Love Them to Death.

The Bad AND... The oh so very very ugly!

 

We choose to believe these guys are just ignorant. Let's help educate them...

 

Which wildlife volunteer centres to avoid or write to:

 

• Real Gap Experience: Real Gap experience advertises trip to ‘cuddle those cute little lion cubs’ for just under £2000, but beware as they lure you in with photographs conveying tourists playing with cubs. They promote their reserve in South West South Africa along with complete and intense hand rearing lion cubs within a ‘breeding’ centre. It may be an easy to use and accessible site, however their objectives are to lure tourists in and hence treatment of the cubs themselves and how this is damaging to their species is not on the top of their priorities.  

• I-TO-I Volunteers: I-to-I travel tourism company are an agency which help find volunteer projects and tourism holidays- however again promote getting up ‘personal’ with wildlife. They offer a wide range of packages, all getting close with animals although we now know how dangerous this is in terms of desensitizing animal awareness towards humans. 

• The Lion Park Volunteer Programme: As soon as you click on the link to The Lion Park Volunteer Programme, you are thrown an image with volunteers laughing and smiling whilst cuddling and playing with doey eyed lion cubs. I think this says it all to be honest- through claiming that: “Not only will volunteers get to interact with the lion cubs (6 weeks and older), they will have the opportunity to feed and care for the cubs as well as other animals at the park”. One indicator that they are a breeding in a factory farming type setting which is a hint that they support canned hunting. 

• Exotic Wildlife Foundation

• AZA Zoos (American Zoological Aviation): AZA (American Zoological Association) is criticised of having a high turnover of their wildlife. This indicates not only that there is a form of exploitation of breeding but also raises the question whether or not they are supporting fenced canned hunting. ‘AZA were looking to rid themselves of six hundred mammals, nearly four hundred reptiles, thousands of fish, hundreds of birds, and a variety of invertebrates’-Alan Green, Animal Underworld. 

• Moreson Ranch (only one of more than 160- ranches legally breeding in South Africa): Patrick Barkham references to the Moreson South African Ranch as ‘one of more than 160 such farms legally breeding big cats in South Africa’. We can safely say that they have been connected with canned hunting and hence awareness should be made when booking ‘volunteering with ranches’ in South Africa particularly. 

• Gap360: Gap360 promotes getting ‘up close’ and ‘hand rearing’ big cats in their miniature states. Not only are they targeting gap year students but enticing with cute photos of baby cheetahs and lion cubs, along with luxurious living quarters. This again is a sign of a vast turnover of young cubs plus blueprinting the animals with human contact.

• Lion and Big Cat Conservation: Kaya Responsible Travel promote Lion and Big Cat Conservation as being the place to be for gap year students. However, hold your horses! Ironically they advertise African Lion and Big Cat rehabilitation to ‘get them prepared for wild life’ through volunteers getting ‘up close’ and involved in an ‘exhilarating’ feeding programme in Zambia. By getting up close you are already desensitising the animals to human contact and hence making them used to human behaviour- not only damaging their self-reliance for food in the wild but also making them a danger and threat to human tourists in the wild.  

• Living with lions

• Kaya Responsible Travel

• Safari Volunteer

• Smallerearth.com

• Allafricavolunteers

• Goeco: GOECO states “Volunteer to work up close with lions against the backdrop of the majestic Victoria Falls. Be involved in the research of lion behaviour and participate in one of the world's few initiatives to release them back into the wild.” They also promote the handling of lion cubs which puts doubt in our minds to if they are really being released back into the wild. 

• Gowithbounce

• Travellersworldwide.com: Travellers Worldwide immediately throws this image at you: 

 

Plus states a ‘hands on experience’ in

either Botswana or Zimbabwe.

It constantly reiterates how it is a

non-profit organisation dedicated to the

‘release’ of the lions into the wild- which is

a massive tell- tale sign that they are

being sold into canned/trophy hunting

organisations to continue the high

turnover of cute, little cubs for tourist

packages.