Animal Defenders International & The Wild Animal Sanctuary

In February 2015, Rouster highlighted the further antics of the animal-rights business Animal Defenders International (ADI) fronted by Jan Creamer and her partner Tim Phillips. In a blog entitled Lions Are for Life, Not Just the Fundraising, we revealed that ADI had employed the services of the animal-rights friendly Daily Mirror to promote its latest £200,000 fundraising campaign. This new campaign was to relocate lions (and other animals) that had been seized with the collusion of the Peruvian government from ostensibly circuses for relocation to The Wild Animal Sanctuary in the United States.

The blog also highlighted Animal Defenders International's deteriorating relationship with the Longleat Safari Park in regards to its assistance in the rehoming of the former circus elephant Anne.

In a not unfamiliar scenario, it now appears that - as with Longleat Safari Park - the relationship between The Wild Animal Sanctuary (TWAS) and ADI has also broken down, acrimoniously. Reproduced below is a statement from the founder of TWAS, Pat Craig, giving his side of this story regarding the collapse in the relationship of his rescue centre with Animal Defenders International.

 Pat Craig Speaks Out About His Personal Opinions Related ToThe Peru Lion Rescue, And How ADI Opened The Door For The Truth To Come Out


In a very positive turn of events, Animal Defenders International (ADI) has chosen to publicize their side of the story behind their sole choice to cancel the Peru Lion Rescue as it related to sending Circus Lions and Tigers to The Wild Animal Sanctuary (TWAS) located in Colorado.

 However, rather than give a concise response to items they may have been concerned about, I personally believe ADI chose to spin a tale. It turned out to be a whopper to, one that was so long and protracted that it resembled a fictional novel far-more than it did an accurate response.

It was quite the post, as I read each of the “chapters” they chose to address. Although they can put on a good front, Jan Creamer (ADI President) and Tim Phillips (ADI Vice President) are simply a married couple that co-run an organization they call ADI. They decided they wanted to write a post to address some of the issues that contributed to their personal decision to pull the plug in the Peru Lions coming to Colorado, and I wanted to share my inside knowledge and opinions with those people that want to hear my opinion of the situation.

 In my 35 years of saving animals, I have always put the animals’ welfare ahead of my own, and never let personal aspirations get in the way of doing what was right, or the best choice for those I have saved. This personal choice is what has led to my success and that of the organizations that I have been a part of over the years.

However, during those 35 years, I can attest to the countless examples of other people who are involved in similar animal rescue operations that consistently put their personal aspirations and agendas ahead of the animals. These examples have always baffled me, as I can’t understand how people can short animals in the slightest when they have to trust these people to do the right thing on their behalf.

I can honestly say that I am 100% convinced the entire issue with Jan, Tim and ADI has revolved around their obsession with making movies rather than simply depicting the events in a more traditional way that could still be used to educate people and satiate government entities. Their choice to not bring the Lions to TWAS is absolutely based on their becoming painfully aware that I had no interest whatsoever in making a movie, and only wanted to finish the rescue of the Lions.

And even though I finally conceded that they could send their high-end camera and photographer, as well as a witness, they felt their movie would be ruined if it had to have a sanctuary watermark included. All of the following explanations of how ADI and TWAS came to work together are being stated to let those who would like to know the truth see how these statements clearly depict how Jan, TIM and ADI have made a 180 degree change in ethical behavior since we first met.

When I was first contacted by ADI, it was through a mass email that Jan sent to most of the sanctuaries in the United States that took in large felids. They stated they were in Bolivia and seizing circus animals that were now considered illegal due to a law they helped pass nearly a year earlier.

They were inquiring as to each sanctuary’s ability to take in lions, due to the fact they had rounded up 25 lions from 8 different circuses, and were now in need of placing them in sanctuaries for the rest of their lives. The gist of the email seemed to be they assumed no one sanctuary could take all 25, so they wanted to know how many each sanctuary could take – so they could then start planning how to get them divided up and sent to each facility.

I’m sure the other sanctuaries included on their mass email responded to the unknown British group with whatever they felt they could do... but I responded that TWAS would be able to take all 25. Being that TWAS was set up as a facility with large acreage habitats, it would be fairly simple to take in the 8 groups of lions and assimilate them into 4 prides that could live out their lives roaming freely.

TWAS had 80 acres of land that it could dedicate to the project, and building the habitats would be fairly quick and easy to do. However, they didn’t say that they only had 6 weeks to accomplish this, and that it had to happen during mid-winter and over the Christmas/New Year holidays until they were in Colorado visiting the TWAS facility.

