Blood Lions VS. Ukutula Park

As I sipped on my morning coffee and scrolled through Facebook earlier today I noticed something that made me choke with laughter and in complete shock: Ukutula are screening Blood Lions in a bid to raise awareness about canned hunting. Yes you read that right. Ukutula.

It took a while to compose myself but after having done so, I took time to read their post in full just to ensure I was not having some kind of nightmare. You can read their utterly hypocritical post here. For those who are new to this, Ukutula screening Blood Lions is basically the same as SeaWorld screening Blackfish.

Of course it wasn’t long before the amazing team at Blood Lions had formulated a powerful response prompting Ukutula to answer 3 basic questions about their park. Ukutula are yet to reply but when they do we all know what same old lies to expect, no-one is fooled anymore. Blood Lions have responded as follows:

NEWS: In response to recent ‘screening’ claims by Ukutula Lodge.

Blood Lions does NOT ENDORSE Ukutula Lodge and Lion Park. The Blood Lions team and supporters condemn the attempt by Ukutula, a predator breeding and volunteer tourism operation, to link themselves with the film ‪#‎BLOODLIONS‬.

We wish to make the following clear: # The BLOOD LIONS team have had no contact whatsoever with anyone from Ukutula since the completion of the documentary and have certainly not given permission for them to ‘screen’ the film. # The statement appearing on their facebook page is completely misleading: the ‘screening’ they seem to be referring to is in fact a scheduled one with Discovery Channel for 11th October. # The owners of Ukutula were given every opportunity by the makers of Blood Lions to go before the cameras – after various heated conversations with Ian Michler, they chose not to. # Blood Lions does not in any way endorse Ukutula, its activities or any of its employees or owners. The full length version of Blood Lions exposes the Ukutula claims that they only breed for research purposes, despite it being obvious that they breed lions to sustain a lucrative volunteer tourism business.

As such, we challenge Ukutula to: 1). Explain why is it necessary to necessary to breed hundreds of lions that are not required by their “research partners”? 2). Explain why do they remove cubs from their mothers at 3 – 10 days, when their mothers are perfectly able to raise them? 3) Prove that none of the lions that they have bred and sold, have been hunted or slaughtered for their bones?

‪#‎BredForTheBullet‬

It’s clear where the team at Blood Lions stands and I know who I support in this. After staying at Ukutula for two weeks and witnessing how rude and unprofessional the staff were and how low the standards of care were for the lions, I thought nothing could surprise me anymore. But well done Ukutula, screening Blood Lions really was the cherry on top!

This leads me to another big announcement! I’m so pleased to say that in November 2015 I will be travelling to European Parliament in Brussels to join a panel and discuss cub petting and canned hunting! Blood Lions will be screened and the panel is going to consist of some brilliant people, including Ian Michler himself!

I’m so excited to have this opportunity and I am going to grab it with both hands. I will be using it as an opportunity to voice my story about Ukutula, Real Gap and my campaigning ever since the trip. It’s been a busy eight months and I think this is only the start!

In addition, the Claws Out site will be undergoing a complete transformation with a new and updated site. This will be happening in the next month or so, so keep your eyes peeled!

Lastly, don’t forget to get your tickets to my Claw Out fundraiser in London or if you’re not in the country, one of my t-shirts! All funds will be donated to the Campaign Against Canned Hunting so please help!