Patrons including Amanda Holden, Kirsty Gallacher, and Jenny Seagrove took part in a Born Free protest to shine a spotlight on the restrictive living conditions facing lions, leopards and tigers in zoos across the UK and Europe.
Kirsty Gallacher in the cage in Leicester Square © PinPep / Joe Pepler
Commuters and tourists were surprised to see Born Free patrons including Amanda Holden, Kirsty Gallacher, Jenny Seagrove, Ritchi Edwards, Hector Bateman along with Born Free’s Co-Founder and Executive President, Will Travers OBE, confined to a cage in London’s Leicester Square today, as they each took part in a protest to highlight the unnaturally small housing endured by over 3,000 big cats living in zoos across the UK and Europe.
The symbolic enclosure was complete with ‘zoo-style’ signage giving basic information about the human species and ‘Did You Know?’ facts outlining the limited enclosure space which is the reality for many large felines living in a captive setting.
The protest took place on the day we launched our Clawing at the Cages appeal and report, calling on the UK government to implement key recommendations, including stopping breeding programmes, ending the import of big cats from other countries, banning visitor interactions, the introduction of mandatory enclosure size regulations, and separating the location of big cat enclosures from those of prey species.
Born Free’s Captivity Research and Policy Manager, Chris Lewis, who also spent time in the symbolic cage, said: “As a former zoo professional, being in the cage really took me back – and not in a positive way. The small space, the artificial setting, and the feeling of being on show. It reminded me of seeing people walking past, staring, day after day, knowing that the animal inside had no chance of a natural life beyond the enclosure it was confined to. This has to stop.”
Kirsty Gallacher, Born Free Patron, said, “I am honoured to be part of this campaign to draw attention to the awful exploitation of big cats in our zoos. As a passionate advocate for animal welfare, the thought of these poor animals living a life so far removed from what they should be experiencing in the wild, their natural life, is very distressing. We must phase this out, starting now.”
Dame Virginia McKenna, Co-Founder & Trustee of Born Free, said: “It is distressing to see the conditions of big cats living in captivity, where these creatures are restricted to spaces many orders of magnitude smaller than those in which they have evolved to roam. In our new report, we are challenging the global zoo industry to phase- out big cat captivity and cease breeding animals destined for a life in an enclosure We hope the public will join us.”
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