News & Updates

Born Free Founder and Trustee, Virginia McKenna OBE, congratulated newly qualified Metropolitan Police Dog handlers and their dogs, as they graduated from the Training Establishment in Keston, Kent. In a week where the future of the UK’s domestic ivory market was debated in Parliament, Virginia was keen to see first-hand how the Metropolitan Police is piloting new training techniques to crack down on the illegal wildlife trade.

Recent reports in the Daily Mail have yet again highlighted the risks of close interactions with captive elephants.The short video appears to show an unnamed female tourist, thrown into the air by a large captive elephant whilst taking part in a ‘bathing’ activity at an elephant facility in Thailand (believed to be the Patara Elephant Farm in Chiang Mai). Thankfully, serious injury, in this instance, was apparently avoided, but it could have been a lot worse. There have been many incidents of tourist injury and fatalities caused by captive elephants. Last year, a Scottish tourist was killed in Thailand when the elephant he was riding went berserk, trampling and goring him to death.

On the 2nd February, UK Government department Defra released its plans for new regulations relating to the licensing of animal establishments such as boarding kennels, horse-riding schools and pet shops.

The Born Free Foundation is supporting efforts by South African organisations to persuade the authorities in South Africa to rethink their proposal to permit the annual export of 800 skeletons from captive-bred lions.

Kenya has reportedly banned the export of several species of snake, including the African rock python, to zoos and pet shops around the world, after research has shown that the ecology of the snakes, especially pythons, has been negatively affected by wildlife trafficking.

Madrid, January 31, 2017.- The Municipal Plenary of the City of Madrid has voted in favour of banning circuses with wild animals from entering the capital of Spain. The decision is a result of the perseverance of the NGO coalition InfoCircos, which was founded by the Born Free Foundation and the Spanish NGOs, ANDA and FAADA.

Concerning reports indicate that a man has been killed by a tiger at the Youngor Wildlife Park in Ningbo, China. It is unclear how the man entered the enclosure on Sunday, with local reports suggesting he was visiting the zoo with his wife and child.

As the citizens of Vancouver look set to consider the future display of whales, dolphins and porpoises (collectively known as cetaceans) at the famous Aquarium, the Park Board has been discussing a motion not to import more cetaceans until a deciding vote.

Born Free warns heinous trade threatens beleaguered wild lions. Born Free Foundation has warned that South Africa’s intention to grant an annual commercial export quota of 800 skeletons sourced from captive-bred lions raised in canned hunting facilities could threaten wild populations and perpetuate suffering.

Many agree that the most immediate critical threat to African elephants, rhinos, apes and other endangered wildlife is large-scale poaching and the organized criminal networks which traffic in these animals. Although national laws and international treaties protect these species throughout their range, generally there is weak application of relevant laws to arrest wildlife criminals and criminal courts to hand down sentences which not only take significant wildlife traffickers out of action but which also act as a deterrent. Widespread corruption feeds this process.