In the saddest story with a lion named Mufasa since The Lion King, a rare albino lion with the same name as Simba’s dad is about to be auctioned off to trophy hunters so they can kill it and stuff it. This is all going down amidst a huge worldwide campaign to save the animal, led (in-part) by Ricky Gervais.
The story started a few years ago when Mufasa and a baby cub named Soraya were both confiscated by officials. While animal rights activists have lobbied for the animals to be taken to a sanctuary, South African officials have decided to sell Mufasa at auction. The justification for this is that Mufasa is infertile so officials do not see him as having any value as far as helping perpetuate his species.
To give you an idea of how rare white lions are, experts suggest there are less than 300 in the world, with only 13 living in the wild. As of the time of this report, more than 200,000 people have signed a petition to save Mufasa.
Outrage over the auction is only inflamed by the fact that one sanctuary has offered to take in both Mufasa and Soraya at no charge, to live out the rest of their natural lives.
One thing I don’t understand is why all the people who are signing petitions don’t just create a gofundme account and elect Gervais as a proxy to take the money and bid on their behalf in the auction. Surely, 200,000+ enraged fans can raise enough to defeat a few hunters…