Should Christian the Lion be BANNED?

I received this letter today... The orginal letter is in italics, my response is in bold.

No offense... but I stumbled across your webpage at http://www.kimbawlion.com/christian.htm and I can only say one thing. Not only are you wrong... but dangerously so.

Speaking as one who has spent a great deal of time with lions, helped rehabilitate a Siberian tiger, and studied a great deal of the literature written by responsible individuals, I know I am not wrong.

Ever see the documentary "Grizzly Man" about Timothy Treadwell? Timothy thought he was "bridging the gap" between man and the grizzly bears. He was killed by one. An individual they interviewed in the documentary, Dr Sven Haakanson Jr. who is curator of the Native Alutiiq museum (and a natice himself said the following: "If you look at it from my culture, Timothy Treadwell crossed a boundary that we have lived with for 7,000 years. It's an unspoken boundary, an unknown boundary. But when we know we've crossed it, we pay the price."

I have seen that movie. It is one of the most disgusting examples of dishonest filmmaking I can think of. The movie exists for one reason only: to portray Timothy Treadwell as deranged. Werner Herzog uses every trick in the book to manipulate the audience. The movie is not about Treadwell; it is about Herzog's personal agenda. You can't learn anything about Treadwell from that film. The film also does not present one bit of what Treadwell learned studying grizzlies. It does not mention the organization he founded that is dedicated to preserving bears and their habitat. The film promotes one of the most deadly ideas in our society: that no one can relate to an animal one-to-one.

Your website talks about bridging people with animals is just plain dangerous for BOTH humans and animals. People every year mistakingly think about how cute and docile certain wild animals are only to find out the hard way they were wrong. The animal who ends up attacking a human ends up getting killed for it. Right? That is what happened to the bear who attacked Timothy Treadwell.

Some people are incredibly stupid, and there is nothing anyone can do about that. True, individual animals that are accosted by stupid people usually do wind up being killed. But the idea that we CANNOT interact PROPERLY with animals is what leads to hundreds and thousands of animals being killed and the extinction of entire species.

Do everyone a favor and take down your webpage that states: "A bridge existed, and it withstood the separation and the learning of a new way to live. Christian was another lion of two worlds."

I AM trying to do everyone a favor and teach them that when they look into the eyes of an animal, there is a thinking, feeling being looking back at them. Only by promoting this truth can we stop the continual and widespread destruction of thousands of animals.

Werner Herzog told his film audience that when he looks into the eyes of a grizzly bear, he sees nothing. THAT is the wrong message... so very, very false and so deadly to all animals everywhere.

You are teaching the wrong lesson. The lesson is that: "animals are very dangerous and can be very unpredicatable. Treat they with respect keep your distance".

People are FAR more unpredictable and dangerous than animals. Would you prefer a page telling everyone to keep their distance from other people?

Please... for the sake of animals and for the sake of human life... take the webpage down.

The page stays... for the sake of all animals and for the education of those who wish to be educated. http://www.kimbawlion.com/christian.htm