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Androcles Lion on Capital FM

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Sep 06 2009 | By: admin

This story just appeared on one of Kenya’s top radio stations

NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 3 - Renowned Kenyan conservationist, Dr Richard Leakey has inaugurated the display of the WildlifeDirect lion statue that will be creating public awareness about poisoning of lions by cattle herders using Furadan.


lion, pride of kenya, richard leakey
The lion statue, which is part of the Pride of Kenya campaign to create awareness about the status and to raise funds for conservation of Kenya’s remaining 2,100 lions will be on public display at Yaya Centre in Nairobi.

On Tuesday WildlifeDirect joined the Born Free Foundation in the official launch of the Pride of Kenya campaign at the Nairobi National Park.  Integrated in the campaign to save the last lions of Kenya is the inauguration of WildlifeDirect’s call to have all carbofurans - especially Furadan a lethal agricultural pesticide that is behind the death of 75 lions in the last 4 years - banned in Kenya.

With the life-sized lion statue christened The Androcles Lion as the centrepiece of their campaign, WildlifeDirect seeks to rally support from prominent Kenyans and the general public to have the deadly carbofuran class of pesticides banned from the Kenyan market by the Kenyan Parliament.
The Androcles Lion which is painted Fuchsia, the prominent colour on the retail packaging of the most used carbofuran in Kenya - Furadan - and with chains around it denoting bondage by these poisons, seeks to communicate the threat that carbofurans are posing to the survival of this charismatic species.

Prominent personalities such as Dr Leakey - who became the first person to endorse the campaign - UNEP Director Achim Steiner, Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai among others, have been invited to show their support for the push to have Furadan banned in Kenya by inscribing a signed message supporting the ban on the body of the lion.

The objective is to initiate public debate and support of the proposed ban so that Kenya’s Parliament finally discusses the motion and eventually pass a law that makes it illegal to import, manufacture, repackage or sell this killer pesticide and anything else in its class.

Kenya’s lion population is declining at an alarming pace and climate change, habitat destruction and conflict with humans have been the key drivers for this precipitous fall in numbers.

On August 17, the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) announced that Kenya’s lion population had been declining by an average 100 animals per year in the last seven years and now stands at a little over 2,000.

In the 1970s there were about 30,000 lions in Kenya. Given the current decline rate, lions will become extinct in Kenya in just two decades.  At the time, KWS spokesman Paul Udoto told the media that “communities are the largest threat to the lions and other cats.”

It is through conservationists blogs hosted by WildlifeDirect that the widespread use of Furadan by cattle herders for retaliatory poisoning of lions suspected of killing livestock first came to the limelight.

With increasing reports of lion and other predators as well as birds of prey and scavengers being poisoned using Furadan, WildlifeDirect convened, in 2007, a meeting to bring together affected conservationists and Furadan importation firms in order to chart a way forward in addressing this situation.

The meeting resolved that a total ban on Furadan would be the best way to eliminate herders’ access to this lethal poison and thus reduce poisoning of lions. The Stop Wildlife Poisoning campaign was thus launched.

On March 29 this year, American broadcaster, CBS, aired a documentary showing the devastating effect that Furadan was having on Kenya’s lions. Following this documentary, and the information that WildlifeDirect had provided the Member of Parliament for Naivasha, John Mututho - who took the issue to parliament - the question of banning Furadan was discussed in Parliament.

Parliamentary recommendation was that a committee be formed to craft a notice that would, if integrated into law, make it illegal to import Furadan and other carbofurans into Kenya. The Honourable Minister for Wildlife and Natural Resources, Dr Noah Wekesa, instructed that that committee be formed.

With the distinctively pink lion with a mane covered with replica Kenyan currency notes, representing the greed that is driving the sales of a poison that has already been banned in the US and Europe WildlifeDirect will continue to drum up support to the member for Naivasha and all those parliamentarians who support banning the substance.

WildlifeDirect’s quest is to end the poisoning of lions by herders using Furadan, and that is the message that the Androcles Lion will be sending as it goes on public display at Yaya Centre.

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More sneak peaks of fabulous painted lions

Category: Africa, Kenya, Lions, Poisoning wildlife, Pride of Kenya, furadan | Date: Aug 23 2009 | By: paula

As the artists gear up to complete their lions, we’ve been sneaking in to get first impressions - well, here are three amazing lions I saw today.

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Here’s Butterflion and his creator - yes you guessed correctly, its our very own Dr Dudulittle, Dino Martins our resident entomologist who writes Dudu diaries. This lion sponsored by Kenya Data Networks (KDN) is a puzzle of butterflies and other bugs that children will have to find…Dino has hidden little gems like ticks in uncomfortable places..you’ll have to come see it Butterflion to understand

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Ole Simba is a mosaic lion being put together by these two absolutely lovely ladies (talk about gigantuan patience! It’s slow hard work)

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And Mr. Bones reveals the insides of the lion, sadly the artist, an apprentice with Nani Croze of Kitengela Glass was not there but her work is pretty amazing!

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His other side is totally different

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Pretty impressive aren’t they?

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The artists working at Kitengela on the edge of Nairobi National Park are especially motivated because the parks lions are in peril. These artists are busy working away to complete the lions by the big day - September 2nd which is the launch of the Pride of Kenya. It will take place at KWS head quarters and the 50 lions will be loaded onto trucks and taken to Uhuru Park in Nairobi’s city center. The KWS band is apparently going to play! It should be great fun.

