A NATURAL BORN LIONESS (Day 5 in lockdown with lions)
I cannot even imagine what Nachi used to see, feel and hear
during her life in a travel crate in the circus. What did the people who
handled her, who passed her from one tourist to the next; minute after minute
after minute, smell like? Where they hot and sweaty? Perfumed? Did they smell
of other animals, hotdogs and cotton candy? What does human supremacy smell
like?
I can guess that she saw new sights all of the time. But
wait, did she, or was her crate inside a vehicle whilst they traveled? When
the circus decamped, was her cage set between canvas walls in an alleyway of
guy ropes? Did all the different tourist hands, eyes and faces blur into an
indistinguishable human entity?
I myself went to a circus for my 10th birthday to
hold a lion cub. In my childlike world of magical imagination, I wanted nothing
more than to meet that lion in person, to connect with it and somehow imbue it
with love by it just knowing I had seen it, really seen it and knew it to be a
mighty lion. It was a torturous ordeal to drive to the Southern outskirts of
Johannesburg, make our way through crowds, sit in a tent smelling of people and
watch actors in darned net stockings walking with poodles and foreign children
in thread bare lycra contort whilst waiting for the interval when I would meet
the lion cub. I had not foreseen that hundreds of others would pour into the
make shift aisle in a queue of chattering people all waiting to have a photo
with the cub. I was disappointed to the point of wanting to leave. Somehow I
had envisaged this being a private moment of great significance between me and
the lion. My mother pushed me to continue with my quest as we had come so far
to meet the animal. I shyly waited for my turn and embarrassedly sat on the
ringside rim next to the lion trainer who briefly plopped the cub in my arms
and told me to smile for the camera. I wasted the moment I had with the animal
in a flash of inner anger that the camera was there. No sooner had the polaroid
been spewed from the camera, then the trained lifted the cub and told me to
move over for the next person.
I had not bonded; I had not sent a mental message to the cub,
I had not even stroked in gently for 6 seconds. I had smiled on command because
the cameraman had chastised me and my mother cajoled me. It turned out to be
all about me and the photo. I was so disappointed I gave up on lions that very
moment and never looked back at that failed attempt. My life went on without a
thought for lions in circuses.
But Natacha and hundreds of other lions go through that
ordeal everyday over and over again. Sticky, stinky hands touched her while the
eyes of the hands’ owner didn’t gaze upon her in wonder but simply looked at
the camera and smiled. None of those people knew that they had just had the distinct
privilege of touching Nachi the mighty feline of superior grace, strength and
agility. That they had met Nachi, the intelligent, Nachi the indomitable, the
most characterful lioness of them all. They walked away without taking note of
the marvel that they were still able to walk and were not lying dead and
bleeding (which would most certainly be the case if they dared to touch her
now).
Natacha is our most agile, active, forever fluid cat. Line
and I suspect that she does not sleep. She lives every moment on the go, as if
thoroughly enjoying her freedom of movement. Choosing where to walk, which path
to take, which bush to find shade under, which tree to scratch and from which
rock to admire the view. Natacha lives with Sasha and Moya her boys. The three
of them gain great affection from one another. They do as lions do which is to
be physically demonstrative and lovingly gregarious. They rub heads, lick each
other and thud their humungous weight upon one another in communal heaps.
Nachi Buchi Beautiful Girl has grown into a feline so full
of herself, she is the most confident of all the lions at Love lions Alive
Sanctuary. When we look back on that puddle of lion in the travel crate that
arrived from Spain at OR Tambo in April 2016, and then look at the dynamic
powerhouse of lioness we see before us today, it is hard to believe she is the
same animal.
Line and I love this girl with all our hearts. We promise to
always give her room to roam and vistas to look out on. Our dream for Natacha
is to give her more space, as she uses every bit of the 1.7hectares that she currently
has. We aspire to creating her a kingdom of her own to explore and expand into.
Our message to the world is, do not support people who use
lions for photographic opportunities. Your picture next to a scared,
frustrated, semi-sedated cub is stupid anyway. No one of any intellectual or
moral integrity looks at your photo and sees anything but a sorry human posing
with a distraught and terrorized animal. It is not an ego promoter, it actually
shows you up as inferior and needy. Do not fall for the advertising rhetoric,
only those trying to take your money think that is okey to use an animal for a
selfie. You are being used. The animal is being used.
If you see a cub in captivity, ask questions.
When you indulge in using a big cat for a photo opportunity,
whether a cub or an adult, whether inside a cage, a perspex box, a circus or a
zoo, realise that being in that photo belittles you once, but every photo,
every day, belittles that animal.
If you see that lions are being bated to approach photo
booths, Perspex boxes, cages or vehicles for photo opportunities, shout out
that it is wrong. How selfish can a photographer be?
Take one look at Natacha and know, lions do not belong in
circuses.
#standbynatacha #nolionsinthecircus #nolionsincaptivity
#handsoff #takephotosoflionsinthewild #bebraveenoughtofindthemwheretheybelong
#captivephotographymenasnothing #Natacha #freedomtomove #naturalbornlioness
#5yearsold #respectnatacha
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