At that time they said ADI had already sent 4 lions from Bolivia to PAWS, as sanctuary in California as a “test” to see how the whole process of placing animals in sanctuaries would go. They said it was incredibly expensive and difficult to do – as their deal with PAWS included paying for a special compound for the lions to be built, paying for a full-time keeper, and paying for the food on an ongoing basis – so they were now thinking it was going to cost a fortune if they had to repeat that scenario with each sanctuary that took in a few lions.

So when they spoke with me, they said they were not only thrilled the lions could live in vast open spaces and remain in their family groupings... but they were just as thrilled they could fly all of the lions to one location and not have to pay out the nose to multiple organizations. They stated they were more than willing to cover our expenses for the build-out and replicate their deal with PAWS, but I said we would share some of the expenses for habitats, but there requirement to bring the lions from Bolivia right in the deepest part of winter would necessitate the building of a large heated building.

That would be an expense too great for the sanctuary to carry, so they would have to either bring the lions in the spring, or have to cover the costs for the building. They said they had no choice, as the Bolivian Government was demanding they get the lions out of Bolivia by the end of January 2011, and that we would have to build a heated building as part of the deal.

My biggest concern at this point was how the transition from the work they were doing (rounding up the animals in Bolivia), to the work we would do after the Lions arrived, was going to be structured. I explained to both Tim & Jan that TWAS normally does all of the rescues itself, and never splits the work into two segments. Having them deliver the Lions to Colorado, and then TWAS take over their lifetime care would require strict conditions. The ownership and control of the lions would need to change hands at a specific point in the process, so that one organization would not have to argue with the other over how to handle or care for the Lions.

Jan & Tim agreed it was important to have a clean break in the ownership and control of the Lions and that it would happen at DIA when the Lions were offloaded from the Jet. That way, as TWAS began loading the Lions onto their transport trucks and trailers, ADI would no longer have a say or part in their care. Without this important break, all sorts of conflicts could ensue, and both organizations agreed that was the best point in the rescue to do the official handover.

Going forward, I sent ADI a proposed budget based on what little we know about the project, as we had only spent a few hours one day discussing the idea, and I had to research all of the available options. The idea was to build a tent-like dome building that would allow the sunlight to penetrate the building’s cover – as that would allow grass and trees to exist inside the building and help the Bolivian lions enjoy their new home – even though it would be the middle of winter.

TWAS was given a projected timeframe of six short weeks to get the building ordered, delivered, constructed and fully outfitted for 25 lions, which would take a miracle any time of the year – but more so during the depths of winter and over two major holidays. The crew at the Sanctuary worked nearly 18 hours a day for all six weeks over the holidays and during weeks of sub-zero temperatures.

The companies involved, like Clearspan Buildings, went way out of their way to get a building package delivered to the Sanctuary, so the team there could erect it and outfit the inside for the lions pending arrival. As the costs for expedited deliveries, upgraded products and added contract labor began piling up, it became very evident that ADI would not be able to fulfill their commitment to cover the expenses and TWAS would end up covering far more of the costs to build the facility than ADI – even with their big-ticket donor, Bob Barker, backing them.

In the end, TWAS had to invest over 1.5 million into a project that I had been told was going to be an ADI funded project. However, as always, I wasn’t about to walk away from the rescue due to failed promises.

From the first time I met Tim & Jan, it was obvious they were straight forward people that had the focus needed to pull their side of the rescue off, so I wasn’t concerned. I felt they were fully committed to the animals and had no alternate agenda. Yet, it wasn’t long before Tim informed me that he used to make documentaries in his former career, and that he had decided to purchase a special video camera to use in Bolivia to film their work rounding up the lions. However, this wasn’t going to be any good professional grade video camera, it was a “RED” camera.

He went on to tell me a Red camera was a new super high-end video camera that cost around $100,000 to purchase and that ADI was also hiring a full-time videographer to run it. Tim was quite proud of this announcement and that ADI was getting the best of the best no matter what the cost. I was obviously very surprised by the enormous amount of money being spent on video equipment and staff, and asked why they needed to have it.

Tim explained he wanted to make a real movie and they needed to get this up front so everything he and Jan did would be captured on movie-grade equipment. That sounded all good, except I found it to be pretty insane given they couldn’t afford the costs of the rescue in Bolivia, and were struggling with their promise to fund parts of the special winter items in Colorado.

