Sir David Attenborough should be enjoying his 90th birthday celebrations but the wildlife broadcaster has become embroiled in a row with conservationists over the plight of lions.
The Born Free Foundation, pioneered by Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers, her late husband, has criticised him for agreeing to be photographed at his home holding and feeding two eight-week-old lion cubs.
The charity, whose founders starred in the film Born Free in 1966, fears that Sir David has unwittingly allowed himself to boost the trade of farms in South Africa that breed “canned lions” to be shot by wealthy hunters.
Dominic Dyer, policy adviser to the charity, said that the farms made money from the same lions when they were cubs by charging tourists to pet, feed and be photographed holding them.
He said: “It’s sad. [Attenborough] is an icon and when we are trying to educate people not to go to these facilities, which are a form of exploitation, it just sets a bad example. I’m surprised he’s done it and I’m surprised the Radio Times have put it on the front page. It’s a sort of 1970s-type story really, feeding a lion cub with a bottle.
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“If everyone sees Attenborough doing it they think, ‘If he’s feeding a baby lion cub why can’t I go and do that in South Africa. Let’s go online and book a holiday now.’ That’s potentially what we will see more of.”
Will Travers, son of Virginia and Bill and president of the Born Free Foundation, praised Sir David’s “outstanding contribution” to wildlife conservation but criticised the photographs.
He said: “Lions are an enduring symbol of all that should be wild and free and yet many remain caged in zoos and circuses around the world. We should be thinking of saving them in their natural habitat, where they belong.
“However, we are concerned that someone who is such an inspiration for so many has been photographed with a captive lion cub for the front cover of the Radio Times. Presenting lions as cute photo props does nothing to enhance their chances of survival as a species and may damage the reputation of our most beloved and respected naturalist.”
The cubs, which were taken last week to Sir David’s home in Richmond, west London, were supplied by Amazing Animals, which hires out wild animals for films and videos. The company was criticised in January when photos emerged of lions and other animals performing tricks at its premises near Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire.
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Chris Packham, the broadcaster tipped by many to succeed Sir David, refuses to work with Amazing Animals, partly because it gets wild animals to perform. He abandoned a filming session with rabbits this week when he found out they had been supplied by Amazing Animals. Packham defended the man he describes as his hero.
He said it was “probably not” Sir David’s job to check who had supplied the animals. “The people setting up the photoshoot should be responsible for making sure the animals come from a reputable source,” Packham said, accusing the Born Free Foundation of overreacting. “When I look at that photo, I don’t think that says ‘pet baby lion cubs’. That’s a photograph of the great man re-enacting a photograph [of him feeding a Malaysian bear on the Radio Times cover in 1956].”
Radio Times said: “The welfare of the cubs was paramount throughout the session and they were regularly rested and fed, with three qualified and accredited handlers looking after them throughout. Radio Times used a fully licensed and regulated company with 25 years of experience of supplying animals for television and film.”
Jim Clubb, the owner of Amazing Animals, said: “We train animals to do all sorts of behaviour. In captivity, it doesn’t matter what you train an animal to do as long as it’s done in an ethical, humane way.”
He said that the cubs, called Lydia and Nero, were a brother and sister who had been rejected by their mother at a European zoo and were being hand-reared by Amazing Animals to replace older lions.
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The hunt for profits
•South Africa’s “canned” lion hunting industry caters for wealthy visitors who are keen to shoot an animal easily and take it home to display as a trophy.
•Captive-bred lions are taken from their pens to enclosed areas where they are shot by customers, usually from the safety of a truck.
•Farms that breed the lions also charge visitors to pet and hold cubs. Animal welfare groups say that breeders remove cubs from their mothers in order to make them breed again quickly, maximising the number of litters.
•Some conservationists say that canned lion hunting causes an increase in poaching of wild lions, which have declined in Africa from 500,000 in the 1940s to about 20,000.