A male Lion known as Mopane has been killed in a hunting area on the outskirts of Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe. Reliable sources say that the Lion was targeted by a bow hunter in the same area that renowned Lion Cecil was killed in 2015. Mopane was shot after being baited in a hunting area on the outskirts of Hwange in a manner similar to Cecil’s killing.”

Mopane was a 12 year old pride male with a litter of six cubs. Almost every year, a dominant pride male resident between the park and the boundary farms is taken out by hunters. There is significant impact on pride dynamics as a result. Males taken out of a pride often cause conflict as other males move in resulting in the loss of Lionesses, less dominant males or cubs which are killed by the new males. Dispersal of youngsters fleeing into external areas creates potential human-wildlife conflict with communities living on the borders of the park.

20 Lions have been killed in this area over the past decade. Many argue that the current level of lion hunting is not sustainable in the area bordering Hwange National Park. Before he was targeted, Mopane had formed a coalition with another male named Seduli. On 10 August 2019, World Lion Day, Seduli was shot and killed by hunters on the outskirts of the park.

According to Drew Abrahamson, owner and founder of Captured in Africa (CIA) Foundation, the remaining pride consists of two adult females and six sub-adults of about 16 to 18 months of age.

“This time is uncertain for them now as they are still at a vulnerable age and relied on Mopane as well as the females for protection. The females are now going to have a very tough time in protecting the pride as they are. Only time will tell as there is now a huge void which will be sought after by other males.” ~ Drew Abrahamson.

Trophy Hunters Target Hwange Park

Hwange Park, in northwestern Zimbabwe, made world headlines in July 2015 when another of its well known Lions called Cecil was lured out of the park by US dentist Walter Palmer.

The heartbreaking details of the hunt that killed Cecil made international headlines: Cecil was lured out of the protected area with an Elephant carcass being used as bait and shot by Palmer with an arrow. After suffering for 10 agonizing hours, Cecil was eventually found and killed with a gunshot.

Walter Palmer was publicly shunned and received worldwide criticism, but did not face any charges in the Cecil’s death. 

Seduli, another male Lion who frequented photographic lodges in and around Hwange National Park was shot dead by hunters on World Lion Day 2019 on the outskirts of the park.

Given the continued onslaught against the Lions of Hwange Park it would be beneficial to visually show the losses of dominant male Lions in this region over the course of the last 10 years. Does the number of male Lions shot over 10 years in one region appear sustainable to you given that lion populations have declined across Africa by 43% in the last 25 years? Add to this that with each of these males taken out of a pride, came the loss of either lionesses and cubs dying in the change-over or conflict it caused. Dispersal of youngsters fleeing into external areas creating potential human-wildlife conflict issues with communities living on the borders of the park is not uncommon and is proven in some cases to be as a direct result of these pride males being taken out by hunters.

What Does This Mean For The Lion Prides Of Hwange?

Healthy Lions – who traverse the park and viable protected photographic areas – are being taken out of the gene pool by trophy hunters, as well as Lions who are still breeding and are actively part of a healthy pride with possibly vulnerable cubs. Their loss contradicts the hunters’ philosophies of sustainability and asks when the last independent scientific survey was done on the sustainability of lion numbers in the region and the impact these losses have on pride dynamics in this landscape and the knock on affect to the communities who live in these dispersal areas? And surely looking at these numbers, and the areas where these lions are being taken out…. it is going against those very philosophies that the hunters are using?

Firstly by taking healthy Lions out of the gene pool which are known to be traversing the park and viable protected photographic areas, and secondly taking out Lions which are still breeding and are actively known to be part of a healthy pride and in some instances with vulnerable cubs?

The killing must stop now ~ before it is too late!!!

Lawrence Anthony, who died aged 61, was a South African conservationist, known as “The Elephant Whisperer”. In his native South Africa, Anthony was a key figure in promoting the concept of joining tribal lands to game reserves in order to give remote tribal communities a vested interest in conservation. As well as creating two new African game reserves, he ran a private reserve of his own where he acquired his nickname after rescuing a herd of rogue Elephants destined to be shot.

