Actress who let Lion live in her home, now regrets it (photos)

‘We were stupid beyond belief to have that lion in our house’: Tippi Hedren reveals her regrets at letting beast share family home – and even letting it sleep in daughter Melanie Griffith’s bed! 

• Picture set from 1971 shows Griffith relaxing outside with her pet - called Neil - at her home in Los Angeles
• The intimate set even show her sharing a bed with Neil, and seeming carefree even as he grabs at her legs
• Griffith's mother - starlet Tippi Hedren - and her then-husband Noel Marshall, a Hollywood Agent, are also shown
• Hedren says she is now embarrassed and regrets letting a fully grown lion live with her family in the 1970s

Hollywood actress Tippi Hedren has revealed her embarrassment and regret that she let a fully grown lion live with her family in the 1970s, saying they were ‘stupid beyond belief’ to let the beast play with her daughter Melanie Griffth, then aged just 13.
In pictures taken for LIFE magazine, the Lion – named Neil – can be seen relaxing by the family’s pool, lounging in Melanie’s bed and becoming a distraction in the office.

But Hedren has revealed that looking back she finds the pictures humiliating and admits she ‘should never have taken those risks’.

‘I cringe when I see those pictures now,’ she told me this week. ‘I have to tell you we were stupid beyond belief. We should never have taken those risks. These animals are so fast, and if they decide to go after you, nothing but a bullet to the brain will stop them.’ 

We’re dealing with animals who are psychopaths,’
‘They have no conscience or remorse genes, and they will kill you for their dinner.’

 While her family were never harmed by Neil, one night he attacked his owner Ron Oxley during a dinner party for British guests at their home.

 

                   

He taught us, and Melanie especially, to respect the animal and not do anything that might annoy him, like scratch his nose or suddenly run up and put your arms around him.’
Other advice included not turning one’s back on him as he loved to come and trip people, knowing that if you move quickly he will want to play and he plays ