Two Months Gone, Two Lives Damaged Forever
It’s coming up on two months since Megan van Der Zwan was fatally mauled by a lion under the care of famed “Lion Whisperer” Kevin Richardson. Though the devastating occurrence was widely reported at the time that it happened (February 27, 2018) it quickly fell off the radar of the general public. Interest was briefly renewed when Richardson made a single, carefully worded, and legally-minded statement to the media, which laid the blame for the mauling solely on the bloodied brow of the dead young woman.
Richardson’s statement, and nuanced assertion that the mauling was caused by the young women who were attacked, stirred a knee-jerk reaction from the public worldwide, a collective shoulder-shrugging dismissal of the entire thing. The families of both the deceased van der Zwan, and her unnamed friend were subsequently forced to watch as literally thousands of comments informed them that their family members “deserved” to be attacked by a lion because they were “outside their vehicles” as per the “Lion Whisperer’s” own account of the situation.
But that carefully worded statement was designed for the explicit purpose of creating just this reaction and mindset within a public which has long adored and hero-worshipped Kevin Richardson. While it contained no actual lie, it also intentionally misled the entire world to think that van Der Zwan and her friend had stopped their vehicle within the expanses of a Big Five game reserve and gotten out of that vehicle, thus placing themselves in danger.
The truth is a very different scenario.
While the full details are still unknown–as there is still an ongoing investigation of Richardson’s facilities and practices being carried out by officials–we do know the basic facts of the case. They are as follows:
Van der Zwan and her friend came to Richardson’s sanctuary for some sort of school project. They interviewed the manager of the bush camp.
Richardson knew the young women were there, and had spoken to them that morning.
Richardson had already taken one set of lions off the grounds of his sanctuary, located on the Welgedacht reserve, at the edge of the Dinokeng Game Reserve, hauling them by truck out onto the DGR (and into the territory of established wild lions) so he could “walk” with them. This is the type of interaction that has made Richardson a household name.
While the two young women were still at the sanctuary, Richardson decided to take out a second set of lions, trucking them onto the DGR, and releasing them to roam freely.
The young women were inside the fenced and gated bush camp–which regularly hosts tourists for visits and overnight stays, and is considered safe to walk around in, due to the fences and gates–but apparently for reasons unknown the gate to the bush camp was standing open.
After concluding their interview with the camp’s manager, the young women exited the offices, and walked toward their vehicle where it was parked, pausing en route so they could take photos of the area.
While taking photos, the two women were ambushed from behind by a lioness who had apparently entered the camp through the open gate. Megan van der Zwan suffered the full attention of the lioness, and was fatally mauled as her friend watched on in horror.
And so the cover up began.
Though authorities were immediately called, and aid was rendered, van der Zwan succumbed to her grievous injuries onsite. Right from the very off, however, Richardson fans mounted a steadfast defense of Richardson’s actions. Even with Watchdog linking directly to realtime articles as they were published, Richardson fans adamantly insisted that the lion who committed the fatal mauling was a wild animal. Despite that Richardson himself had admitted during one of his own videos posted shortly before the incident that he felt as though his lions, if faced with a stranger, might well attack that stranger, fans insisted that it couldn’t have been one of Richardson’s lions. Even after it was repeatedly confirmed that the lion was, in fact, one of Richardson’s animals, fans insisted that the young women had to have done something wrong, had to have broken the rules and put themselves in danger. When Richardson himself, issued the only statement about the incident he’s made to date, stating that the lioness had chased a gazelle for a full mile and a half, where she “encountered the young woman outside her vehicle” fans of the “Lion Whisperer” took it as validation that the dead young woman had caused her own demised by exiting her vehicle when she should not have.
Watchdog was not so easily duped by the self-serving account of Richardson, who has managed to build an entire career out of exploiting lions in the name of conserving them. Writers like Artemis Grey, who have long questioned the ethics of intentionally interacting with big cats, as Richardson does, were also not swayed by the misleading statements made by Richardson and his supporters. Two months later, we remain both unswayed, and unimpressed by the way Richardson has “gone to ground”, refusing to address the suffering endured by the families of both the young women whose lives were sundered and irrevocably changed by his own actions. While Richardson has completely withdrawn, he’s allowed those who manage his social media sites to issue statements repeatedly which attempt to garner sympathy for the “Lion Whisperer” during this “trying time”.
While van der Zwan’s family laid their daughter to rest, Richardson’s Facebook posted saying that the past week had “been a traumatic time for everyone.” And that they wanted to assure that “Obviously being out in the open in any Reserve carries personal risk”.
When Watchdog continued to post notes, etc. reminding readers that the young women were not, in fact “out in the open” on any Reserve at all, the manager of Richardson’s social media pages took to various groups slandering us, and accusing us of having ulterior motives and personal vendettas against Richardson. Artemis Grey confided in us that she, too, had been notified by multiple people, that Richardson’s page manager was trash-talking her.
Shortly thereafter, Richardson’s pages began posting references to “successful” release projects such as that of several spotted hyenas. The definition of “successful” remains up for debate, as it has not been confirmed by uninvolved parties that the hyenas are functioning without outside help.
As the investigations into Richardson’s sanctuary, and his own actions remain ongoing, his page manager continues to grasp at straws, even contriving absurd, and anthropomorphized conversations between Richardson and his animals. The inane one-liners aside, these falsely humanizing portrayals of captive wild animals are the perfect representation of all that’s wrong with the public’s perception of wild animals in general. Wild animals–captive, or not–are every bit as worthy of life, and rights, as humans.
But they are not human.
To construe wild animals as thinking in human terms, acting in human terms, or emoting in human fashion is how Megan van der Zwan got fatally mauled in the first place.
Kevin Richardson became famous the world over, not for his work in the active conservation of wild-roaming lions, but for “becoming one of the pride” and directly interacting with his privately owned captive lions. Never mind that those lions aren’t actually a “pride” at all, but rather living in several small groups of two and three animals. The point is, Richardson’s perceived ability to interact with his lions as if he were a lion, and they were human, is what’s made him who he is. Not respect for lions as they are in the wild, but rather, lions as they are with Richardson riding them around like ponies, lounging on them as if they were living pillows, and playing with them as if they were oversized domestic house cats.
The idealized fantasy of a lion, is what Richardson has built his mythos around, the reality of a lion, is what happened to Megan van der Zwan.
Two months out from Megan’s death, it’s unclear just what Richardson’s future holds for him, and his “bigger than life” persona as the “Lion Whisperer” but the future for Megan’s family, and that of her unnamed friend and her family, is much more obvious. Their’s is a future of struggle.
A struggle to adjust to life without the presence of someone who should still be with them.
A struggle to redeem the name of their dead and traumatized loved ones, from that of a “foolish tourists” to that of “innocent victims”.
A struggle to understand why the man responsible for the death and traumatization of those loved ones, is still being celebrated for the actions which resulted in their deaths and trauma.