Lawrence Anthony was born on September 17 1950 in Johannesburg, where his grandfather, a miner from Berwick-upon-Tweed, had emigrated in the 1920s to work in the gold mines. His father founded an insurance business and, as he established new offices around southern Africa, Lawrence was brought up in a series of small towns in rural Rhodesia, Zambia, Malawi and finally Zululand, South Africa.

Anthony followed his father into the insurance business and later worked in property development. But his heart was always in the African bush he had loved as a child. He became involved in working with Zulu tribespeople to try to rebuild their historical relationship with the bush, and in the mid-1990s he decided to turn his hobby into a career, buying the 5,000-acre Thula Thula game reserve in KwaZulu-Natal.

Subsequently he founded the Earth Organisation, a conservation group that encourages pragmatic local action, and was instrumental in the creation of two new reserves, the Royal Zulu Biosphere in Zululand and the Mayibuye Game Reserve in Kwa Ximba, which provide local people with jobs and income through tourism, while helping to secure the future of the region’s wildlife from creeping development.

Elephants had never been part of Anthony’s plan for Thula Thula, but in 1999 he was telephoned by a conservation organisation which asked whether he would be willing to take on a herd of nine animals which had escaped from every enclosure they had ever been in, wreaking havoc across KwaZulu-Natal, and were considered highly dangerous. Realising that the Elephants would be shot if he declined, Anthony agreed to give them a home.

“They were a difficult bunch, no question about it,” he recalled. “Delinquents every one. But I could see a lot of good in them too. They’d had a tough time and were all scared, and yet they were looking after one another, trying to protect one another.”

Anthony decided to treat the Elephants as errant children, working to persuade them, through words and gestures, that they should not behave badly and that they could trust him. He concentrated his attention on Nana, the matriarch of the herd: “I’d go down to the fence and I’d plead with Nana not to break it down,” he said. “I knew she didn’t understand English, but I hoped she’d understand by the tone of my voice and my body language what I was saying. And one morning, instead of trying to break the fence down, she just stood there. Then she put her trunk through the fence towards me. I knew she wanted to touch me. That was a turning point.” Soon they were allowed out into the reserve.

Anthony and his wife, Françoise, became so close to the Elephants that on some occasions they almost had to chase them out of their living room. Days after Nana gave birth to a son, she emerged from the bush to show off the newborn to her human friend. A few years later, after Anthony’s first grandchild was born, he returned the compliment, though he recalled that it was some time before his daughter-in-law would speak to him again.

nthony made world headlines in 2003 when he arrived in war-torn Baghdad to rescue the animals in Saddam Hussein’s zoo.

In 2003, as Anthony watched television footage of the bombardment of Baghdad, he recalled reading that the city had the largest zoo in the Middle East: “I couldn’t stand the thought of the animals dying in their cages. I contacted the Americans and the British and said, ‘You have any contingency plans?’ Nobody was interested.”

Within days he was on the Kuwait-Iraq border, in a hired car packed with veterinary supplies. The Americans refused to let him cross, but Kuwaiti border guards allowed him through and, with two Kuwaiti zoo workers, Anthony joined the tanks and convoys heading to Baghdad.

When he arrived at his destination, in the ruins of the city’s once majestic al-Zawra park, he found a “horror story”. Met by a tearful Husham Hussan, the zoo’s deputy director, Anthony was initially tempted to give up.

Clouds of flies swarmed over the carcasses of dead animals. Baboons and monkeys were running free, while parrots, falcons and other escaped birds circled overhead. Some of the Lions had escaped; a bear had killed some looters. The surviving animals, including Lions, Tigers and an Iraqi brown bear, were starving and deeply traumatised. There was no food or water.

With a handful of helpers, Anthony began the urgent work of rescuing the surviving animals. With the city’s infrastructure destroyed, water had to be dragged by bucket from a stagnant canal, while donkeys provided meat for the carnivores. “We went out and bought donkeys off the street and the donkey always had a cart, so the guys wouldn’t sell the donkey without the cart,” he recalled. “I still think of how we left those carts all over Baghdad.”

