A family walked in on what a British tabloid is calling it a lion “orgy” on a trip to the zoo, and they were shocked.
Danielle Harvey and partner Damian Labrum took their three kids to the West Midlands Safari Park in England. The parents and the two older kids – Savannah, 4, and Archibald, 3 – got out of the car and saw a group of three male lions humping each other.
The Sun got the video from the family and talked to them. Since The Sun is a homophobic tabloid, the author says that the parents “can be heard gasping in horror,” even though it sounds more like they’re laughing nervously.
The Sun also says, “Danielle tried to cover the kids eyes,” but, um, they did stay long enough to get at least 31 seconds of decent footage.
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Archibald can be heard shouting, “Naughty boy.”
Male lions usually live in small coalitions before joining a pride of female lions. They can be affectionate among themselves – as can the females – and often engage in sexual play as a way to “smooth over social tensions,” according to Craig Packer, director of the Lion Research Center at the University of Minnesota.
The whole story shows how far we all have to go. The three-year-old spontaneously and sincerely calling the lions “naughty” shows that he has already taken in some pretty strong anti-sex or anti-gay attitudes at a very young age.
The Sun‘s bizarre narration of the parents’ actions sounds more like they’re describing what the parents should have done instead of what they actually did. But why does a newspaper want parents to be so uptight about lions in a zoo being lions?
Even Packer, the lion expert, insists that male lions don’t experience “sexual pleasure” when they play with each other like this… but how could he know that?
And then there’s the comments section at The Sun, with one of the top-rated comments saying “The lions should be put down at once.”
People’s reactions might be more honest when talking about gay lions than when talking about gay people, since lions’ behavior isn’t seen through the lens of politics.
A family with kids walked in on male lions getting affectionate at the zoo