INTERVIEW: Human heroes save animals from captive ordeals

Jan Creamer and Tim Phillips of Animal Defenders International help Pepe the spider monkey. Photo courtesy of Animal Planet / Provided with permission.

Animal Defenders International, an organization run by Jan Creamer and Tim Phillips, looks for animals who are living in captivity and could have better lives in sanctuaries. They center much of their attention on traveling circuses around the world, and they have found success in capturing undercover footage from the circuses, convincing governments to ban animals from performing in these entertainment shows and bringing a lasting change to how humans experience the wonders of the animal kingdom.

Their challenges and successes will be the subject of the latest episode of Dodo Heroes, the new show on Animal Planet that highlights compassionate humans trying to help animals in need. The episode airs Saturday, June 30 at 9 p.m.

“We founded Animal Defenders International in 1990,” Creamer said in a recent phone interview. “We had campaigned for animals for many, many years. We both started about 30-plus years ago, and the concept of Animal Defenders International was to get people in touch with animals and the environment. And we wanted to make a difference in terms of how animals were treated in captivity. The most important campaign that has developed really is the use of animals in entertainment, particularly in circuses, but also used in advertising, films and television. We wanted to expose for the public the price in pain and suffering that animals pay when they are used for just that few minutes of entertainment, and so that’s become one of our major campaigns, although we do work on wildlife issues, poaching and all kinds of other issues.”

On Dodo Heroes, the particular case that will be highlighted involves Pepe the spider monkey and a lioness named Kiara. Both performed in a Peruvian circus until ADI came on the scene and tried to rescue the animals from the entertainment industry.

“We always believe that what the public needs is the facts, and once they see what happens to the animals, then they don’t want to see animals used in that way,” added Creamer, who serves as ADI’s president. “So we send our people in undercover. We get volunteers to work for between six months and two years, working inside the circuses, alongside the workers, caring for the animals and doing other sorts of work. They take film and photographs. They take notes, and the idea of all this is to collect the best possible evidence that we can use in court. And sometimes public prosecutors have used our evidence to prosecute people and secure convictions, which is good, but also to let the media and the public know what is actually happening behind the scenes. And that usually leads to legislation, and since we’ve been doing this, over 40 countries around the world have now banned the use of animals in traveling circuses because of the suffering involved.”

Phillips said the Peru story dates back to 2005. He and Creamer recruited an undercover team to investigate South American circuses, and they placed those team members in the circus industry for two years. Then, in 2007, they released the surprising footage to the public.

“The footage we got was so shocking that there was a massive public outcry across the continent,” Phillips said. “Steadily we saw laws being enforced. The first law that we [saw] enforced was in Bolivia, and the enthusiasm for that law being enforced accelerated the number of countries banning the use of animals in circuses. And so that’s what took us to Peru, and our investigators who’d been inside the circus were then with us tracking down the circuses, ready for us to raid them and take the animals to new lives.”

During this ordeal is when Creamer, Phillips and the team came across Pepe and Kiara. For more details on these animals and their fates, audiences are going to have to tune into Dodo Heroes, but Creamer offered a preview of their challenges.

“So once Peru had banned the animal circuses, they gave them two years to either sell their animals or give them away to zoos,” Creamer said. “We sent our investigators back in to see where the circuses were, and Pepe was very high on our list because we had actually filmed him in the circuses before — Pepe and those lions in that circus. So once we made the plan with the wildlife officials to go and collect all the animals, we then went to that circus with Pepe and the lions. … That’s where on the show you’ll see the story of what actually happened to Kiara and her cubs, the lioness and her cubs, and also to Pepe during that very traumatic battle to take the animals away from the circus.”

Creamer added: “From the government’s point of view, they have to enforce the law. They’ll look weak if they can’t show that they can pass a law and enforce it and remove the animals, and from our point of view, we weren’t going to go away until we got those animals.”

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

Dodo Heroes continues with new episodes Saturdays at 9 p.m. on Animal Planet. Click here for more information.