Within weeks American and even Iraqi soldiers were putting down their weapons and mucking in: “We had Republican Guard soldiers working with American troops in the zoo two weeks after they were killing each other on the battlefield,” Anthony recalled. Local mullahs instructed their followers that Anthony and his team should be left unmolested.

He worked in Baghdad for six months, during which time he transformed the fate of the zoo. By the time he left, the surviving animals were healthy, the cages clean and the zoo a viable operation once again.

Anthony was presented with the Earth Day medal at the UN for his work and was decorated with the US Army 3rd Infantry Division regimental medal for his bravery. He told his story in Babylon’s Ark (2007, co-written with Graham Spence). When a Los Angeles production studio announced that it had commissioned a major Hollywood film about the Baghdad Zoo rescue, the craggy, bearded Anthony suggested that Brad Pitt — “a good likeness”— should be asked to play his role

Baghdad was not Anthony’s only experience of working in war zones. In 2006 he convinced the leaders of The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), which has been involved in a bloody struggle with the Ugandan government for more than two decades, to sign up to a conservation project to save the northern white Rhino, one of the world’s rarest animals. The LRA, notorious for its use of child soldiers and accused of numerous atrocities, had established a stronghold in the Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, home to the last four members of the species living in the wild.

When Anthony heard that LRA leaders were meeting the Ugandan government in Sudan, he gatecrashed the talks and subsequently became the first outsider to be granted permission to enter their Congo base.

When LRA officials signed a ceasefire with the Ugandan government in 2007, it included pledges to protect the Rhino. Sadly, the ceasefire subsequently collapsed, and the white Rhinos have not been seen in Garamba in recent years. It is feared that they have all been killed.

After his death his beloved Elephant herds came to his house to say goodbye.

For 12 hours, two herds of wild South African Elephants slowly made their way through the Zululand bush until they reached the house of late author Lawrence Anthony, the conservationist who saved their lives. The formerly violent, rogue Elephants, destined to be shot a few years ago as pests, were rescued and rehabilitated by Anthony, who had grown up in the bush and was known as the “Elephant Whisperer.” For two days the herds loitered at Anthony’s rural compound on the vast Thula Thula game reserve in the South African KwaZulu — to say good-bye to the man they loved. But how did they know he had died? Known for his unique ability to calm traumatized Elephants, Anthony had become a legend. He is the author of three books, Babylon Ark, detailing his efforts to rescue the animals at Baghdad Zoo during the Iraqi war, the forthcoming The Last Rhinos, and his bestselling The Elephant Whisperer. There are two Elephant herds at Thula Thula. According to his son Dylan, both arrived at the Anthony family compound shortly after Anthony’s death. “They had not visited the house for a year and a half and it must have taken them about 12 hours to make the journey,” Dylan is quoted in various local news accounts. “The first herd arrived on Sunday and the second herd, a day later. They all hung around for about two days before making their way back into the bush. “Elephants have long been known to mourn their dead. In India, baby Elephants often are raised with a boy who will be their lifelong “mahout.” The pair develop legendary bonds and it is not uncommon for one to waste away without a will to live after the death of the other.

Lawrence Anthony, Born September 17 1950, Died March 2 2012

The Dog Train, which Eugene Bostick built himself, made the retired Union Pacific railroad employee and his pups viral superstars. After a video appeared on BuzzFeed, Bostick and his dog train attracted thousands of views and calls from all over the country.

Some might say that the late Eugene Bostick’s most memorable job began long after he retired. His golden years saw him take on quite a unique role—that of a train conductor for rescued stray dogs. However, the Fort Worth, Texas, native never expected his life to take such an unorthodox turn. It was the heartlessness of others that forced him to take on the duty of helping needy pets as he couldn’t bear to see abandoned dogs being left to starve on the streets.