Obviously, Jan & Tim were making their own personal choice to make a super high-end cinamagraphic movie, versus using more reasonable professional grade equipment such as National Geographic and Animal Planet film producers’ use – which cost a fraction of the price. They speak of how important it is to document the rescues and capture proof of the new life provided to the rescued lions, but we all know that could easily be accomplished with many of the professional digital cameras, and even the higher-end personal use video cameras.

Organizations such as Born free, IFAW, WSPA and others find it to be very easy and affordable to make their own documenting videos for a fraction of the cost, and end up with the same result. Their videos, as well as the ones TWAS is featured in (which are free and filmed at no cost to TWAS) do just as much to emphasize these issues and work being done by our good organizations – so the concept of spending a small fortune to make Lion Ark is beyond comprehension.

This is the main reason I started to see a huge change in Jan, Tim and ADI. They went from wanting to document their work like everyone else in the industry does... to becoming obsessed with becoming famous stars in their own full-length movie. Right away I began to see how they were staging lots of rescue shots with Jan and Tim as the star characters. Instead of filming everything that goes on inside of a rescue, I began to see nothing but shots of Tim and Jan doing everything from hand feeding lions (and nearly losing a hand)... to Jan raking gravel in a very obvious staged shot.

By the time ADI was delivering the Lions from Bolivia to Denver International Airport (DIA), Jan & Tim had been engrossed in filming for some time. They organized a huge Press conference to be staged at DIA so that Bob Barker and Jorja Fox could attend and speak on behalf of ADI. I wasn’t a fan of press conferences, especially during the rescue, as TWAS has always waited until the animals were settled in before letting the media come out – and even then we usually opt not to have them at all.

Yet, since DIA and the City of Denver, as well as United Airlines had done so much to make the landing and unloading in Denver go smoothly, it was in their best interest to stage the international press conference there inside of United’s hangar. The conference was a major production with Jan & Tim demanding some of the lions be staged right in front of the press core. The special privacy blinders were removed so the press could take flash photos of the lions while Tim, Jan and the celebrities talked to the press and took pictures standing next to the lions.

I was asked to speak at the very end and it amounted to a couple sentences saying how we were glad that ADI had chosen the Sanctuary since the Lions would have more freedom to roam and live together than if they had gone elsewhere. At that point, the Lion transfer took place with all of the official paperwork and records being transferred to TWAS. There was no obligation for TWAS to have the ADI entourage of people come to the Sanctuary, but they chose to follow the press, film with their fancy red camera, and watch the unloading.

It’s understandable that anyone involved in the rescue would want to see the lions arriving in Colorado, but a fair amount of that desire was fulfilled at DIA. The joy and exhilaration of the lions being unloaded was felt by all, and so the unloading inside the Lion House was just one more step in that process, but by no means a critical factor in relation to the end result of them becoming fully rehabilitated and released into large acreage habitats.

ADI spent the next day or two focused on filming their movie, while TWAS staff began the task of assessing and caring for the Lions. ADI had sent copious amounts of documentation about the Lions in the weeks leading up to their arrival, so the TWAS team was fully prepared to care for them from that point on. With ADI’s recent claims of how important the hand off is, as it relates to the medical records, animal care logs and other information... it is just another ploy being stated in order to fool the public into feeling as if it is critical for ADI to follow the Lions to the Sanctuary.

The entire Bolivian ownership and hand-off procedure happens at DIA and the only reason Tim & Jan want to come to the Sanctuary for the Peru Lions is so they can finish filming another movie. The Peru rescue is vastly different than the Bolivian rescue, as the Lions would be arriving in summer, which would preclude the need for a special Lion House.

In this case, there would be no special film to record of the Lions jumping and playing on the green grass inside of the Lion House – instead they would be placed inside introduction enclosures outdoors – where they would remain for weeks while the Sanctuary finished additional medical procedures and fully evaluated the Lions one by one.

The big misconception that is being spun by ADI to the public is that somehow ADI needs to be part of the second half of this rescue. Nothing could be further from the truth, as TWAS has been carrying-out full rescues – meaning both sides of complex rescues – for over 35 years, and is entirely capable of not only receiving the Lions at DIA and providing world-class care from that point on... AND also could have done the entire rescue operation in Peru if it had been needed.

ADI would love to convince the public that they needed to see the “safe” placement of the animals – which infers they couldn’t trust TWAS at all – even though TWAS has given the Bolivian Lions excellent care from the moment they left DIA over 4 years ago. And they needed to “witness” their placement at the TWAS facility, and hand over critical records and documentation. All of this is simply untrue and being said to fool those who do not have more in-depth knowledge of what goes on in these kinds of rescues.

