came to one of our very informal WFA meetings. Jeffrey and his wife now live in Sydney.

Our staff at the two Working for Animals shelters in Darjeeling and Kalimpong in India have bravely soldiered on during the Covid crisis, which has been especially devastating in India. We can now follow their work by excellent photographs on Instagram (@kas_das_animal shelter_kas_das), Facebook (Kalimpong and Darjeeling Animal Shelter), our website www.workingforanimals.org.au  and our newsletters.

I sincerely hope you have all managed this difficult year without too much distress, isolation and loss. I found the Olympics a welcome distraction. We all are facing great uncertainty and I fear some of you must have suffered greatly. I’m sure your companion animals have been indispensable.

Many people celebrated World Lion Day on the 10th August, but every day is World Lion Day to me!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISTIAN.  

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George Adamson and Christian (c. late 1972- early 1973)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISTIAN!

During the last world crisis, the Global Financial Crisis, Christian’s “reunion” footage with us in Kenya on YouTube was a soothing and positive diversion, and this helped to make it so popular. I have been getting emails recently with people saying they have been watching Christian’s story as a distraction, or to make them feel better in “lockdown”. It amazes me that Christian still casts this spell over so many of us.

See here should you want to watch the version of our reunion with Christian with Whitney Houston’s song, as it gets harder to find on YouTube, and needless to say, it is my favourite version.

Many of you no doubt celebrated World Lion Day on August 10th, and International Tiger Day on the 29th July.

LIONS: We all remain concerned with the crisis in lion and wildlife populations. I am presuming “canned hunting” is not thriving with the widespread COVID-19 virus in South Africa, but at a time like this the owners of the numerous “lion farms” that have profited from this dreadful practice may start to maltreat the animals including not feeding them properly or looking after them. Even worse, the current situation may encourage the participation in the illegal trade in lion body parts. The human population in South Africa, with widespread unemployment, is also faring very badly.

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Image source: Allen & Unwin

While I have as yet only read an extract, there is a new book The Last Lions in Africa: Stories from the frontline in the battle to save a species by Anthony Ham. He is, to my surprise, an Australian.

The author states that as of 2019, there are approximately 22,509 lions left on the African continent. At the end of the C19 there were 200,000. They have disappeared from 95% of their historical ranges, and from 26 countries. By now we know most of the reasons, primarily, destruction of habitats, hunting and human and animal conflict. The author also notes that there are approximately only 4,000 tigers left in the wild, and 1,000 mountain gorillas.

Depressingly, in my blog after blog over the years, we have been watching these figures diminish despite many organisations and individuals doing good work. Rather like action, (or inaction) on climate change, nothing seems to be reversing the “extinction vortex” we are witnessing.

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These giraffes from the Mogo Wildlife Park, NSW, nearly died in the bushfires and have now welcomed a new born calf

BUSHFIRES:  In Australia we had a horrific fire season with 10 million hectares of the east coast burnt, which was news around the world. We were all in shock at the scope, the intensity, and that the fires were described as “unstoppable”. I live surrounded by a National Park which was very dry, but we were lucky this time. The smoke and air quality from the fires was a danger to health over vast areas. I put my art collection in storage, and like many others, had a suitcase and the cat box by the door for months on end.

Quite a few people lost their lives, including fire fighters, and many lost their houses and businesses. Many animals died – they estimated a billion at the time, but that has just been updated to 3 billion dead or displaced. This does not include the cattle and sheep lost. Despite the early start to the fire season and the incredible ferocity of the fires, despite all intelligent people and fire experts pointing to climate change as a factor, our conservative government said “now was not the time” to talk about such things. Now we are heading towards the next season as ill prepared as we were last year. We continue not just to ignore the experts but also indigenous fire practices honed over centuries.

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As many as 5,000 koalas lost their lives during the fires, and their habitats destroyed.  There is even talk of extinction. Our NSW Government has stated it wants to double koala populations by 2050, but this government has not stopped land clearing and habitat destruction, which like creeping urbanization, are the major threat to koalas, along with bush fires, disease, dogs and feral animals. The government fully supports mining, even allowing mining that threatens Sydney’s water supply.

Australia has the worst record in the world in relation to the extinction of mammals – 30 species lost since colonization (1788), and 14 in the past 50 years.

COVID-19: Who would have thought how much the world would have changed since Christian’s last birthday? We have all been overtaken by COVID-19 and I hope all of you and your families are managing. Everyone has been affected in some way. Australia had coped quite well up until recently, although due to some inexcusable quarantine carelessness, we now seem to be having a dangerous “second wave” in Victoria, and some outbreaks in my state of NSW. Luckily as an island continent we can close our borders, although our state borders are more porous. The lucrative international tourism industry and the international student sector, have been decimated.

Interestingly, the Federal Government has responded quite well and suddenly and unusually, listened to medical experts and scientists – unlike their ongoing climate change denial. The government is now getting very worried about the economy and is anxious to reopen everything and for it to be business as usual. They have been forced to embrace spending and borrowing billions of dollars after criticizing the Opposition for years, although it was the ALP who were then in government and successfully navigated us out of the Global Financial Crisis.  Our economy and jobs growth have not been strong for years, and as yet there are no proposals or ideas for job creation or economic stimulation. The Treasurer even referenced Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan as his models for economic recovery which is rather indicative of the government’s outdated ideological mindset.

