Recent Events
Thank You Guernsey
Virginia McKenna and Alison Hood attended a lunch in Guernsey, organised by local charity Friends of Wildlife, to raise funds for Born Free’s new Ethiopia project. They had a hectic schedule in the 24 hours they were in the Island which included two media interviews.
Both Virginia and Alison spoke to the 150 guests about their work for the Born Free Foundation. Two delightful giraffes made on very generous terms by local Gold and Silversmiths Bruce and Simon Russell were sold for several thousand pounds on the day.
Both Virginia and Alison look forward to returning to Guernsey to update Friends of Wildlife on the progress of the Education and Wildlife Center in Ethiopia and the many wild animals that will benefit from funds raised at the lunch.
Talk at Ramsden Hall School
- A talk to the ‘Panther’, ‘Lion’ and ‘Tiger’ Houses at Ramsden Hall School during their ‘Big Cat Week’. Left to right: Christopher Johnson, Tricia Holford, Ryan Revel and in the front Benjamin Jackson. Photo - Fay Greaves
4th March 2010
The Born Free Foundation had been invited to give a talk on our Big Cat Project at Ramsden Hall School in Langham, Essex and we were delighted to accept. It was to tie in with their Big Cat Week that started on the 23rd February. I was asked to give the talk as I had been involved in our big cat rescues and conservation since the rescue of our first lions in 1995.
It was explained to me that the school was a ‘special school’ for boys of 11 -16 years old with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties. I expected the talk to involve quite a bit of crowd control, with the boys being restless and disruptive – but not a bit of it. The lads were very bright, friendly and polite, shaking hands with me when we were introduced, and they listened quietly and attentively throughout.
Four years ago, through the School Council, the pupils were asked to vote on names they would like to represent their ‘house’ and while they could have come up with, for example, the names of sports cars or footballers or Harry Potter characters, they chose Lions, Tigers and Panthers. Since then there has been a lot of enthusiastic competition between the houses to gain the most points, with points earned from anything from class work to work in the community.
I had been liaising with Fay Greaves, the Behaviour Support Manager, and I warned Fay that some of photos used in my presentation were quite distressing, showing the grim reality of ‘canned hunting’ of lions and the snaring of leopards in South Africa, the wretched conditions some big cats endured in zoos and the poaching of tigers in India. I asked if I should remove these images, but Fay explained many of the boys had experienced some pretty grim things themselves, in their short lives, and that they would be able to empathise with these big cats in trouble. This certainly seemed to be the case. There were plenty of happy endings to show too, with the rescue of our big cats – we have rescued 53 to date! – and our successful campaigns to protect big cats in the wild.
I really enjoyed my time with the boys; they are a credit to their dedicated, caring teachers and to themselves. I hope we will be invited back! In the meantime, each House is going to adopt one of our lions, tigers and ‘panthers’ (leopards). This will help fund the life-time care of our cats in their new sanctuary homes, and through the updates we send out, the boys can find out how their cats are getting on. By Tricia Holford, BFF
- A black leopard languishes in a zoo in Thailand. This photo would have special resonance for the ‘Panther’ house at Ramsden Hall School. Photo (c)Marie Salmon
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