Yet those that have seen ADI’s grand movie “Lion Ark” have seen first-hand that TWAS staff took control of the Bolivian Lions when they arrived at DIA in February of 2011, and that from that point on, TWAS provided exceptional medical care and provided world-class accommodations. However, those people that never saw their film would be easily mislead and would believe Jan & Tim when they say things like that.

Jan & Tim know full well that TWAS is the best solution for the Lions, as that is the reason they chose TWAS in 2010, and again in 2014. They actually could have completed this rescue without issue and most-likely been able to arrive without restrictions if they hadn’t become greedy as the Peru round-ups began. I say this based on statements they made to me back in 2011 after the Bolivian Lions had been safely placed at TWAS.

Both Tim & Jan confided in me by saying that they were very surprised at how quickly the public’s attention had changed toward TWAS once the Lions arrived at the Sanctuary. They said they had seen a huge drop in public interest in what ADI was doing, and in donations as well – as the public had realized TWAS was now in need of support to care for 25 Lions for many years to come. They were definitely upset and felt they had misjudged the public’s reaction.

So when the Peru Lions began being rounded up and placed in cages at ADI’s compound mid-2014 in Lima, Peru, Jan & Tim made a conscious decision to keep TWAS’s name out of every news story and press release made. I originally didn’t think much of it, but after 4 or 5 months of white-washing the Sanctuary from news reports by saying statements like “going to a sanctuary in the United States”, or “Going to a Sanctuary in Colorado”, I finally asked Tim why they were doing it. He told me the Peru Government was forcing them to not name a Sanctuary because they (the Peru Government) wanted to be the ones that chose which sanctuary the Lions would go to.

By the end of 2014, there was still little-to-no mention of TWAS and it was now obvious that Tim and Jan were excluding TWAS in order to bolster their own fundraising. ADI was now 6 months into a major publicity campaign and were regularly appearing on news shows in Latin America and other places, and were still avoiding naming TWAS. I fully understood why they were doing it and actually felt it was somewhat understandable given their insecurity with fundraising.

By January 2015, Jan finally contacted me to have me sign a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU). However, rather than being a lengthy document like the Bolivian Lion MOU, it was a single paragraph or so that basically stated TWAS and ADI would mutually promote each other in the media. Yes, that’s what it said, even though ADI had just spent 6 months of doing the complete opposite!

    I found it to be more humorous than serious, and I wasn’t sure why Jan felt it was necessary since they had not do so to date. I had to assume it meant they were going to finally start mentioning TWAS in the news stories they were generating... but alas, they kept on obscuring the Sanctuary’s part in the rescue.

Somehow in Jan & Tim’s minds, they felt ADI was doing the entire rescue, and that placing the animals at TWAS no not part of what they considered to be included in the definition of “rescue”. In their mind, they saw their work as being the complete rescue – from rounding up the animals and keeping them in a compound full of cages for over a year, and then delivering them to a sanctuary as the “rescue”, and what TWAS or any other sanctuary did was simply supply the animals with a place to live. At that point the animals were no longer rescues and simply tenants.

However, since ADI had morphed from a 100% advocacy organization that did absolutely nothing more than going from country to country trying to convince governments to pass laws that would liberate animals (and then let others take the responsibility of caring for those animals for the rest of their lives) into an organization that suddenly decided to get into the Sanctuary ownership business... they may have changed their minds. Otherwise, the animals they placed at their Amazon Sanctuary for monkeys would no longer be rescues either.

In any case, as the date for the originally-scheduled airlift approached (late March) I created a web site under the URL of PeruLions.org. The site was to help promote the upcoming airlift and the need for donations to help TWAS finish building habitats. With over 100 acres of land ($350,000) dedicated to the Peru Lions, and more than 10 miles of fencing, lockouts and other amenities ($250,000) the Sanctuary needed to help offset some of the mounting costs. This was actually more related to the fact TWAS had another major rescue in the works involving 16 Lions and Bears in Spain, and that both rescues had now been scheduled by ADI and another entity similar to ADI in Spain, to happen at the same time.

By that time, it had been nearly 8 months of ADI’s white-wash campaign going, so I listed the Peru Lions as being rounded up by a British Animal Welfare Organization. It wasn’t long before Jan threw a fit and wanted to know why we didn’t use ADI’s name. Of course she knew why, but wanted me to explain it to her. When pressed, both Jan and Tim denied having any knowledge of the white-wash campaign – rather than just admitting it was a good strategy for their non-profit.

