00:09We are caregivers of these animals. We don't own them. I'm merely the guy that was put in
00:17charge to give them a quality of life and to make sure that all their needs were met.
00:57Beautiful early morning here.
01:01The spring has sprung. It's best to get out and about early before it gets too hot. We've
01:09been having really really hot days. 30, 32. I'm here with Georgia and Yame in case you haven't
01:17already guessed. And just getting some exercise in before it gets too hot.
01:33Quick catch up on how they're doing. Both the boys doing exceptionally well health wise.
01:43Despite George's impediments he's coping pretty well. I actually thought that we might be seeing
01:53a few issues, more issues than we are because of his age now. You can look at again, look at
02:07the way he
02:08has to swagger those hips to compensate for the collapsed calcanus bone. As a result of his
02:21malnutrition and really horrific treatment as a cub. All of these deformities are as a result of that guys.
02:36This poor lion is a reason. Is the reason. If you're watching this video and you look at George. He
02:50is the reason why
02:55you should not be petting lion cubs anywhere in the world.
03:05People ask, yeah, but I went to this facility and the facility was ethical.
03:11You know, they're kind of greenwashing the tourists by telling them that either these cubs were abandoned or
03:22these cubs are part of a rewilding program even. I've heard these days.
03:27And I'm like, no guys, they're not. They're part of a
03:30commercial breeding program or that part of the commercial business practice of that establishment.
03:41Because they need a constant supply. Oh my boy, did you trip there? I'm so sorry.
03:49They need a constant supply of lion cubs for the public to interact with. It's as simple as that. If
03:59petting lions is part of the business model and is a constant supply of those cubs, then that is what
04:07they do.
04:08In this video, I wanted to talk about the fact that in this day and age, and I've been working
04:15with lions, with these guys, for almost 30 years. So three decades. And I just think that it's worth repeating
04:31certain
04:34stories. The story of Georgia and Yame. How did they come to this sanctuary? How did they come into my
04:42care?
04:44And I must just look at them just trying to cross here?
04:57Hard going here. Old Yame makes short work of it. But George struggles a bit because of his physical issues.
05:09Peace.
05:09Peace.
05:21Peace.
05:52Alright, so...
05:54As I said the story of George and Yame is always worth repeating and I must just emphasize
06:04that George and Yame actually are not owned by me, they are still owned by the Spanish
06:16authorities who confiscated them and I'm just their caregiver, which is great.
06:26I think, I think we are only that, we are caregivers of these animals, we don't own them.
06:35I'm merely the guy that was put in charge to give them a quality of life and to make sure
06:44that all their needs were met.
06:48How did George and Yame land up here?
06:50Well, it's a long story but I'll make it short.
06:57As the story apparently goes, these two lions were born and bred in a circus in France and
07:07somehow were sold off and smuggled to Spain where they landed up with this woman who then
07:19utilized them for photo ops at a theme park in Spain called Terimitica.
07:27I believe it's quite a well-known place but yeah, that's where they were being passed around
07:38and the tourists were being charged, I think it was between five and eight euros, ultimately
07:45the cubs were confiscated, the lady didn't have permits or permissions to do what she was
07:52doing and they were taken away and put at another facility where the search started to
08:01find George and Yame a home.
08:03Now I'm not a facility that puts up its hand and says, give me your rescues, I've explained
08:14that in many videos too as to why I think rescuing lions from all around the world is a bad
08:21idea
08:22but in this particular case I did make an exception and I was asked very nicely by Bev Perven
08:29to take on these two lion cubs.
08:33Clearly Bev, who's since passed, bless her soul, lovely woman, she clearly thought that these
08:46two would stand the best chance of having a quality of life here at my sanctuary and that's
08:53why she nagged me to take on these two lions and the answer was no.
09:00It was a clear no, it was an adamant no but Bev continued to send me videos of these little
09:07cubs especially George who had suffered tremendously at the hands of humans because to keep George
09:20and Yame small in size small in stature and to keep them passive so that they would be good
09:32lions for these photo opportunities and for as long as possible.