“We live down on a dead-end street, where me and my brother have a horse barn. People sometimes come by and dump dogs out here, leaving them to starve,” Bostick told The Dodo . “So, we started feeding them, letting them in, taking them to the vet to get them spayed and neutered. We made a place for them to live.” He has taken in countless abandoned dogs over the years and even gone one step further in caring for them. Apart from feeding them and giving them a safe home, the retiree also thought it would nice to be able to take them on little trips with him and show them the sights.

And that’s how the idea for a dog-train was born. “One day I was out and I seen this guy with a tractor who attached these carts to pull rocks. I thought, ‘Dang, that would do for a dog train,'” he revealed. “I’m a pretty good welder, so I took these plastic barrels with holes cut in them, and put wheels under them and tied them together.” With his special doggy train ready to embark on little adventures, Bostick began taking the nine dogs in his care around town once or twice a week. 

Residents would often spot them go puttering down quiet streets or through the forest near their home or stopping by a local creek for some fresh air in the adorable train. And no one loves it more than Bostick’s doggy passengers. “Whenever they hear me hooking the tractor up to it, man, they get so excited,” he said. “They all come running and jump in on their own. They’re ready to go.”

The became became somewhat of a local attraction, stopping for photo requests from the locals became a part of their trip routine. For Eugene, however, nothing beats bringing a bit of joy to a handful of dogs who had been through so much. “I’m getting up in age. I’m 80 now, so I suppose it can’t last too much longer, but I’ll keep it going as long as I can,” he said. “The dogs have a great time. They just really enjoy it.”

The unconditional love of a dog is a powerful thing. Just ask John Unger of Bayfield, Wisconsin.

For 19 years, John’s loyal companion had been a Shepherd mix named Schoep. John learned that his dog had severe arthritis and may needed to be put down soon. He was devastated — and also determined to help alleviate Schoep’s pain.

John knew that people suffering from arthritis respond well to water therapy, so he brought his aging dog to one of their favourite spots: Lake Superior. His idea was to take advantage of the lake’s higher-than-average temperatures that summer and let Schoep feel weightless and relaxed. Considering the grim prognosis from the veterinarian, John also called his photographer friend, Hannah Stonehouse Hudson, to see whether she had time to capture a special photo of Schoep just in case.

Hannah met them at the lake for about five minutes and snapped a few shots. A few days later on Aug. 1, she uploaded her favorite image of the man and his dog to Facebook — and an Internet sensation was unleashed.

The photo on her Stonehouse Photography Facebook page had nearly 300,000 likes and 32,000 comments in the first few days. When the photo went viral, John had to adjust to his sudden popularity.

“The first four days I was literally in shock,” he said. He said he spent the first two days reading every single one of the comments on Facebook. Most of them offered words of encouragement for Schoep and admiration for John.

“I would read about five of them and lose it for a good ten minutes and then come back to it,” John said. “To see that this photo has lifted their spirits … that right there lifted mine even higher.”

John has always wanted Schoep to experience everything, so he takes him everywhere he goes. They regularly go on three walks a day.

John actually began floating Schoep in Lake Superior 13 years earlier — but for different reasons. It started because Schoep was a terrible swimmer and didn’t much like the water anyway. It took him several years to be convinced to fetch a ball in the lake, let alone swim in it.

“Whenever he got into the water he wouldn’t swim and would just put his paws on my shoulders and want to be held,” John recalled. “One of these times, all of a sudden, he was asleep. We’ve been doing it periodically since then.”

He stepped up the soaks in the lake after Schoep’s diagnosis. John said he soon saw an improvement in Schoep’s limp, although he didn’t think it would ever go away.

John adopted Schoep as a rescue dog with his then-fiancée nearly 20 years before. Schoep had been abused as a puppy and it took months for him to trust John. But John didn’t give up. He stayed up with him that first night and then many nights after, coaxing him to trust him by sometimes getting on all fours. He said he wanted Schoep “to think of me as another dog and not a man trying to hurt him.”

A year or so after John and his fiancée adopted Schoep, the relationship broke up. The two shared custody of Schoep for a while until she left for graduate school in Colorado, and then it was just the man and his dog.

