Born Free needs you to Raise The Red Flag, and report the suffering of animals in captivity, so that we can take action to make it end. Share your eyewitness reports, and use our map to avoid visiting facilities where wild animals are being exploited.

BILL TRAVERS MBE Co-Founder Bill Travers MBE was a wildlife campaigner, actor, screenwriter and director, well known for starring as conservationist George Adamson in the 1966 film Born Free, alongside his wife Virginia McKenna DBE.

Jun 7, 2024 · June is a special and emotional month for me and all at Born Free, as we celebrate the 93 rd birthday of Dame Virginia McKenna – or as I prefer to call her, my Mum.. It was 40 years ago this year, that, together with my late father, Bill, we sat around the kitchen table, wondering how to respond to the senseless destruction of Pole Pole, the young female elephant at …

For 40 years, Born Free has fought to free captive whales and dolphins. We won’t stop until their exploitation stops but, we need your help, explains Sarah Jefferson from our Policy team.

In 1964, actress Virginia McKenna DBE and her husband, actor Bill Travers MBE, went to Kenya to make and star in what would become a wildlife classic, Born Free.The film was based on Joy Adamson’s best-selling book of the same name – the extraordinary tale of how she and her husband George raised Elsa, an orphaned lion cub, before releasing her into the wilderness of …

In 1966, Virginia McKenna DBE and Bill Travers MBE starred in the classic wildlife film Born Free. The film told the true story of conservationists Joy and George Adamson who rescued a lioness cub called Elsa and successfully returned her to the wild.

May 10, 2023 · “This award may be in my name, but I believe it recognises the efforts of the Born Free team over nearly forty years. And the values of the thousands of people who feel, as I do, that we must end the cruelty and suffering that we routinely inflict on wild animals, whether in captivity or in the wild,” Virginia stated.

By watching Born Free (the 1966 classic film that eventually led to the start of our charity) and other more recent wild animal films and documentaries, you can learn why our charity features Elsa the lioness on our logo, and about the lives and issues many animals are facing today.

Mar 29, 2024 · Born Free (1966) was a watershed film for him, travelling to Kenya with the family, playing opposite my mother Virginia for nearly 10 months, learning each day from George Adamson about lions – and life. It must have rubbed off on me too. His subsequent documentaries (he almost stopped acting entirely) sought to break the mould, shattering the …

Sep 10, 2024 · Key findings from our report include: The average enclosure size of big cat species in European zoos was found to be over 40,000 times smaller than their reported median home range in the wild.; Zoos fail to provide adequate environments for big cats, including lack of space, lack of opportunities to perform natural behaviours, and the lack of ability to hide from …