Born Free Foundation
From small beginnings, the Born Free Foundation has grown into a global force for wildlife. But a personal passion for wild animals and desire for positive change remain at our heart. Described by The Times as ‘Big enough to make a difference, but small enough to care,’ Born Free is not a big anonymous organisation, but a family of like-minded people who share the same goals. Our work to prevent individual animal suffering, protect threatened species and keep wildlife in the wild sets us apart from the rest. Learn more about Born Free history here.
This is why Born Free is supported by celebrities including Joanna Lumley, Martin Clunes, Bryan Adams, Rachel Hunter, Helen Worth, Jenny Seagrove and Martin Shaw. Together we reach out to the public, the media and our business friends, who actively support and fund our projects and campaigns, helping hundreds of thousands of animals worldwide.
Save the Tiger
These are dark days for the magical tiger. This supreme hunter, perhaps the most spectacular predator on earth, faces an extreme crisis. In 1900 there were 100,000 wild tigers - in 2010 less than 3,500 survive. The IUCN list the tiger as "endangered" - this means tigers "face a very high risk of extinction in the wild in the near future"
Virginia McKenna OBE, Born Free Founder & Trustee
I’d like to introduce you to someone. Her name is Moharli and she lives in Maharashtra, in central India. It’s a beautiful, densely forested area, with life-giving streams and dramatic hills that inspired Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book.
Like me, Moharli has four children. Like me, she has three sons and a daughter. A big responsibility. Like many youngsters they’re playful and very inquisitive. Thankfully they are strong and healthy. But they live under a shadow. Every single day, their lives are under threat. Every day, they are in deadly danger.
For Moharli is a tiger. Her beauty is mesmerising. Her power is awe-inspiring. But she has no defense against well-armed poachers. She would die to protect her cubs. But there’s nothing she can do to stop the poachers’ guns, snares and poison.
And make no mistake. They are after her. Poachers want to kill Moharli and her family. They want to skin each one of them for their magnificent fur. Unbelievably, wearing tiger fur is considered by some to be a symbol of wealth and power.
And that’s not all. Poachers want to butcher the entire family for their bones and other body parts. There is a voracious, seemingly insatiable black market for their use in traditional Chinese medicine. Some people mistakenly believe tiger parts can cure illness, even though the World Federation of Chinese Medicine Societies has emphatically spoken out against their use.
But it’s not only poachers. Moharli’s forest home is also under threat. Trees are cut down for the logging industry. Her habitat is destroyed for agriculture, mines and dams. Less forest means less prey. It’s harder for Moharli to hunt the food she and her cubs need - deer, wild pigs, birds and monkeys.
