Cause Celeb highlights a celebrity’s work on behalf of a specific cause. This week, we had the pleasure of speaking with Tippi Hedren about her work withthe ROAR Foundation and the Shambala Preserve.
Tippi Hedren is most well known for her roles in the Alfred Hitchcock films, “The Birds” and “Marnie” during the 60s. Since then, Hedren continues her work in the television and film industry, appearing in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and co-starring alongside Brittany Murphy in the film “Tribute.” Today Hedren is becoming most noted for founding the ROAR Foundation and the Shambala Preserve. Through these two linked organizations Hedren works closely to protect lions, tigers, leopards and other big cats.
Founded in 1983, the ROAR Foundation seeks to educate the public about exotic felines and advocates for legislation to protect them. Located in Acton, California, the Shambala Preserve is part of the ROAR Foundation. Shambala houses over 50 various big cats that have come from roadside zoos and, people who realize they are unable to handle the “wild ones.”
Interviewed by Gabriella Palmieri
Q: Could you tell us about your work with The Shambala Preserve and the ROAR foundation?
Tippi: It’s a very very long story. It started when I did two films in Africa in 1969 and 1970 and during that time environmentalists were telling everybody in the world that if they didn’t do something right then to save the animals in the world, by the year 2000 the wild animals would be gone. My then husband was a producer and we decided to do a film about the animals in the wild and we were kicking around ideas to do this. The answer came very quickly when we went on a photo safari, in Mozambique and on the largest game preserve there was a house that had been abandoned by a game warden because it flooded during the rainy season. So, the game warden moved out and the pride of lion moved into that house. It was awesome. There must have been 25-30 lions of all sizes living in that house. So we thought: bingo! Here’s the perfect way to talk about the animals in the wild. It’s the perfect movie set, and with animals that most people are fascinated with. So we got back to the coast and the script was written. And using sometimes 10 big cats sometimes 15, 30, you know 20, whatever. We were going to have Hollywood acting animals over a nine month shoot over and out. Well, because of instinctual dictator to fight the trainers over the Hollywood acting animals, they wouldn’t let their cats even meet an animal they didn’t know because of the instinctual dictates to fight. They didn’t want to get hurt, and they didn’t want their animals hurt, so it was suggested to us to acquire our own animals to do the movie. Well that, I mean that’s what started the whole thing. I’ve always been an animal lover since birth and I call it a birth affect- some of us are born with it, some of us later in life, but it just gives so much to your life to understand animals. That’s how it all started. Our first one was a rescue from a doctor who had purchased a darling little lion cub but the time it was 7 or 8 months old, it had destroyed his house and was taking a pretty good chunk out of him because that little cub didn’t have a 400 pound mom to say “knock it off I’ve gotta teach you some manners,” and didn’t have any siblings with whom to play with, so the doctor became the sibling and they’re [lions] very tough animals, they have to be, it’s their job. The first one came to us and then a couple more, and over a period of years we had 150 big cats rescued! We had by then become a very important facility to California Fish and Game Commission who confiscated animals because somebody purchased but didn’t have the right enclosure, the right permit, so they had to take care of it. Also the humane society, the MPCA, the department of agriculture…
Q: So it became a big project?
Tippi: Yea, so it grew, it wasn’t our plan. It became our plan. When our movie was over in 1980, It took us five years to make the film because of financial problems, you know, we ran out of money. One of the cats would hurt us, any one of us, and we’d have to shut down. It was just a real labor of love but what I learned about these animals is I could write volumes about them. Knowing how dangerous they are, I was wondering constantly why? Why aren’t their laws prohibiting these animals to be killed in captive? Nobody was doing anything about it. Everybody talked about it, but nobody was doing it. So, I put together a bill, not to stop the breeding, I thought I’ll take a baby step first, so I wrote a bill just stopping the inner state traffic of these animals and it was entitled The Captive Wildlife Safety Act. It passed unanimously in the house and senate. When I testified, I simply did it as a public safety issue. About 18 of the 570 some accidents in killing and mauling that has happened from these animals and fortunately it passed. Bush signed it, President Bush signed it in 2003! So now I’m working on one to stop the breeding of these animals.
Q: Why are you interested in helping exotic felines? Is it your love for animals, or was it being there and seeing them? Is there something more to it?
Tippi: Well, no it is because I love animals, I’ve always loved animals. I find them absolutely fascinating. When you take an apex predator- which the lions and tigers are, top of the food chain, the lions and tigers are one of the four most dangerous animals in the world. And we, our government, is saying “oh sure you can breed these animals and along with that we’ll even give you a permit from the department of agriculture” the USDA. So it’s become such a huge business. United States Fish and Wildlife put it at a par with illegal drugs and when money gets involved like that it becomes dangerous. When I was working on The Captive Wildlife Safety Act, my life was threatened as well as the animals at The Shambala Preserve. If anybody’s listening, if you want to look up shambala.org, you can learn more about it. This has been a major problem, when I was threatened, you know these people, they’re devious. It’s not good, with what is happening. They may be very tough but they’re not very smart. They left a threat on my answering machine. I don’t run scared and I didn’t like the sound of this one, and so I called the authorities and they came and listened and they said “yes we have to pay attention to this.” After, not being able to leave unless I was with somebody, and not my own car, I couldn’t answer the phones, I had to have someone live with me. We’re only open one weekend a month, we’re rather exclusive for the animals, they sent the sheriff to go through everybody’s bags like they do at the airport.
Q: Wow! Could you tell us a more about your bill being presented to congress (“Federal Ban on the Breeding of Big Cats Act”) right now?
Tippi: The bill I’m working on now is a thousand times more strict. I want to stop the breeding and that of course will be cutting out a lot of businesses but I cannot just sit by and let these animals be bred and sold to people who know nothing about them when they buy that little cub, they don’t know anything about it, they haven’t read anything. Half the time when somebody goes to buy a dog they don’t look into the species so it is a public safety issue that I am dealing with. Besides that, these animals have no business in captivity. No wild animal does.
Q: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Tippi: well, as soon as we have a number on the bill, which I hope will be soon, that will be on our website: shambala.org and I would hope that people will write ask their congressmen and their senators and the president to put these bill forward and say yes.
