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‘We were stupid beyond belief to have that lion in our house’: Tippi Hedren reveals her regrets at letting beast share family home – and even letting it sleep in daughter Melanie Griffith’s bed!
Hollywood actress Tippi Hedren has revealed her embarrassment and regret that she let a fully grown lion live with her family in the 1970s, saying they were ‘stupid beyond belief’ to let the beast play with her daughter Melanie Griffth, then aged just 13.
In pictures taken for LIFE magazine, the Lion – named Neil – can be seen relaxing by the family’s pool, lounging in Melanie’s bed and becoming a distraction in the office.
But Hedren has revealed that looking back she finds the pictures humiliating and admits she ‘should never have taken those risks’.
+10
Mane event: Neil grabs Melanie's leg as she jumps into the pool, aged just 14, in her Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, home
‘I cringe when I see those pictures now,’ she told me this week. ‘I have to tell you we were stupid beyond belief. We should never have taken those risks. These animals are so fast, and if they decide to go after you, nothing but a bullet to the brain will stop them.’
Casual: Neil is seen above bothering Hedren's then-husband Noel Marshall at work, and enjoying a session by the pool with Griffith
She also revealed that their extraordinary experience with Neil lulled them into a false sense of security which was to have disastrous, almost fatal, consequences.
Indeed, after she, Melanie and the rest of their family suffered a string of serious injuries inflicted by the big cats they went on to adopt after Neil, Hedren has turned full circle in her attitude to such exotic pets.
Now 84, she runs a sanctuary, California’s Shambala Preserve, for some 32 big cats, and is an outspoken critic of the practice - still legal in much of the U.S. - of keeping them as domestic pets. As an activist she was successful in lobbying Congress to pass a 2003 bill ending the traffic between states of big cats.
She is now trying to push through another bill that will stop the breeding of these animals for personal exploitation or their sale as pets.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2797870/tippi-hedren-reveals-regrets-letting-beast-share-family-home-letting-sleep-daughter-melanie-griffiths-bed.html#ixzz3GpabP5ep
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Its good to see this. In the 70s, I was part owner of an African lioness as well as being part owner of a big cat sanctuary. For most big cats, as well as most exotic animals, captivity does not satisfy their needs and seldom ends well for the animals.
As we hunt them to extinction and for all sorts of reasons, there are millions of exotics being kept in people's homes - as pets. There are more tigers in captivity than are left in the wild.
Many animals end up in "canned hunts" - tame animals, in fenced enclosures, to be shot at point blank range, or trophies.
Honestly, I doubt this will change, except by wiping out each species.
Nonetheless, good for her for coming forward and telling the truth. Maybe it will save some animal's lives - both human and non-human.
More at the link, including a lot of photos.
Hollywood actress Tippi Hedren has revealed her embarrassment and regret that she let a fully grown lion live with her family in the 1970s, saying they were ‘stupid beyond belief’ to let the beast play with her daughter Melanie Griffth, then aged just 13.
In pictures taken for LIFE magazine, the Lion – named Neil – can be seen relaxing by the family’s pool, lounging in Melanie’s bed and becoming a distraction in the office.
But Hedren has revealed that looking back she finds the pictures humiliating and admits she ‘should never have taken those risks’.
+10
Mane event: Neil grabs Melanie's leg as she jumps into the pool, aged just 14, in her Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, home
‘I cringe when I see those pictures now,’ she told me this week. ‘I have to tell you we were stupid beyond belief. We should never have taken those risks. These animals are so fast, and if they decide to go after you, nothing but a bullet to the brain will stop them.’
Casual: Neil is seen above bothering Hedren's then-husband Noel Marshall at work, and enjoying a session by the pool with Griffith
She also revealed that their extraordinary experience with Neil lulled them into a false sense of security which was to have disastrous, almost fatal, consequences.
Indeed, after she, Melanie and the rest of their family suffered a string of serious injuries inflicted by the big cats they went on to adopt after Neil, Hedren has turned full circle in her attitude to such exotic pets.
Now 84, she runs a sanctuary, California’s Shambala Preserve, for some 32 big cats, and is an outspoken critic of the practice - still legal in much of the U.S. - of keeping them as domestic pets. As an activist she was successful in lobbying Congress to pass a 2003 bill ending the traffic between states of big cats.
She is now trying to push through another bill that will stop the breeding of these animals for personal exploitation or their sale as pets.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2797870/tippi-hedren-reveals-regrets-letting-beast-share-family-home-letting-sleep-daughter-melanie-griffiths-bed.html#ixzz3GpabP5ep
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
Its good to see this. In the 70s, I was part owner of an African lioness as well as being part owner of a big cat sanctuary. For most big cats, as well as most exotic animals, captivity does not satisfy their needs and seldom ends well for the animals.
As we hunt them to extinction and for all sorts of reasons, there are millions of exotics being kept in people's homes - as pets. There are more tigers in captivity than are left in the wild.
Many animals end up in "canned hunts" - tame animals, in fenced enclosures, to be shot at point blank range, or trophies.
Honestly, I doubt this will change, except by wiping out each species.
Nonetheless, good for her for coming forward and telling the truth. Maybe it will save some animal's lives - both human and non-human.
More at the link, including a lot of photos.