John said he has fought against depression for a lifetime, and after his relationship ended, he endured some tough years. On one particularly difficult night he took Schoep down to Lake Michigan, their usual evening walking spot back in those days.

“I went out on the breakwater and I was thinking about committing suicide,” he said. “And I was out there for about an hour just thinking about things and it came to the point of me thinking, ‘OK, this is the time.’ And I looked down at Schoep and I don’t know what it was … he had a look like no other time he looked at me. I look back at it now and he knew something was wrong.”

It took that look by Schoep to help bring John back from the brink. “He just snapped me out of that moment … we walked around the rest of the night until dawn.” The next day he thanked Schoep for saving his life.

John broke down and cried as he reflected on how much Schoep has given him, and how he has tried his best to always give him what he could. “I’ve never had a lot of money and especially going through the depression I couldn’t hold a job,” he said, adding, “Schoep has given me his all, no matter what the circumstances, even when I can’t get him the best food.”

After Hannah’s photo made such wide rounds online, strangers began reaching out to help. “A woman from Virginia basically paid for the latest laser therapy on his joints,” he said. “She paid for a full treatment, and I don’t know how much it is, but I know I couldn’t have done that.”

Schoep just had his second installment of treatments Wednesday, and has four more to go. John got a surprise when he took Schoep in for his latest appointment. As he walked in, his vet smiled at him. “What’s going on?” John asked. His vet said, “See all the stuff behind me?” John looked, and there were packages of glucosamine, treats and other treatments to help Schoep with joint pain.

John cried as he said, “People from all over are doing this. I can’t believe it. So much has come in already in donations that I don’t have to worry about anything at the vet anymore.”

All of the donors are anonymous. “How do I thank them?” he said. “It’s just such an amazing thing.”

And then in July 2013 there was a different headline

Dog Pictured Floating To Sleep In His Owner’s Arms Has Died

Schoep, the arthritic dog who became an Internet sensation last summer when he was photographed floating peacefully in Lake Superior in his owner’s arms, has passed away.

The 20-year-old dog’s owner, John, announced the death of his best friend on Facebook on that evening.

“I Breathe But I Can’t Catch My Breath…” John wrote “Schoep passed yesterday. More information in the days ahead.”

The bond between Schoep and John captivated tens of thousands of animal lovers when their photo and story began circulating. Then in the July of that year, John feared that he was mere days from needing to put then-19-year-old Schoep down. In anticipation of his loss, he asked a friend to take one last photo of them together.

That friend, photographer Hannah, met them at Lake Superior, where John liked to help Schoep float to take pressure off his arthritic joints. She captured a photo of the two of them in the lake and posted it on her Facebook page.

That image ricocheted around the world and resulted in an outpouring of online donations and support. The help John received allowed him to afford treatments to alleviate his dog’s condition.

“As best as I can guess, the treatments turned back the clock on his life about a year-and-a-half to two years,” in September 2012 John said. “I’ve taken him for walks on trails that we haven’t been on in three years. He’s not dragging his back legs like he was before. To be able to do that again with him, words can’t even describe the feeling.”

John posted a happy update about Schoep on Facebook along with a photo of the shepherd mix falling asleep in the sunshine, surrounded by bright yellow flowers:

“A fantastic day we had. Up early to walk and go to the beach, eat, nap, go shopping, eat, laundry, go to the beach, eat, nap and one more walk. All without the humidity, that’s what made it fantastic — especially for Schoep!”

Hannah, the photographer who made Schoep and John famous, posted this on her Facebook page.

“RIP Schoep. He had an amazing life and touched us all. Please keep John in your thoughts.”

And then….

….And then John invited a new dog, named Bear, into his home. He posted the news to his Facebook page on Feb. 24 2015 saying,

“I am whole again…

Ladies and Gentlemen – This Is BEAR!

The journey continues with the addition of Bear into my home, heart, soul and OUR lives! Please give him a Big Hello! Bear is a 1 year old, 70 lb. Akita/Shep/Lab mix. I am a very happy man, and proud to introduce him to you. Please join us as Bear and I learn, grow and help in the days, months and years to come!”

