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Many of you will remember the “Big Cat Diaries” – filmed in the Masai Mara of Kenya. Simon has actually produced more than 80 natural history films as principal cameraman, director, producer and many more as presenter. Simon is also President of the Wildlife Trusts and the Avon Wildlife Trust, and Patron of Somerset Wildlife Trust.

Simon sent LionAid this statement – he hopes to be there on the day, other commitments permitting…..

“The African Lion

No other creature embodies the qualities of power, charisma and beauty quite like it. And all over South Africa, lion breeding facilities offer visiting guests the opportunity to walk with and pet these unique symbols of wild majesty. But the tragic truth is that the majority of these same captive lions are being bred for one thing and one thing only; to suffer an ignominious fate at the hands of a hunter who is prepared to pay to snuff the spark of life from the king of beasts, and to do so in a confined area.

Everything about the loathsome practice of canned hunting is wrong. It promotes the dangerous sense of dominion that some humans have over all other living things. It promotes the industry of killing these apex predators whose very existence in the wild is itself under threat, and whose wild populations have been, and still are, the target of hunting safaris in many countries in the African continent. It sends the message to all communities in Africa that the lion is a commodity that may be exploited for personal gain or eradicated if it presents a hurdle to human development. And, perhaps the most obscene feature of canned hunting, is that it betrays the trust of an animal, raised in captivity believing its captors were its friends and allies, only to be violently killed by the mindless actions of another human being.

There is no place in our global society for this obscene practice. Canned hunting must end, and it must end today.

Simon King OBE”

If you have not already done so, please sign up to join us at the March this Saturday, the 15th March 2014, from 3pm to 6pm. Click here for full details on canned hunting and the routes of the London March.