Every one is very excited, Nairobi is certainly in for a very interesting experience.

If you want to participate but are not in Nairobi you can! Just send us a message or a promise to lions and we will make sure that it will be seen. You can also tell all your friends, share the information with your networks on Face book or Myspace, twitter etc, Send us ideas of activities that we can conduct during the next two months to inspire the world to care about lions.and if you have a spare dollar, send us a donation and we’ll use it for kids activities. If you don’t have a spare dollar, why not send a letter to someone you know who will sponsor this event? If you’d like to know more about how you can help, email me on paula@wildlifedirect.org I really look forward to hearing from you

To follow the event Pride of Kenya please visit our blog “Pride of Kenya“. The event is a collaboration between The Born Free Foundation and a British organization called Wild in Art (remember Go Elephants in Norwich, or Superlambbanana in Liverpool…well Pride of Kenya is part of that series).

 There are only 2100 lions left in Kenya - help us save them, Donate now

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Remembering Joy and George Adamson

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Aug 14 2009 | By: paula

Joy Adamson

As we gear up our campaign to save our lions, I’ve found some wonderful and some sad videos that I’d like to share.

This slide show about Joy and George Adamson reveal their true spirits - lion lovers to the extreme. I recall my first ambition in life was to be George’s field assistant! I’m sure I was not alone in believing that working for him would satisfy my wildest dreams. Both Joy and George died tragic deaths. Having sacrificed their lives for lions, we owe it to them to continue the work.

George Adamson

Lions need help now more than ever, please help us to save Africa’s lions. Send us your ideas,  tell your friends, volunteer for us, or send us a donation. We really look forward to your help. Our target is to raise $22,000 in the next three months.

Help us with your ideas on how we can do this together.

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Pride of Kenya: We Have a Lion

Category: Africa, Appeals, Lions, Pride of Kenya, big cats, furadan, wildlifedirect | Date: Jul 28 2009 | By: Maina

We are bringing the Pride of Kenya to life!

pride lion
The making of the Pride: lion statues at Kuona Trust, Nairobi

We have partnered with the Born Free Foundation in Kenya to raise funds for lion conservation. Our campaign will focus on ending lion poisoning using Furadan. The centrepiece for this campaign will be a life-sized lion statue made of fibre glass. But it is much more exciting than that!

There shall be fifty such lions in different locations in Kenya forming the campaign which has been named the Pride of Kenya. Each a plain canvas for artists to create their masterpieces on. Our lion will be at our office in Nairobi, Kenya, where it will be in display before and after it gets its beautiful artwork.

Then, in November, all the lions will come out of their dens and prowl the streets of Nairobi followed by an auction in which each lion will be sold to the highest bidder. Proceeds from the sale of each statue will go directly to lion conservation work. The Pride of Kenya will be all in the same place at the same time. I can’t wait for that! But, first things first: we need to make our lion the best looking lion of them all. We need artwork.

This is where you come in. We need ideas for the art we shall create on this ‘canvas’.  I know you have lots of ideas. Send them to us. We are thinking that it would be great if we could send a global message about lion conservation with our lion. You can be as creative as you want. You can even suggest modification of the lion – as long as it still looks like a lion. But we cannot put advertising. No logos.

You can start sending your suggestions now. We have to ‘pimp’ our lion by the end of August.

A few lines about lions

The lion is the fabled kings of the jungle. But lions are losing their kingdom. Lions are virtually extinct outside of Africa except for the 80 or so ‘Gir’ lions that remain in India. Kenya has lost 90% of its lion population most of which has been lost in the last 20 years. There are now only 2100 lions left in Kenya.

Recently, Kenya lost an estimated 75 lions to poisoning – mostly by Furadan. The Kenya wildlife Service estimates that more than 200 lions have been killed in this recent period due to intolerance followed by killings through poisoning and spearing. Lion habitat is also shrinking. Human-lion conflict is also quite high due to human invasion into lion territory.

The Maasai community are best known for their warrior skills. They are also famous for co-existing with wildlife for millennia. They however have never tolerated lions mostly because - I believe - the lions prey on their cattle. To become a moran (warrior) the young Maasai man has been required to kill a lion. A group of progressive morans have refused to kill lions and have become Lion Guardians. This is one of the groups we support and they are now preaching the message of tolerance and value of lions. We also have the Stop Wildlife Poisoning Campaign against Furadan and other poisons.

Pride of Lions
Some lions of the Tara Pride monitored by Lion Guardians

Lions are the most valuable species for Kenya’s tourism – the number one foreign income generator for the country. Kenya cannot afford to lose the lion.

Who’s involved?

Kenya was home to Elsa - the star of the Born Free movie series written by Joy Adamson and acted by Virginia McKenna. Virginia’s son Will runs the Born Free Foundation. It’s their 25th year anniversary in November hence the timing of this event. Virginia will come to Kenya for the auction.

The Kenyan business community is quite excited about the idea and some have taken up their own fibre glass lions. With your help, ours will still be the best.

Get involved

You want to get involved? You can send us a design suggestion for the artwork that will be interpreted by a Nairobi-based artist on the lion ‘canvas’. But we also need to raise funds. So you can donate here (look out for the Pride of Kenya donation item). We need to raise at least US$25,000 for this particular lion. If you suggest a design, you can support it with your donation of any amount. The higher the donation the better the lion will like you.

Here is more excitement: We need to name our lion. Do you have a name for him? Suggest a name and support your name suggestion with a donation. Who says you can’t have fun while saving lions?

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