The arts and entertainment industry here has also been decimated and given very little support, and none of it as yet has been forthcoming. Galleries and museums are tentatively reopening. Under the cover of “Covid”, funding to our national broadcaster the ABC, universities (especially “the Humanities”), the public sector and the arts, all imagined enemies of this government, will be minimized.

People around the world have appreciated surprisingly clear skies and clean water. Now would be an ideal time to have a new low carbon and green approach to the economy, and transition to renewables. In Australia we still don’t have an energy policy that business can invest in, and the government remains fixated on coal and gas. Now is also the chance to review: overdue taxation reform; much needed public housing policy; aged care; wage growth and the casualization of labour; and to consider free universal childcare, and the vital role of women (and migrants) in the health and service industries.

I’m glad I don’t live in Sweden where my age group seems to have just been sacrificed for the greater good, although their economy, and the number of deaths, does not indicate that this approach has been successful. I have been very worried about friends in the UK, the USA and Brazil. Trump and Bolsonaro have both been criminally negligent. I am also very worried about friends in India, and especially Rajat, a very intelligent and dedicated young fan of Christian’s who is battling a serious disease I’m sure he will overcome, and my thoughts are with him and his family.

Over the last year, the leaders of America, Russia and China have shown their true colours, and there has been a dangerous unravelling of the old world order. Cyber surveillance and warfare is the norm and it is difficult to ascertain the truth with the claims of “fake news” and the widespread conspiracy theories. In the USA I have no confidence in Biden, but removing Trump would do the world a service. My prayers for the future of the Uyghurs and Hong Kong, and for the citizens of Beirut.

Congratulations to the few countries like New Zealand, Taiwan and Vietnam that acted quickly and effectively against the virus. In Vietnam they have banned the trading in wild animals and their body parts which is good, although some are allowed for “medicinal purposes”. Wild life products do seem to be incubators of disease.

So take care, wear a mask, wash your hands and social distance.

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The ice keeps melting…. Photograph by Michael Ginzburg for PBS.org

We listen to scientists and medical experts with the epidemic – why don’t we listen to climate change scientists and their predictions?

SELF-ISOLATION: How have you all managed in self-isolation? People initially seem to have found it frustrating but also quite interesting. Most have enjoyed more time with the family, although “home schooling” has been a challenge for many. With so many working from home, and Zoom, this may change work habits and paradigms. Musicians have made music in their bedrooms, and artists and galleries have been imaginative about art online. Cooking, eating, gardening and DIY home renovations seem to have been popular.

Many people binge watched Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness on Netflix but I resisted, although I did later see a documentary on these unsavoury people, messing with such beautiful animals. There are more big cats in private hands in the USA than are left in the wild. There is no conservation value as their breeding practices are indiscriminate. What is going to happen to the animals if these zoos are closed down, and the owners in jail?

Many of us have been supported at this time by our companion animals, who have had to adjust to us being home much more! Initially there were many more adoptions from animal shelters which was encouraging and understandable. I do wish even more people would adopt these animals, at risk of euthanasia, rather than buying expensive hybrid dogs like Cavoodles, Groodles and Moodles. I have noticed that Dachshunds have become very popular. My cat has been a great source of comfort even if she has manoeuvred/manipulated me into now being fed on demand, and I now realise she can sleep 23 hours a day.

I have got some overdue writing projects actually finished or well advanced, and have read some very good books. I have found classical music very soothing. Luckily Bundeena where I live is very beautiful and this winter quite mild so I walk every day. I have always felt in quarantine here!

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“Misunderstanding” by Tony Albert. Courtesy Sullivan +Strumpf.

BLM: Aboriginal people in Australia have been protesting in support of the Black Lives Matter movement in the USA and across the world, and of course they have much to relate to. As in America, there has been a growing section of the white population that also agree that enough is enough. Aborigines have a shocking incarceration rate, and there have been many Aboriginal deaths in custody, with no-one EVER bought to account.

White people have increasingly had to face our privilege in the last few years, and acknowledge the results of dispossession of indigenous people by colonisation. We also have to realise the amount of “casual” racism that exists, let alone the overt racism people of colour deal with on a daily basis. Enough IS enough!

Recently, the mining company Rio Tinto blew up two caves in the Juukan Gorge in Western Australia that were sacred to Aboriginal people. Artefacts dated to 46,000 years had been found there, so the caves were one of Australia’s most significant archaeological sites. The company said it was a “misunderstanding” – hence why one of our best Aboriginal artists Tony Albert called his artwork “Misunderstanding”. Google him to see more of his wonderful work. The nation was very shocked – briefly.

WORKING FOR ANIMALS: Our thoughts are with our WFA staff in India where the virus is particularly severe. The best news however is that the new cattery at the Kalimpong Animal Shelter (KAS) is now being built and finally cats will have the necessary space that they require. We are particularly grateful to Laura Louie and Harry Bohm who very generously donated money to purchase the additional land and build the cattery. I am very much hoping I can visit when travel is permitted again.

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Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson’s new book

BOOK: Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson has a new book Lost Companions, Reflections on the Death of Pets. This is possibly his 13th book, and dogs have been his speciality. Many of us have had the trauma of dealing with the death of loved pets, and Jeffrey recounts various stories about our special bonds with animals and the different ways people deal with their grief. I always regret that it is not possible to express our last words, explanations, or our thanks to them for all they have meant to us.

Jeffrey mentions Christian, as an example of interspecies relationships. Of course we don’t know what happened to Christian which I am quite relieved about. That is one death and trauma we didn’t have to face. About our reunion with Christian, Jeffrey, who is a friend of mine, says about me “I understand why this single encounter has stamped his life forever”. I think it has but I’m not sure how! While I was not surprised Christian remembered us, I may have been surprised at just how exuberant he was. Jeffrey noted what I also found extraordinary, that Christian’s “pride” who were not familiar with humans, milled around us, caught up in and sharing Christian’s excitement. He was loved by lions and humans alike.

MOROCCO: I was very fortunate to have a great trip to Morocco, Paris and London late last year, as international travel for us all is unlikely for the foreseeable future. There were cats and kittens everywhere in Morocco – no doubt too many, but I was pleased to see they were treated well.

In Fez I visited the American Fondouk, which was established in 1927 by an American woman to offer free veterinary care for “four legged” animals – mules, horses and donkeys. If these animals get injured, the families often have no other source of income. American Fondouk (hotel) is very well resourced with the latest equipment – for weighing and moving heavy animals, an operating theatre, and a test laboratory etc etc. The staff and volunteers were very welcoming to me – as they are to anyone who would like to visit and see their work. The founder’s family continue to support the Fondouk, but extra donations are always appreciated.

Speaking to the two young vets who showed me around, I said I had been lucky enough when I was younger to meet and know Joy and George Adamson. To my surprise, they had never heard of Elsa the lioness, the Adamsons, or Born Free. They said “we only know about those two young Australians who took their lion from London back to Africa”. They seemed to believe that I was one of them!

I was very shocked that generations now may not know Elsa’s extraordinary story, and the film and book Born Free that affected millions of people all over the world in the 1960s. Although I didn’t read the book at the time, I was very aware of the story. We were fascinated by Elsa’s affectionate relationship with the Adamsons and her successful rehabilitation back into the wild. It was almost unimaginable. Like David Attenborough who had begun making his documentaries, the spotlight was put on wildlife, and the affirmation that, like us, all animals, including “wild” animals, were sentient beings. I finally read Born Free a few years ago, and Elsa, like Christian, was an exceptionally intelligent animal. The Adamsons could take her on holidays, and she would just jump into the back of their vehicle. Joy Adamson was a very creative woman, and the photographs in the book were wonderful.  I have seen the film more recently at fund raising events, and it remains amazingly fresh, and a feast for lovers of lions.

I can’t really completely explain or understand why Christian’s story still has such resonance so many years later. He was very charismatic, attractive, and full of personality.  His life was very well documented, and years later, he has had the benefit of the social media age and YouTube.  He demonstrated an obvious capacity for love. He too was successfully rehabilitated, and we can presume a happy ending. For some people our story also represents a more adventurous and less regulated era …… what do you think?

I would love you to Leave a Comment on your thoughts on what Christian and his story (or Elsa and Born Free) has meant to you!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISTIAN we are all still thinking of you, especially today.

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Christian photographed by Ace Bourke 1972

 

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Ace Bourke with Christian, 1972

BIRTHDAY: It is now 50 years since Christian was born in a zoo in Ilfracombe, Devon in the UK on 12 August 1969!!!!

I appreciate so many of you still being interested in Christian’s story, and there seems to be renewed interest in him again at the moment.

I have never been able to accurately articulate or understand exactly why Christian’s story has had such an appeal…for so long. Oprah Winfrey asked me this when we appeared on her program, and I went on and on! There are quite a few factors. He was gorgeous, lovable, charismatic and photogenic. He loved us and demonstrated that a human-animal relationship like this was possible. He had a friendly and outgoing nature, unlike his sister who was with him in Harrods Department Store in London where we first saw him. He drove his own destiny – he charmed his way to the department store and charmed us, and then later Bill Travers, Virginia McKenna and George Adamson of Born Free fame. He was “rescued” from captivity and, miraculously, taken to Kenya where he was set free and lived a natural life, for a few years at the very least. He was “rehabilitated” by the wonderful George Adamson who created a pride around him. His story reminds us of a time when life was a little more natural and unregulated, and adventures like this were possible. Not that I am recommending anyone do it now! We were extremely fortunate.

His continuing popularity is also due to the fact that his life was so well documented: in two initial documentaries; a later one, plus featuring in various others; several books; and Derek Cattani’s photographs. The available footage led to our reunion with him in Africa becoming an internet phenomenon. Watch it again here.

We have actually had very little criticism for our actions, although with the unpleasant practice of Canned Hunting in Africa – the petting, handling and patting of cubs in particular is definitely not to be encouraged. Some say the ease of Christian’s rehabilitation supports the argument – from the hunting lobby – that the catastrophic decline in numbers can be reversed, by “rewilding”, the way Christian was in Africa. But there are several major factors responsible for the decline, especially over-population and diminishing habitats.

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NEW BOOK ON CHRISTIAN: If I had had the opportunity, I would have added some of the above comments, and some analytical and reflective depth to the recent book Christian the Lion: The Illustrated Legacy by John Rendall and Christian’s photographer, Derek Cattani. There are some previously unpublished photographs of Christian which gave me the most pleasure.

Having received so many often fascinating and moving emails over the years, I think your own experiences with animals, your endeavours on their behalf, and feelings about Christian, are also part of Christian’s “legacy”. Many of them are recorded in my earlier blogs and on our website alioncalledchristian.com.au, although I must apologise for not keeping it as up to date as I should.

WORKING FOR ANIMALS: Christine Townend, her husband Jeremy and hard-working vets and staff run 2 animal shelters in Darjeeling and Kalimpong in India. She has been my mentor in the fields of animal welfare, animal rights and conservation. I have often blogged about her – and I am on the Committee of Working For Animals. The shelters primarily cater for dogs and cats, and the programs she has initiated with dogs have eliminated rabies from the communities, although this is ongoing.

Christine is revered for her work in India, and this year she received an Order of Australia Medal for “service to animal welfare”. She of course modestly commented “I’m glad animals have been acknowledged”.

INDIA: I have been invited to speak at many conferences relating to animal rights and welfare, but I especially like going to India. I have met the most wonderful people from all over the world, often academic leaders in their fields. Christian has inspired many of them – some when they were young, so I feel they are also part of Christian’s legacy.

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Tiger in Ranthambore National Park, 2016. Photograph by Ace Bourke.

TIGERS: India provided a highlight I will never forget: seeing tigers close up in the wild at Ranthambore, Rajasthan in 2016. Creating sanctuaries in national parks, making it a crime to kill them, and prosecuting poachers, has seen an increase in tiger numbers from 2226 in 2014, to 2967 in 2018. 80% of the world’s tigers live in India. I felt a little guilty becoming so enamoured of tigers, but I had, however, visited Indian lions in Gir, Gujarat previously, and blogged about them at the time.

We celebrated International Tiger Day on 29 July 2019, and World Lion Day on 10 August 2019.

HARRODS DOCUMENTARY: A few months ago friends alerted me to the fact that Christian was in the advertisements for the documentary Inside Harrods: The World’s Most Famous Department Store. Our story was given considerable time and I had no idea Christian was such an important part of the Harrods history. It is an uncomfortable feeling when you don’t have any say over the use of your shared story or image. Again, however, it was enjoyable to see good footage of Christian, and after watching, I decided that 50 years on, it is probably not a good idea to appear up against footage of oneself when one was young!

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Disney’s The Lion King movie

MOVIE: The recently released The Lion King movie (Disney) is proving very successful – mixed reviews not-with-standing, taking $US185 million on the opening weekend in the USA. I have only seen the advertisements and the lions look beautiful. Sony own the rights to Christian’s story but seem to have no intention of ever making a film. Looking at the success of The Lion King, a film about Christian and the many aspects and lessons illustrated in his story, could also have been, and should have been, a part of his legacy.

AUSTRALIA: David Attenborough recently spoke before a British Parliamentary Committee on Climate Change – and singled out Australia and the USA for a lack of action. He said the deterioration of our Great Barrier Reef was a “vivid” example. Our conservative government was unexpectedly re-elected with virtually only one policy, “tax cuts”. We are still arguing if climate change is real and we have no energy policy and consequently unnecessarily high electricity costs. The contested Adani coal mine may still go ahead, and the International Monetary Fund recently estimated that global fossil fuel subsidies have grown to around $US5.2 trillion a year. According to Nature magazine recently, global temperatures rose faster in the final decades of the C20th than at any other time in the past 2000 years. Earlier temperature variations were influenced by volcanic activity, and human-caused climate change was now “overwhelming” natural variability.

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ANIMALS: A recent UN Report states that a million species are at risk of extinction. These are rates that are unprecedented in human history and are caused by human expansion and the exploitation of habitats. Australia has the highest rate of mammal extinction in the world, and seemingly inadequate recovery plans. We have among the world’s worst deforestation record, and even one of our most iconic animals, the koala, is at risk.

New government legislation is more interested in prosecuting animal activists, than protecting animals or our environment.

I have tried to discuss and blog about these issues for years and despair at the lack of leadership or action. This is why I don’t really want to blog and comment these days, and I strongly object to the fact that scientists and experts are ignored, and creative, imaginative, innovative and progressive ideas are disparaged. The extremely dangerous President of the USA has succeeded with his lies in making it very hard to discern fact from fiction (over 10,000 false or misleading claims while in office so far), while Boris Johnson also has a reputation for lying.

BOOKS: I loved Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton, a novel based on his tough childhood in the suburbs of Brisbane. I have now read everything by Helen Garner, one of Australia’s best writers. I was amused by Less by Andrew Sean Greer.

I am reading This Land Is Our Land: An Immigrants Manifesto by Suketu Mehta. This examines how colonial powers ruthlessly exploited the resources of various countries and their people, drew arbitrary boundaries, and particularly at the moment, have an undeserved “fear” of immigrants. When asked “Why are you here?” immigrants can justly respond, “We are here because you were there”.

I was very impressed with The Colonial Fantasy: Why White Australia Can’t Solve Black Problems by Sarah Maddison. It summarises our appalling mistreatment since 1778 of the Aboriginal population who have lived in Australia for at least 60,000 years. Again, “their dispossession underwrote the development of the nation” (a quote from the 1992 Mabo Judgement). Some of you kindly ask what I am working on, and this book has partly inspired me to write. The Aborigines have never been asked to advise on their own issues, and there is a current contested debate about Aborigines having an advisory Voice to Parliament. This was part of the Uluru Statement of the Heart by Aboriginal people in 2017 which offered an intelligent, reasonable and modest way forward towards “reconciliation”, although some argue reconciliation is for white people to feel better about themselves. The Statement was summarily dismissed by the government.

As many of you know I have been privileged to be a curator of Aboriginal art and have known or worked with some of the very best artists. I am also descended from several colonial Governors who impacted on Indigenous lives. I’m trying to write about my relationship with all of this, to clarify my feelings and thoughts for myself, and my efforts may be worth publishing one day.

PERSONAL: On a lighter note, my cat is wonderful although I still miss her brother who we lost several years ago, and I am looking forward to my first trip to Morocco. I hope you are having happy and fulfilling lives with your families, friends and animals, and let’s wish for some unexpected new leadership which will make our lives and the world a better and more sustainable place for the future.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISTIAN!

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Photo Derek Cattani

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISTIAN!

This photograph was in 1970 with Christian and Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna in the English countryside.  Christian had outgrown London and we waited there for months for permission to take Christian back to Kenya to be rehabilitated by George Adamson of Born Free fame. This is where Christian celebrated his first birthday on 12 August 1970.  His friend Unity Jones, who played with him every day in London, brought him a meat cake from London on the train.

For those of you unfamiliar with Christian’s story, I posted more details last year on his birthday, and the full story is on the website www.alioncalledchristian.com.au or in our book A Lion Called Christian.

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BORN FREE FOUNDATION: see this video where a short version of Christian’s story is recounted by Virginia McKenna and her son Will. The photographs of Christian (by Derek Cattani) are beautiful. The Born Free Foundation is soon to return a lion called King to Shamwari in South Africa, and we all wish him well.

SONY: SONY bought the film option to our book A Lion Called Christian nearly a decade ago. It has never looked like going into production.  In the 1960s the book and film Born Free told the story of Elsa the lioness and her return to the wild. Joy and George Adamson were played in the film by Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers, and it is a wonderful film which changed the attitude of millions of people to animals worldwide.

Christian’s story may not be in the same league, but it does seem to appeal to many people and it could contribute to raising awareness of the disastrous tipping point we have actually passed in regard to the survival of many animals.

Lions, like other animals are in an extinction vortex. Estimates of course vary, but I have read that there were  approximately 100,000 lions in Africa in Christian’s time in the 1970s, and now there are under 20,000. In 2009 there were under 2000 lions left in Kenya.

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Cats celebrating Diwali at the Darjeeling Animal Shelter

WORKING FOR ANIMALS: At our animal shelter in Kalimpong, India, we are buying adjoining land to build a cattery. I am particularly thrilled about this, as we all know how cats need space. Any contributions from fellow cat lovers are very welcome. I am on the Committee and hope to attend the opening when it is built. I visited our animal shelters in Darjeeling (DAS) and Kalimpong (KAS) a few years ago. They are beautifully situated in the most spectacular mountain region.  For our work see workingforanimals I particularly admire how rabies is kept under control in the communities.  We do need vets from time to time and it is an extraordinary opportunity for them.

 

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CHRISTINE TOWNEND: The profits from Christine Townend’s book A Life for Animals are going towards our Darjeeling  (DAS) and Kalimpong (KAS) animal shelters that she and her husband Jeremy founded.  The book describes Christine’s journey from founding Animal Liberation in Australia (1976), and Animals Australia with Peter Singer (1980).  It is an interesting history of the period – and how she felt she had to leave Australia, such was the hostility towards her for protesting on the wharf against live sheep exports in the 1970s.  The book also describes her many years working for animals in India where she is highly respected, indeed revered.

FIAPO: I had hoped to attend The India For Animals Conference in Hyderabad 26th -28th October 2018.  I have attended and spoken at previous conferences and they always have very interesting speakers and address important issues. The Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisation continues to grow into a very extensive and mutually beneficial grouping of like-minded animal welfare advocates and animal shelters.

LIVE SHEEP EXPORT: Christine Townend, now Chair of Animals Australia, ironically sees her objections to the live sheep export trade in the 1970s, still unresolved. This has been one of the main animal welfare scandals recently in Australia. 2400 sheep recently died on board in appalling conditions and heat on the way to the Middle East.

The licence of the company was suspended, and this inhumane trade will have to be phased out. Animals Australia and the RSPCA have led a very effective television campaign and protest.

See How NZ banned the live export of sheep for slaughter 15 years ago

New Zealand ceased live sheep exports in 2003 and has successfully continued with a “boxed” meat trade.  Some are still exported for “breeding purposes”.  Australia exported nearly 2 million sheep in 2017, and we don’t as yet have the facilities to “box” so many animals here.

I have recently been to New Zealand several times and adored it. My main criticism is that the dairy industry has polluted what one would assume to be pristine water ways and this has contaminated some town drinking water and coast lines.  The dairy cattle dilemma is like coal in Australia, and backed by equally powerful vested interests.

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Bob Marchant’s 1989 painting of George Adamson and lions was recently exhibited again

MEAT:There are more and more vegetarian and vegan restaurants in Sydney (the Little Turtle in Enmore, Sydney, is a current vegan favourite).  In Europe last year it was quite hard to find good vegetarian restaurants. I have now been vegetarian for quite a few years and it has been an easy transition.

All my life I have been appalled by butcher shops – those grisly images of carcases being carried from the truck into the butcher shop!  So hygienic!  See this video if you want to be put off meat!

 

Some serious people do predict that to be sustainable, the world will have to become vegan. Too much land and water is devoted to “farming” animals to eat and growing crops to feed them.  Clearing more and more land is destroying animal’s habitats and degrading the soil.

Unfortunately, the meat for our pets’ food contributes 1/3 of the environmental impact of the meat industry.  Yes, I confess I feed my cat meat although I try to encourage her to eat other food.  Apparently there are 9 million cats and dogs in Australia, 163 million in the USA, and a fast growing number in China.

The impact of cattle emissions on climate change is the next battle ground. Australia’s carbon emissions are 13% from agriculture, 35% from electricity generation, and 17% from transportation.  70% of emissions in agriculture are from the potent green house gas methane produced by cattle.

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AUSTRALIA:  To think I used to complain about a lack of leadership! I hope you are all doing alright in this quite changed and even more unpredictable world.  In Australia, our conservative government, rather than administering our country and planning for the future, are bitterly self-sabotaging themselves, fighting over the best way to hold Australia back somewhere in the last century. Consequently we have no energy policy.  Scientific evidence about climate change is challenged, experts discredited and the government is hostage to the vested interests of the coal and fossil fuel lobby. They are supported in their disinformation by Rupert Murdoch’s The Australian  newspaper(Sky News, and Fox News in the USA etc).

A current article in The Monthly is entitled How the world’s oceans and all marine life are on the brink of total collapse.  It makes chilling reading – the damage from rising temperatures, acidification, plastics, oil spills etc.  In the last decade there are 1/3rd less large fish in Australian waters.  Our famous Great Barrier Reef is dying and supposedly to save it, our government has just made “the single largest investment in history”  – $440 million dollars – to a private foundation,  without a tender process.  It is developing as a huge scandal.  The Great Barrier Reef Foundation avoids the words “climate change” and “global warming”, has a staff of 6, and the Chairman’s Panel includes CEO’s from fossil fuel companies, even Peabody Energy, notorious for funding climate-deniers.

We are in severe drought throughout NSW and Queensland,  there are horrific and deadly wildfires and floods around the world, and the record temperatures in Europe.

Global warming experts warn that the earth is already halfway to the point of no return.

Such is the present uncertainty in the world – and the plight of millions of displaced people, the environment and animals are fighting to be heard.

In Australia however, we do have many people dedicated to animal’s rights and welfare.

Donalea Patman www.fortheloveofwildlife.org.au loves lions and works tirelessly on their behalf.  She successfully lobbied for Australia to ban the importation of lion animal body parts or trophies. Trump’s son likes hunting animals and is “rolling back” equivalent USA legislation – issuing more Lion Trophy permits. Donalea has recently been participating in a Parliamentary Enquiry into the unregulated domestic trade in ivory and rhino horn. She and another tireless advocate Lynn Johnson (www.natureneedsmore.org) have both been producing effective ads discouraging the unregulated trade in ivory and rhino horn.

I do want to acknowledge the sad death of Tony the Tiger, and despite the efforts of so many, never left the Louisiana Truck Stop in the USA.

Artist Nafisa at Animal Works (www.animalsworks.com.au) recently staged Tiger Tales, an exhibition raising money for tigers. She was assisted by Imogen and Sara Menzies, cat lover extraordinaire, who now concentrates on protecting and conserving big cats in Africa through the organisation African Cat Project www.africancatproject.org

Coincidentally, Animal Works is staging a 4 day exhibition of Christian’s photographs  at H’Art Matters Gallery, Mosman, Sydney – for World Lion Day 10th August, and finishing on Christian’s birthday – today 12th August!

Today we celebrate World Elephant Day!

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Champion race horse Chautauqua

HORSE RACING AND GREYHOUNDS:  I have to admire the handsome Chautauqua, the Grey Flash, an eight year old champion horse that has won nearly $9 million in prize money. Recently he has refused to leave the barrier for the sixth time. Bravo!  Racing is still dogged by accusations of doping, corruption, wastage and cruelty.  Banning use of the whip would create a level playing field.