John and Bear

Here’s to John and Bear celebrating their future together!

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Miracle’s Mission are a non-profit charity dedicated to rescuing and rehabilitating sick, injured and disabled animals form around the world. Working predominantly in the UK, Borneo & Egypt; Miracle’s Mission is ever expanding to help animals in need wherever they can.

Because ALL animals deserve a second chance, EVEN disabled ones.

Miracle’s Mission offer a full rehabilitation programme right through from assessment to surgery to rehabilitation, recovery and re-homing. This is again why education is so important, so that people become open to adopting disabled dogs.

Miracle’s Mission was founded by Victoria Bryceson in 2015, after a trip to Borneo made her aware of the severity of the street dog population. Working with animal shelters over there, it became apparent that whilst these shelters were caring for the animals, the root cause was yet to be addressed. Allowing un-neutered cats and dogs to roam the streets meant that puppies and kittens were being born onto the streets at an alarming rate, with a grim life ahead of them. Therefore, Miracle’s Mission came into existence with the main aim to neuter stray animals on the streets of Borneo and decrease the population of dogs and cats suffering.

Miracle’s Mission have carried out several TNRM – Trap, Neuter, Release & Manage Projects in Borneo

Feral and hard-to-catch strays are caught in a custom made trap. Using a dog trap is one of the safest and humane way to catch dogs. We will ask their feeder to lay out a trail of food leading to the trap and at the end, the dog will step on the trigger and it will shut close.

However, we cannot keep on rescuing and putting all the strays into ONE overcrowded shelter. Some dogs are meant to be free and wild. As long as we can stop their breeding/mating, we can control the stray dog population.

Since launching the scheme, Miracle’s Mission has helped more than 6,000 animals.

Miracle’s Story

Miracle is the namesake of the charity, and her story is similar to many others around the world. However, not all of these animals end up being as lucky as she was and finding a loving home where she is spoilt rotten!

Miracle was rescued from the streets of Borneo at 1 week old before her tiny eyes were even open. She was found with her siblings in a very remote area, where they were likely abandoned and were very unwell. The puppies were full of maggots, with ringworm and blood parasites. Unfortunately, Miracle’s siblings did not make it.

Miracle was cared for by Victoria and she had a very long road of recovery ahead of her. She had several injuries and was very weak, but she made a miraculous recovery and is now strong, happy and healthy living with her adopted sisters Star and Tess, who were also rescued from Borneo. Her aim is to aid in saving many more animals in need around the world.

Crediting Ella with all she now knows Victoria said: “It took about three months to get Ella back from Egypt and it was the hardest three months of my life.

“I spent the time converting my garage and garden to make them safe for her. As soon as she arrived, and I got her into some wheels she was a different dog. She inspired me to do more. Every vet said with her injuries she should be put to sleep but once they met her, they changed their minds.”

“When she first got into her wheels she just took off, she ran and ran with no hesitation it was like she got her life back.”

Hoping to encourage people to adopt pets with special needs the charity boss said: “People think it would be too difficult to look after a dog with wheels, but they adapt really well. If you have a house with stairs, they live downstairs or you can take them upstairs and put a baby gate at the top. It really is not difficult. They tend to connect with you more.”

Miracle’s Mission were proud to be recently named 2021 Rescue of the Year by Walkin’ Pets who said “the rescue focuses on the hardest to adopt pets, believing that “adopting a special needs pet will change your life, your world, your outlook, your priorities and all for the better.”

The charity is currently fundraising to expand the size of rescue centre which would allow them to rescue, rehabilitate and rehome many more animals in need. They have found this land and buildings that would be suitable for the new Centre For Disabled Animals and is up for auction soon.

If you would like to help ENABLE disabled animals the fundraiser is at https://www.avivacommunityfund.co.uk/help-miracles-mission-enable-disabled-animals-1

Some Of The Miracle’s Mission Family