I even stated in an email to them that I totally understood the tactic and why they had done it... but they refused to come clean and just admit it. By this time, TWAS had released an official press release on the Peru rescue with all of ADI’s information included (since we didn’t want to exclude them from any international press as requested in the MOU).

The Peru Lion web site was not a press release or media outlet, so it basically outlined the number of lions coming, where they were going, the proposed date, and had pictures and profiles of the lions. It also had TWAS’s official Press release posted on it as well. Jan had sent TWAS the pictures and profiles of the Lions, and so they were posted on the site with most of the nonessential information removed.

However, Jan had included some information about the abuse they witnessed at a zoo where one of the lions came from, and that information was eventually seen by the zoo management – so they were mad and embarrassed, and confronted ADI for stating the accusations, as well as not to their face. Apparently, ADI had seen the abuse and documented it, but hadn’t said anything to the zoo so they would release the Lion to them. Had Jan stated the information was not public knowledge TWAS would have been happy to not include it in the post.

Jan contacted me to say the release of disparaging information about the entities they were getting their Lions from was going to cause a rift for them with the Peru Government... but I found it very odd that Jan was so upset with the abuse being stated in a public post, while ADI’s own web site had numerous examples of distinct wording that disparaged many of the entities in Peru. In fact, their web site is full of that kind of language about all of their rescues, so why would any government expect anything but that kind of information becoming public.

This was about the same time Cholita the Bear appeared on the horizon and ADI started to ramp up their social media and press coverage of her. They told me they were sending her to TWAS and so we posted her information on the Peru web site as well. However, it wasn’t long before Tim & Jan contacted me to demand TWAS remove all pictures and video on the site due to copyright infringement.

Of course, just like the Bolivian Lion rescue, ADI had been recording all of their side of the rescue, and not sending anything to TWAS to use in promoting the rescue. The only way TWAS was able to get the pictures and video were through internet stories that ADI released to news media and other outlets. Since they were in the public domain I used them to minimally tell the story of the Peru Lions and Cholita, but again, Jan & Tim demanded they be removed.

It was obvious that Cholita became a major eye-opener for both Tim & Jan, as they quickly discovered that a story about a bald bear with all of her fingers cut off and no hair is a huge money-maker. Cholita was a virtual cash cow for them and so their social media feeds became clogged with Cholita-this and Cholita-that. The posts that were once tame and straight forward became all about evoking support for this poor little Paddington Bear.

Stories emerged about how much cash was flowing into ADI bank accounts in very short periods of time, and so my suspicions of their milking her to no end were validated. Suddenly, the announcement came that Cholita was too sick to make the trip to Colorado. I had guessed that outcome was inevitable... but had just finished spending a fair amount of money building her a special habitat just in case I might be wrong.

That was really the final straw for me personally. I was now looking at working with an organization that had numerous objectives that were highly-questionable, if not outright 100% self-serving, such as: (1) their fanatical focus on making a feature film about what super-stars Jan & Tim are, versus focusing on the circuses, as well as the Peru government’s admirable work to help the animals in that country, and (2) wanting to keep Cholita in Peru since she was a great revenue generator and they could milk her story for years to come, and (3) they kept the Lions in Peru when they could have shipped them back in April – then shipped the Bear and/or Tiger in a later shipment – so the Lions who many had been in cages for nearly a year could have been free by now (but didn’t because it would screw up their movie script that depicts them leaving the country with all of the liberated animals on one “Spirit of Freedom” flight).

By this time it was obvious that Jan & Tim were completely different people than the ones I met back in 2010. They were now spending hundreds of thousands (more likely millions) of donor dollars to make Hollywood movies and hold parties in the Hollywood hills at the homes of famous actors or directors... They had stopped all monetary support to TWAS for the Bolivian Lions – and were denying they had sent a secret email to me saying they could no longer afford to pay TWAS – but could somehow afford to produce Lion Ark... they were also claiming that Cholita was too sick to travel when many of the Lions were very old, blind and in poor health too – but could somehow make it to CO – and Cholita could not... they were now willing to call off tasking the lions to the best option in existence because they would have to place a watermark in scenes shot at the Sanctuary (which would ruin Tim’s feature Film... and they were not willing to compromise one bit for the sake of the Lions when TWAS had compromised multiple times during the discussions (that they claim never existed).