A few years ago the NSW State Government for very good reasons after several scandals, abruptly banned greyhound racing.  This was handled appallingly. There was a backlash, and then a back flip.  Now emboldened, despite a mass grave of greyhounds found recently, there is to be a Million Dollar Chase in Sydney later in the year! The NSW Government put in $500,000!

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George Adamson and Christian

We have always been asked how long did Christian live and how big did he grow?  This is him at his biggest – and probably early 1973.  George Adamson said he had grown into the one of the largest lions in Kenya. So he was in good condition when he presumably set out to create his own territory and pride in early 1973 in the direction of the more bountiful  Meru National Park.  The wild local lions at Kora had made life very difficult for him from the start, but he had survived.

He was never seen again, and may have lived another 10 years.

Happy Birthday to Christian and my best wishes to all of you.

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Christian the Lion. Photograph by Derek Cattani.

Happy Birthday Christian!

I love celebrating this day and thinking about Christian and his life. I am looking forward to hearing from some of you today as I know many of you feel the same!

I love this photograph of Christian and I think it was one of the first taken by our friend Derek Cattani possibly in January 1970.  Christian was about 5 months old.

In London recently I enjoyed reminiscing with friends like Derek who were very close to Christian. We all agreed he was the most wonderful animal with the friendliest and most engaging nature, and he deserved his story to turn out so well. He faced a very uncertain future when he was for sale in Harrods department store in London (in late 1969), but he miraculously returned to Kenya in 1970, to George Adamson of Born Free fame.

George Adamson described Christian as surprisingly easy to rehabilitate into his natural life – after 5 generations in Europe.  Christian survived his first very vulnerable years and grew into a huge lion.  He was last seen in 1973 going off in the direction of Meru National Park where there was more game and possible respite from the wild lions that had made life difficult for him since he had arrived at George’s camp at Kora in Kenya.

One of the many lessons we learned from our experience with Christian was that while some see us as “saving” Christian – and we did have the best (if naive) intentions, we were unwittingly participating in and encouraging the trade in exotic animals. Harrods Zoo and the rather ghastly pet accessories shop that replaced it no longer exist I was pleased to see on my recent visit.

Our visit and reunion with Christian in Kenya one year later in 1971 unexpectedly became an internet phenomenon in 2008, and a new global audience of over 100 million people became aware of Christian’s story.  (See here for TadManly2’s original reunion clip on YouTube which he re-posted.  He was the person who added Whitney Houston singing I Will Always Love You which helped the clip become so popular).

Many of you would have celebrated World Lion Day just 2 days ago. In this time of global political and social disruption, it is hard for animals to be heard and we must double our efforts on their behalf. Congratulations to Four Paws animal welfare charity for facilitating the recent removal to Turkey of 3 lions, 2 tigers 2 hyenas and 2 Asian black bears from a zoo in Aleppo, Syria. Local zookeepers have bravely tried their best to keep as many animals as possible alive during a terrible 3 years of war that has forced so many of the population to flee.

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Christian in his favourite spot in Sophistocat. Photograph by Derek Cattani.

In London I saw Jennifer Mary Taylor who was a co-owner of Sophistocat where Christian lived and where we worked. Over the years many people visited her antique furniture shop to talk about Christian, even when she relocated. She has helped keep the flame alive.

It was also very good to see Christian’s friend Unity again after so many years.  She is an actress (in Fellini’s Juliet of the Spirits for example) and had had a lioness in her apartment in Rome. She materialised very soon after we brought Christian home. They adored each other and she visited him nearly every day. She is quite small, and he could be boisterous and had sharp teeth and claws, so she often wore a coat for protection when she played with him. Sometimes I would hear her say…”You are too rough with me today I’m going to leave”. Christian would respond with contrite grunting noises.

I asked her why she had had such a good relationship with him. “I talked to him. We talked to each other”.

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Christian and Unity in Dorking. Photograph by Derek Cattani.

Not many lions would allow themselves to play ‘wheelbarrows” but Christian had a great sense of fun and companionship.

In the subsequent years Unity has managed to find other exotic animals to meet and get to know, but Christian remains a favourite.

After the pleasure of knowing Christian, I sound a hypocrite advocating for people to not have contact with exotic animals, or keep them as pets.  However, people can get just as much pleasure and love from their dogs and cats –and looking after a lion, and the safety of all involved, was an awesome and scary responsibility.

MAIL: I’m so pleased that people continue to send stories into Christian’s website www.christianthelion.com.au. Joe recently wrote that when he was young he visited a house in the English countryside with “a lion in their tennis court”. “As years went by I thought that I had made it up because it seemed so unlikely”. Then a few years ago he saw Christian’s documentary and realised that it was true. His father was a chimney sweep, and can you believe, he is now the chimney sweep for Virginia McKenna at the same house where he saw Christian all those years ago!  As most of you know, Virginia McKenna  and Bill Travers played Joy and George Adamson in Born Free, and they were our introduction to George Adamson.

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CHRISTINE TOWNEND: Christine’s memoir A Life for Animals was recently launched by Peter Singer in Melbourne. This was appropriate because Christine started Animal Liberation in Australia after reading Singer’s book in 1976, and then Animals Australia with Peter Singer in 1980. He wrote the Foreword to her book. Christine subsequently spent many years at Help in Suffering an animal shelter in Jaipur and is revered in India for her work for the welfare (and rights) of animals. She writes very insightfully (and modestly) about her 100% dedication and commitment to animals, her feelings about them, and her time in India.

