Animal rights groups are wasting no time in condemning a proposal by the Brisbane Lions to parade a caged lion at home games.
According to new Lions chief executive Greg Swann, the club has assigned a segment of its marketing team to investigate the possibility of featuring a real-life lion as pre-game entertainment to add to stadium atmosphere.
“It’s for our fan experience, we think the kids would be absolutely beside themselves,” Swann told radio station SEN on Thursday. “One of the good things about being here is we control the stadium, so it’s fantastic. Whatever we want to do we can do.”
Swann declared the club has the AFL’s support, saying chief executive Gillon McLachlan “thinks that’s a great idea”, however the league’s top man took a more neutral stance towards the proposal, describing it as “pushing the envelope”.
“It’s a provocative idea that has lots of different angles,” he said. “But I love the fact that lots of different clubs are thinking like this about what their experience is.”
The RSPCA quickly spoke out against the plan, claiming exposure in front of such an audience would negatively impact the animal’s well-being.
“We’ve received an enormous number of calls about this,” RSCPA spokesman Michael Beatty said.
“To take a lion from an open-plan zoo and put it in a cage and parade it before 40,000 fans and loud music, there’s no way the animal would not be stressed.
“We are hoping this was a PR stunt to knock the Broncos and the Cowboys off the front pages …not something that would be considered seriously.’’
The Lions are already actively seeking out a willing zoo to partner with, with the intention of “(putting) them (lions) in the back of a big cage and taking them around the ground”, leading other animal rights groups to join the push back against Brisbane’s ambitious endeavour.
“It would be totally inappropriate and dangerous behaviour,” Humane Society International director Michael Kennedy said. “I can’t imagine any zoo agreeing to loan a lion, nor a Queensland government department being happy with such an arrangement. HSI would certainly oppose this move.”
A change.org petition has already attracted 4,600 signatures against the use of a live lion at games.
Photo: Wolfgang Kaehler/Getty Images