I had no desire whatsoever to have a relationship with Tim or Jan any more, just as I would if any other animal welfare group started doing these same things instead of focusing purely on the animals. Many uniformed public comments thought I or TWAS had not worked to reach a compromise, which is the furthest thing from the truth. I had given Jan and Tim many options that would allow them to both come with the animals to TWAS and film, but they didn’t like any of them.

They chose to deceive the public by saying TWAS wanted to own their pictures, video and even feature film Lion Ark which was a complete lie. I never said we wanted to own anything of theirs. I gave them multiple options early on – one of which was to just share all of their pictures and video from Peru and we would do the same from Colorado – yet since we didn’t have a “red” camera, Tim wasn’t about to settle for pictures or video we might take with our high-quality cameras.

If they had just agreed to share and share-alike... they would have proven to me they were not fixated on their Movie more than they were in doing what was best for the animals. Nothing from their side would be lost or owned by TWAS, as the original offerings just said the fixation on their part in excluding the Sanctuary from anything and everything needed to stop if they wanted to retain our established relationship. If they didn’t want to do that and keep the relationship, then it was obvious we should just part ways at DIA.

In the end, we offered them the ability to film their expensive Movie, have someone come see the Lions were in good shape and even have other chances to come back and film more and witness more in person, but they absolutely couldn’t fathom accepting those concessions if there was going to be a TWAS watermark included anywhere in their movie.

The funny thing was, allowing TWAS to have the watermark wasn’t put in the deal to gain notoriety or raise much-needed funds for TWAS, it was to protect the Sanctuary from fraud. ADI had spent the last 4 years stating on their web site that the habitats and sanctuary were ADI habitats and ADI’s Sanctuary – as well as adopting the Bolivian Lions to help support their ongoing care – when ADI was not paying for their care anymore.

No, at this point I personally felt it was far better to want to end the relationship and just help give the Lions an awesome home without having to be dragged into ADI’s need for fame and fortune. With the filming being allowed, all the governments would be able to see the Lions made it and had a good home... and ADI could show that same footage to the legions of people that helped care for the Lions in Peru – including the Americans that paid lots of money for the privilege to come “help” care for the Lions at the ADI compound in Peru (which basically pimping-out the Lions for money).

Ethics had long been thrown out the window of the ADI bus and they were now heading back to Hollywood to make another incredibly expensive movie. Yet the public was being fed a load of crap via a ”joint statement” that I never wanted in the first place – but after ADI started to sick their lawyer on TWAS, there was no choice but to let the lawyers do what they do – and of course, they came up with another white-wash BS statement rather than telling the truth.

The truth hurts, but I have always been open and honest with our supporters, so the official statement was pure crap as far as I was concerned. It didn’t matter how many people might be mad at me or TWAS if they knew the truth and didn’t like it – but it did matter when ADI and the lawyers expected us to cover up the truth so no supporters could judge for themselves. They felt they knew what was best for you the supporter and felt you couldn’t handle the truth.

I could go on and on about the BS statements Jan and Tim have dreamed up, but it’s actually pointless to try to cover them all, as they will surely dream up more to confuse you and lead you to believe they have something other than money and fame in mind. I hope the Peruvian Government understands how bad they’ve been jerked around due to Jan and Tim’s ulterior motives, as the Lions could have already been delivered to TWAS by now enjoying a wonderful life.

I realize my personal opinions about Jan, Tim and ADI seem extremely harsh, but it sickens me to think of the animals that have or will suffer due to poor choices driven by fame and fortune... They have chosen to send out “PRIVILEGED & CONFIDENTIAL FW: Animal Rescue” emails to their supporters that continue to lie to people and bash TWAS. Many of their supporters are sending these emails to me on a personal basis because they can sense Jan & Tim have gone off the deep end.

All everyone wants is to see the Lions, Tiger, Cholita and others obtain a wonderful home. Whether that is/was meant to be with TWAS will never be known because the silly infighting screwed the deal. Yet, as bad as the pushing and shoving got, it was more important to let the public know about the childish behavior and greed that existed than to let Jan & Tim choose to deceive you.

I have to wonder how the new sanctuary destinations will deal with them once they've had a chance to see how the Movie dominates their every thought... It’s my opinion of what transpired and I’m entitled to let you know how I felt.

Astley's Legacy was formed to counter the misinformation and propaganda spread by animal rights activists. As well as fighting the corner for circus animals and their trainers, we are here to promote and celebrate the cultural heritage of circus in general, and especially in the country of its birth - Great Britain. For more information please see our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/223570581049199
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