A Life for Animals can be ordered here .

With help and support Christine and Jeremy Townend founded animal shelters in Darjeeling (DAS) and Kalimpong (KAS) in India. She runs them from Australia with the help of excellent and dedicated staff. See the Working For Animals website for more background information and the invaluable work of the shelters.  I am on the Committee and hope to be attending the AGM with Christine up in those beautiful mountains next October.

Michael Kirby, esteemed ex High Court Judge, launches Christine’s book A Life for Animals on the 25th August at Gleebooks, Glebe, Sydney. See details here.

DONALEA PATMAN: Congratulations to Donalea who has been awarded an OAM (Medal of the Order of Australia). She was instrumental in prohibiting the importation of lion trophies and animal parts into Australia – which was followed by a number of other countries. She is currently working on a campaign No Domestic Trade against the selling of the surprising amount of ivory and animal body parts in Australia. You can support and find more information about this campaign here.

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Tiger in Ranthambore National Park 2016. Photograph Ace Bourke.

TIGERS: Tigers had their International Tiger Day on the 29th July, and these beautiful animals, like most wildlife, need our support more than ever.  I can still feel the excitement at seeing this tiger in the wild last year in India.

Tigers in India: There have been at least 67 unexplained deaths of tigers so far this year. While there are several reasons for their deaths, primarily it is the illegal trade in tiger body parts to China, Vietnam, Taiwan and Cambodia. Tiger populations had been increasing, but there are still only approximately 2,226 in India, representing 60% of the world’s population of 3890.

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Tony the Tiger. Photograph sourced from change.org.

Tony the Tiger: See here for the latest news on Tony who is now 17 and not in good health. Tony has many supporters and the ADLF in the USA do their best in court case after court case to have Tony removed from the Truckstop in Louisiana to a better environment. The owner seems to just keep stalling with appeal after appeal, and somehow got “specifically exempted” from the 2005 Louisiana State law banning the private ownership of big cats. For Tony to be relocated to a reputable sanctuary please sign this petition here.

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Kato in Symbio Wildlife Park. Photograph by Ace Bourke.

Kato the Tiger:  Like many of you, I have found the lack of progress for Tony the Tiger very depressing. I was reluctant to go to my local zoo to meet the tiger that I heard was there. I finally met Kato last week. He looked beautiful of course, but was listless. He is 15 years old and like Tony is half Bengal and Sumatran. He could live to 20. He had quite a large green space…but nothing to do. I pointed this out to a staff member who replied that as tigers are “solitary” this was OK. In the afternoons Kato goes back to no doubt a much smaller space behind the scenes, and is rotated with a brother and sister. She has been placed on contraception and these Sumatran young adults apparently get on well, although I would think in the wild they would have separated by now.

ZOOS: No matter how much more space animals and birds are given in zoos, or how attractively designed and landscaped, to me most wildlife in zoos seem resigned, depressed or anxious to escape. Zoos in the last few decades have had to deal with changing community attitudes to animal rights and welfare, and have had to emphasise and develop their serious and successful research, educational and conservation efforts. Kato’s zoo looked well maintained with many young staff. After going straight to Kato the tiger I, with others, gawked in wonderment at birds, cheetahs, kangaroos, snakes etc, and even farmyard animals seem exotic these days. I have to admit that people, especially children, were just fascinated. They are inheriting a world at a tipping point for wildlife and of species extinction. Will they be better educated and anymore effective than we have been on behalf of animals?

Despite the enjoyment animals provide, I don’t think they can be used for our entertainment at their expense.  Our relationships should be mutually enjoyable and beneficial.  We have our companion animals, we can watch many excellent wildlife documentaries, and these days many people can travel at least once to see the wildlife they are interested in.

I recently received a thoughtful email about issues to consider when donating to animal causes. Of course some support the work of zoos and some do not. Most animal shelters do a good and necessary job of looking after and rehousing animals in an urban setting. Some people only want to donate to a specific animal or project while others do not like donating to “administration” or boy’s toys.

I think conservancies are a very good idea where buying up and often fencing tracts of lands protects the wildlife.  Re-establishing traditional path ways and safe corridors, for elephants in India for example, is also proving very effective.

Peter Singer, a generous donor to animal causes, has a website listing the 2017 best charities working against global poverty.  He identifies outstanding charities “that will make sense to both your head and your heart”.

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Love Story 1972 by Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri (1932 – 2002). Courtesy National Gallery of Australia.

ABORIGINES: Aboriginal artefacts and pigments excavated at a rock shelter in the Northern Territory are 65,000 years old. This has recently been verified by radiocarbon dating and Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL). Australian Aborigines are the world’s longest continuous living people and culture. Isn’t this amazing? They have survived invasion, colonisation, and mass dispossession.  They continue to endure marginalisation and discrimination when they should be respected and celebrated. Aboriginal art, for example, was described by Robert Hughes, the late art critic for Time magazine as “the last great art movement of the twentieth century”.