Transcript: Alpha and Cora video
DÉBUT AUDIO
1
00:00:26,870 --> 00:00:30,020
Born Free are really excited to be collaborating with British Airways
2
00:00:30,020 --> 00:00:34,190
Holidays to move Alpha and Cora, two lionesses that have come from a failed
3
00:00:34,190 --> 00:00:38,690
zoo, to a brand new life in South Africa where they're going to be living at
4
00:00:38,690 --> 00:00:43,130
Panthera Africa's big cat sanctuary. The lionesses will travel from here over
5
00:00:43,130 --> 00:00:46,940
land to Heathrow where they will have a little bit of a time to wait before they
6
00:00:46,940 --> 00:00:50,420
get on their flight to Cape Town. In fact there's one just coming past now, I don't
7
00:00:50,420 --> 00:00:53,960
know if you're going to be able to film it in the background. There is a short
8
00:00:53,960 --> 00:00:57,739
journey to where we hope their lifetime home is going to be, which is a big cat
9
00:00:57,739 --> 00:01:01,489
sanctuary called Panthera Africa. We're delighted to be partnering with British
10
00:01:01,489 --> 00:01:06,230
Airways Holidays on this initiative, they've been immensely generous and it
11
00:01:06,230 --> 00:01:09,590
wouldn't be possible without them to move these lionesses. They've enabled the
12
00:01:09,590 --> 00:01:13,850
construction of some dedicated sanctuary space for Born Free to use. It's
13
00:01:13,850 --> 00:01:19,250
going to be thanks to them and their partners, and our partners IAG who are
14
00:01:19,250 --> 00:01:26,129
actually undertaking the transport of the animals, that we're able to do this at all.
15
00:01:31,340 --> 00:01:35,329
This is a really exciting start of a journey not just for Alpha and Cora who
16
00:01:35,329 --> 00:01:39,110
will obviously get to enjoy a much better quality of life their sanctuary
17
00:01:39,110 --> 00:01:43,009
in South Africa, but also for British Airways Holidays. It's the start of a
18
00:01:43,009 --> 00:01:45,770
long term partnership with Born Free and the first of what we hope will be many
19
00:01:45,770 --> 00:01:46,930
similar initiatives.
20
00:01:46,930 --> 00:01:50,119
Here we are in the IAG Cargo area and the lionesses have
21
00:01:50,119 --> 00:01:56,270
arrived through the cargo doors there and they've been checked, we've ensured
22
00:01:56,270 --> 00:01:59,990
that they're doing okay, they've now been put on the pallets that you can see.
23
00:01:59,990 --> 00:02:02,990
We're going to leave them alone for a while before it's time to load into the
24
00:02:02,990 --> 00:02:06,950
plane. They have access to water they can stand up, they can turn around, they can
25
00:02:06,950 --> 00:02:10,759
lie down, they can be as comfortable as they possibly can on what is a long
26
00:02:10,759 --> 00:02:13,670
journey but it's worth it in the end for where they're going to spend the rest of
27
00:02:13,670 --> 00:02:17,699
their life.
28
00:02:21,740 --> 00:02:27,290
We've just landed in Cape Town, we're just waiting to get off now. I'm quite excited to
29
00:02:27,290 --> 00:02:32,270
go and check on the two lionesses. Hopefully they've done well in the
30
00:02:32,270 --> 00:02:37,430
journey and we'll be heading over to the customs check now with the paperwork
31
00:02:37,430 --> 00:02:41,690
to collect them and the vehicles - so yeah we're looking forward to checking on them
32
00:02:41,690 --> 00:02:46,750
and making sure that they have had a good journey as well.
33
00:03:10,080 --> 00:03:15,550
We arrived with Alpha and Cora at the end of a very long journey, I was delighted to
34
00:03:15,550 --> 00:03:19,630
see them arrive and I'm even more delighted to see how they've settled in
35
00:03:19,630 --> 00:03:23,010
and they look so relaxed. They look like they're beginning to
36
00:03:23,010 --> 00:03:29,020
enjoy the fruits of our labours, and to see them settling into what is going to
37
00:03:29,020 --> 00:03:34,200
be their home for the rest of their life is really quite quite overwhelming.
38
00:03:34,200 --> 00:03:37,780
Reintroducing animals that have been born and raised in captivity back to the
39
00:03:37,780 --> 00:03:42,490
wild, it's just not feasible, as much as we would like it to be. So where we're
40
00:03:42,490 --> 00:03:48,610
standing right now offers these guys the best and the closest we can get to what
41
00:03:48,610 --> 00:03:53,530
they have evolved to need. Their natural behaviour can be met to as much a degree
42
00:03:53,530 --> 00:03:56,593
as possible, in this purpose-built enclosure.
43
00:03:56,593 --> 00:04:03,430
Alpha and Cora have an incredible relationship, they have a beautiful bond, they are inseparable, they
44
00:04:03,430 --> 00:04:08,530
are always together. Alpha, I would say, is definitely more the courageous one
45
00:04:08,530 --> 00:04:13,870
and she's usually the first to kind of try something new and want to explore.
46
00:04:13,870 --> 00:04:17,830
She'll go back and kind of give her a little head bump and be like 'come on,
47
00:04:17,830 --> 00:04:21,590
let's go' and so they do have a beautiful, beautiful bond.
48
00:04:21,590 --> 00:04:27,790
Attitudes are changing and in years gone by it was seen as being perfectly acceptable to
49
00:04:27,790 --> 00:04:33,639
visit animal performances in circuses and be entertained by animals performing
50
00:04:33,639 --> 00:04:37,479
unnatural acts, so we've responded to that and we've been working with Born
51
00:04:37,479 --> 00:04:42,039
Free to help develop our animal welfare strategy and that's helped shape our
52
00:04:42,039 --> 00:04:45,819
approach in terms of the products that we'll sell and the initiatives that we're
53
00:04:45,819 --> 00:04:50,679
supporting Born Free with. It means the world to be here today to see Alpha and
54
00:04:50,679 --> 00:04:55,839
Cora settle into their new home. So when I last saw them at Heathrow they were at
55
00:04:55,839 --> 00:04:59,830
the start of a long journey, I wanted to tell them that 'it'll be worth it'. Now
56
00:04:59,830 --> 00:05:02,365
we're here, we can see it absolutely is worth it.
57
00:05:02,365 --> 00:05:08,259
These guys are the lucky ones but they are the tip of the iceberg and we need to stop this terrible
58
00:05:08,259 --> 00:05:14,050
industry that creates lives of suffering, because we can only help a few. And
59
00:05:14,050 --> 00:05:18,369
that's what I hope the future brings that Born Free, with our partners, can
60
00:05:18,369 --> 00:05:27,180
work to bring that bad industry to an end.