09:37They were fed a watered down cow's milk diet which is really not suitable for a carnivore such
09:47as a lion it really isn't and as a result George suffered the consequences tremendously when he
09:55arrived here he had multiple fractures of multiple bones he had thickening of the spine he had collapsed
10:05Achilles tendons because the calcaneus bone had broken due to the stresses of the tendon on the bone
10:12he had juvenile cataracts it's incredible what he had Yame didn't suffer as badly from the effects of malnutrition
10:24but Yame had other issues you could just see that he wasn't a lion that you know it just wasn't
10:35that
10:35normal lion behavior it was always a little bit quirky as a cub a little bit I'm going to use
10:42the word
10:43trust was lacking from from my side and you know I could probably understand the abuse that he suffered
10:51but obviously the effects maybe mentally were more severe in Yame's case than they were in George's case but
11:02yeah took a long time for Yame to become the beautiful lion that he is and I say that because
11:13he's actually
11:16one of the nicest lions I've ever had the privilege of working with he is very smart he reads you
11:27like you read him he's very expressive not to mention very handsome extremely handsome cat
11:37when the rescue of George and Yame came about so many people wanted to get involved everyone wanted
11:44to get involved everyone wanted to say I got contacted by hundreds of people telling me I must be doing
11:52this I should do that I mustn't do this I mustn't do that they donated to the flat they donated
12:01to the vet bills they
12:02you know therefore they have a say and they want photos and they want this and everyone demanded
12:10their pound of flesh and these two little guys arrived
12:16and they garnered a lot of attention so a lot of people wanted to know everything that was going on
12:26and I took a lot of heat for anything I did with them or anything I didn't do with them
12:34and it was really frustrating because I was kind of like just let me do my job
12:38um you know I've been entrusted with these guys so for a reason so let me get on with it
12:47anyway as a time ticked on and
12:58time ticked on and the novelty wore off their first birthday
13:07the first birthday came and went and their first birthday
13:17was met with a lot of congratulations and you know how they doing and the boys and everyone took a
13:26a real interest in these two boys and the second birthday came and went but it was a fraction
13:38of the wishes that they had received on their first birthday
13:42and their third birthday came and went and it had petered out to nothing and there were a handful of
13:50people who still wished George and Yama happy birthday
13:54not that it's a be all and end all to things guys I'm just trying to demonstrate a point
14:00by the time their fifth birthday
14:02came there was only one couple that really
14:07gave a hoot about George and Yama and that was
14:12uh CJ and Louis or Louis and CJ and Louis were the original rescuers of George and Yama and so
14:22I think
14:23you know they they will always uh obviously CJ not obviously but uh sadly CJ has passed on
14:32she's passed away but Louis still um texts us on his birthday or the the days leading up to his
14:41birthday
14:41and Louis still donates money to George and Yama yearly um but to be honest guys the
14:51money that it takes to give these two lines the care that they so need and deserve is far greater
15:02than
15:02the the the drops of money that get given towards their upkeep
15:11looking after these lines properly costs a lot of money uh that's a fact and
15:18it brings me to my next point of how
15:22one then goes about making a sanctuary um successful or able to stand on its own two feet
15:30where then you can rely on these donations of these philanthropic people who are really wanting to
15:37you know help and and and don't get me wrong we are extremely thankful and grateful for people out
15:45there who continually support my work and that goes a long way um into helping take care of the animals
15:55here at the sanctuary as they get older and require more care and the vet bills just go up and
16:01up
16:01this is why i say when you are just rescuing lion after lion after lion after lion and they all
16:10come with
16:11certain issues like George
16:15because i could almost guarantee it
16:19the lines that you are getting are not coming from facilities that really give a damn about them they
16:26will probably be given the bare minimum just to keep them alive um so when these lines come to south
16:34africa
16:36um and guys really i believe they shouldn't but when they do and and they still do i've heard recently
16:42of
16:43like 17 lines coming from south america and i'm like what the hell we've got eight and a half or
16:48eight
16:49thousand lions already here in captivity probably in need in need of homes very soon if the the
16:56laws to you know stop the keeping of lions and ban breeding of lions and all of these things come
17:02to fruition in south africa boy oh boy we are going to be flooded with lions that need rescuing so
17:09we
17:09really don't need to be bringing any more lions into the country um but with that comes this now added
17:17issue or this added responsibility of asking people for more money because um now we need to keep this
17:25facility running and we need to keep it at a certain standard so now we've got to go out there
17:31to the
17:31the public and say to them guys listen if you don't donate to our cause unfortunately we're not going to
17:37be able to look after these lions so i've always seen it a little bit differently and i've always seen
17:44the
17:44opportunity to utilize the relationships that i have to um to to raise money in other ways so give
17:57you an example i'm here with george and yummy and guess what i'm recording a video it is going to
18:03go
18:04on youtube and guess what people are going to watch it and guess what there there is a revenue generated
18:13from the content so the content generation really does go a long way into looking after the lions
18:20so just by you watching this video you are helping already um and that's why i keep on saying in
18:27the
18:27videos like share subscribe because it's not a joke it really is um it's a a call out to you
18:37to say
18:38you know subscribe to the videos grow the numbers of the channel that in turn helps us look after the
18:44animals the other thing that my wonderful community out there does is they want to go further so they
18:53they say kev we want to help you know we want to help more we don't want to just be
18:57a subscriber to the
18:58channel and youtube has uh the ability for you to um have a memberships a program on on the channel
19:08and so and then memberships there's another tier to memberships which is pride leaders
19:14facebook also has this ability through paid subscriptions so these are ways of people getting
19:20something for actually helping helping the cause and helping us help lions like georgie over here
19:29yes georgie are you thankful too hey yes you are and so yeah this is just a big thank you
19:38to you guys
19:38members um pride leaders and um paid subscribers on facebook massive thank you to you guys you guys really do
19:49um a wonderful job in helping me help the lions the more memberships i can you know the more memberships
19:59i can get people to subscribe to um the easier it becomes for me to look after these guys without
20:06having
20:07to rely on them to rely on the public at large just to donate to the cause
20:18we're going to be moving yummy and george to a camp called south one and the reason the reason for
20:30that
20:30is i need to free up the area there um for some maintenance
20:41so
20:42so
20:52so
