QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER: NOVEMBER 2019

In July, Kevin noticed something that pricked his heart with fear. Amy. His most beloved Amy was showing an enlarged and distended chest cavity. The grief for every ageing or sick lion that had passed on before flooded Kevin’s mind… please, not Amy. Kevin took photos of her chest and sent them to vet Peter Caldwell. “Bring her in,” said Peter. “I don’t like the look of it.”

OPINION PIECE: At War with Everyone: a true story By: Shani van Straaten, Foundation Manager The other day, I took a quiz to test my knowledge of what ranked as the biggest environmental impacts of an individual’s actions. I confess I went into the test feeling pretty confident. As a childless woman who eats an almost entirely plant-based diet, I can be borderline SMUG when it comes to deciding who is hurting the planet more. However, when the results showed up, I was flabbergasted.

If you haven’t been to Namibia, it may be difficult to comprehend the dry, empty spaces between towns and human settlements. You can drive a straight road for hours and not encounter a single soul. Stark and wild and breathtakingly beautiful, Namibia makes for the perfect landscape for roaming wild lions.

Over the past year, Finn and Elliot have been giving presentations in schools where they live in Spain, teaching young people about lions and promoting the Kevin Richardson Foundation. This year, they got the opportunity to travel to Africa and meet Kevin, as well as squeeze in some other crazy adventures. Here is their story.

In our last newsletter article, we promised you a follow up to our contextual observation of the captive lion breeding industry. In our sincere attempt to present a fair well rounded, 360-degree view of this highly complex situation that is full of potential pitfalls we prepared many drafts, and we were still not satisfied or comfortable publishing this piece now. After initially declining an interview, SAPA (South African Predator Association) has indicated they will be responding to our questions soon. We have debated this sensitive topic with difficulty which reflects in part the resistance negativity and lack of cooperation demonstrated by this abhorrent industry. Frankly, to do justice to our readers we simply need more time. We promise more on this topic in future newsletters, as we, ourselves, grapple with this issue.