40 countries ban animals in Queen

A BRITISH woman has won a coveted global award for her work in freeing wild animals from human captors.

For 30 years Jan Creamer has led daring missions to rescue the beasts from circuses, labs, factory farms, slaughterhouses and fur farms and put them back where they belong.

Her work as founder of Animal Defenders International has led to a ban on circuses using animals in 40 countries, convictions of high profile owners such as Mary Chipperfield and restrictions against moving animals between countries.

Today Jan, one of 100 people worldwide named a “visionary” by the Albert Einstein Foundation, and husband Tim Phillips reveal some of their riskiest operations across the world, exclusively to the Sunday People.

Their exploits have seen them save hundreds of animals including lions, tigers, bears, chimps, even a condor.

One of their most amazing successes was the rescue of more than 60 lions – including Leo seen on these pages – from cramped cages in circuses throughout Bolivia and Peru.

Jan, 65, said: “It is such a great feeling when we see the animals come out of their cages and go back where they belong. Seeing the lions back in Africa, you can tell they belong there.

Hugged

“They literally walked out and hugged the trees.”

New film Lion Ark follows Jan, Tim and ADI colleagues on their raids on the South American big tops. Tim added: “In Peru alone we rescued more than 100 animals. We took 30 lions back to Africa and re-housed bears at a sanctuary in the forests of Chile.”

Sometimes the couple end up rescuing animals they did not even know were caged. Jan said: “In Peru we raided a circus where we were told there was a condor. We also found a mountain lion. We couldn’t leave it.”

Jan and Tim, who met during a demo against animal experimentation in the 1990s, described the events which led to the high- profile conviction of Chipperfield in 1999.

During a series of undercover operations they shot footage of elephants, camels and even a baby chimp being beaten. Chipperfield was convicted of 13 counts of cruelty, leading to a sea-change in the public attitude towards animals in circuses.

Tim, 56, said: “We gave people the evidence and let them make up their own minds. We didn’t expect to see that kind of savage cruelty in the UK.