It is now just two months later and we are happy to report that with God’s saving grace and with the help and support of various private donors, companies and organisations such as, Foundation Brigitte Bardot, Marchig Trust, The Trust and the Humane Society (USA) we have managed to continue to care for the lions and the immediate financial crisis and possible euthanasia of our lions could be averted.

Our meat supplier agreed to supply meat for our lions on credit for times that we ran short of funding. He has also gone out of his way to ensure that he could supply meat at a much cheaper rate by discarding his own profits.

To all and everyone who contributed and helped we would like to thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

We are however by no means "out of the woods" yet; the danger to the very lives of the SanWild Lion Prides remain as no long term funding has been secured. If we cannot continue to rely on your support the horrible reality of putting them to sleep remain. Sadly SanWild simply does not have access to adequate funding to feed the animals without your financial support and help.

Early in February 2010 SanWild issued a press statement to inform our supporters. NGO’s and the public that should we fail to raise sufficient donor funding to continue to feed and care for three prides of lions, we will have no other option than to put 16 healthy lions to sleep.

You may very well ask why SanWild does not attempt to find other destinations to where at least some of the animals could be relocated to help ease the financial burden. For 5 years we attempted to find safe and secure homes for the lions in particular, but most possible opportunities lead to a dead end when potential foster parents were told that they may not breed, commercially trade of hunt any of the SanWild lions. During this time we found one individual who had agreed to sign a foster parent contract to ensure the lions welfare and accepted all the terms and conditions contained in a legal document draw up specifically to ensure the animals safety. However when we found a suitable foster parent our local conservation department in Limpopo Province refused to issue the required export and transport permits to Gauteng Province; resulting in the failure of the intended relocation.

Lutalo and his sister Aisha were also kept at a captive breeding project that supplied lions for hunting. However when they were still quite small the two cubs were loaned to a lion cub petting operation where lion cubs are displayed in shopping centres or at various tourist or weekend getaway destinations.

Here the small cubs are handled extensively by guests and visitors who normally are charged a fee to allow their children to play with the cubs and have their photographs taken. This practice is very wrong and only puts a great deal of stress on the young cubs. It also results in the forceful removal of young lions from their mothers. It is very rare for a lioness to simply discard her cubs or not have sufficient milk to raise her own young. Daily the public is being lied to blatantly to make them enjoy and accept cub petting operations.

To keep the lion cubs calm and safe for handling Lutalo and Aisha was drugged on a daily basis until young Lutalo had an adverse reaction to the drugs and almost died. Fortunately both he and his sister ended up at a veterinarian who immediately recognized the drugging of the cubs. As a great animal lover and sickened by what he saw, he kept both cubs overnight for observation and placed a desperate call for help to SanWild. The cubs owner had the necessary conservation permits and could not be prosecuted for putting the animals on display, but we knew that in most of these situation s all wild animals had a price on their heads and with the help of one of our most loyal donors in France, SanWild via the veterinarian successfully negotiated to purchase the two small cubs from their owner. Lutalo and Aisha are now fully grown and share a pride with the Three Sisters and Bombi.

May we take a moment to share with you our lives with the SanWild lion prides?

Jespha’s pride was the 1st confiscated lion pride to arrive at SanWild in 2003 after they were rescued from South Africa’s infamous canned lion hunting industry. All at SanWild have grown to love this very special lion and his family deeply. Jespha is the oldest lion at SanWild (around 12 years). He has a magnificent black mane and for this very reason at the age of 6 years old, he was set to be hunted for a whopping R500 000.00

Jespha had been used extensively to father many lion cubs while he was kept in a captive breeding project. When the family arrived three young cubs (which we named the Three Sisters) had already been removed off the pride and was being hand raised so their mother could come into oestrus again. She was pregnant again on arrival at SanWild and produced two small cubs called Ronga and Aroha. Despite all our efforts to reintroduce the three young cubs with their pride, we failed, but eventually they were integrated with Lutalo’s pride.

Bombi is the only lion at SanWild not saved from the infamous and sordid canned lion industry. Bombi was born in the Budapest Zoo along with his two siblings. Sadly soon after birth his siblings died and Bombi was all alone. His mother showed little interest in the cub and he was pulled for hand raising. As Bombi grew older he was taken for daily walks in the zoo on a leash like a pet dog and displayed to visiting children. This is where Bombi was 1st noticed by Dr. Gabriella Kiss, a qualified veterinarian working for Pfizer. Gabi immediately fell in love and decided that she was going to do whatever is necessary to negotiate Bombi’s release from the zoo and return him to Africa. SanWild after extensive negotiations agreed to accept Bombi and the small cub arrived a couple of months later. Today Bombi is a healthy 6 year old lion and proudly takes his place as a pride male alongside Lutalo.

On the 3rd September 2004 another group of confiscated lions arrived at SanWild. This time they were not captive bred lions, but wild animals that were illegally trapped and removed from the wild to be hunted illegally. By this time South Africa had become an extremely dangerous place for lions and the legal and illegal hunting of lions reached an all time high. Despite claims from various government sources that the breeding and hunting of captive bred lions protected wild lion populations, the illegal trapping and luring and hunting of wild lions increased daily. The lions that arrived at SanWild that morning where some of the originally trapped lionesses and their offspring trapped illegally in the Timbavati and Klaserie Private Game Reserves adjoining the world famous Kruger National Park. Fences between the reserves and the Kruger Park had been removed and wild animals were free to roam between the reserves at will. Initially the four wild lions were introduced into a private game farm in Hoedspruit where the two large males were hunted. The females remained and eventually gave birth to their cubs. When the male cubs were old enough to be hunted, an illegal hunt was arranged. Fortunately the police criminal investigations unit and the conservation departments who had been investigating the theft of giraffe and rhinos form a nearby provincial reserve stumbled on information about the illegal trapping of the lions and they could be saved in the nick of time. Because of their majestic appearance we decided to name them the Royal Pride.