Kevin Richardson (zookeeper)

Richardson worked within a 650 hectares (1,600 acres) Lion Park in Broederstroom, a town 35 miles north of his hometown, Johannesburg, in South Africa. Whilst primarily specializing in lions, he has also interacted with hyenas and black panthers.[7][8] The park, which was set up with the help of Rodney Fuhr,[4] is 800 hectares (2,000 acres) and was built for the set of the 2010 movie White Lion.[8] Richardson cares for thirty-nine lions at this facility.[9] As of 2011 the facility was private, but there were plans to open it to the public.[10] The sanctuary's Web site said in 2020 that it was open for guided group tours and had a volunteering program.[11]

In 2015 the Kevin Richardson Wildlife Sanctuary relocated to Welgedacht Private Game Reserve near Pretoria.[11]

Kevin Richardson with lions

He has slept next to, fed, and lived with lions. He has also worked with cheetahs, leopards, and hyenas. He prefers lions to any other big cat.[12] His relationship with the animals, however, has not been an instant one. He has known all of the lions he works with since they were cubs.[5] He still continues his bond with Tau and Napoleon, the lion brothers who were his introduction to big cats.[4]

Despite his prior involvement in lion cub petting, Richardson rejects the traditional notion that lions should be mastered and dominated, preferring to develop a relationship over time, based on love and respect. "A lion is not a possession; it's a sentient being, so you must pay attention and develop your bond like with any relationship."[13]

Richardson has been scratched, punctured, and bitten but is not dissuaded by these dangers. In an interview, he mentions, "Obviously one realizes the danger when working with animals of this caliber, I've weighed the pros and I've weighed the cons, and the pros far outweigh the cons." He warns about following in his footsteps, however. All the pictures of his adventures do not portray his years of experience and bonding. "People like to take things out of context. They don't know the relationship I have with this lion." As a rule, Richardson only interacts with lions he has been with since their birth.[5]

Richardson also differentiates his work from that of zoologists interacting with completely wild animals they have not raised, or that of trainers whose animals are required to perform on stage day after day.[14]

Richardson worked as a lion handler for the lion park that featured in a 2014 segment of the CBS program 60 Minutes, which revealed that the Lion Park in Lanseria bred lions to ensure a supply of cubs year-round. When the lions reached maturity, they were shipped out to canned hunting operations because they were too dangerous to be near tourists.[15] The Lion park has been criticised for allowing lion petting [16] and for supplying lions to the canned lion industry.[15] He has also been criticised by many in the conservation community, members of whom state that experiences which expressly bring people and lions together on "walks" are risky because of the unpredictable nature of the wild animals. Richardson's role as a conservationist was also questioned with experts stating that more care was needed in private reserves to ensure they mirror what has been developed in national parks.[17] Conservationists Luke T.B. Hunter, Paula White, Philipp Henschel, and Laurence Frank, in a 2012 article titled "Walking with lions: why there is no role for captive-origin lions Panthera leo in species restoration", concluded that parks in Africa with plans to reintroduce lions into the wild including Richardson's had yet to do so as of 2013 and found little of conservation value that justifies the use of captive-origin lions for reintroduction.[18]

On 27 February a young woman was mauled to death in the Dinokeng Game Reserve by a lioness that was under his care. Richardson lost track of the lioness when she pursued an impala for some 2 kilometres (1.2 mi), whereupon the lioness assaulted the day visitor to the reserve.[19][20] Wildlife biologist Luke Dollar responded to the killing in an article by National Geographic, stating that "behaviors and programs that skirt the reality of our place in the food chain seem to be an accident waiting to happen."[17]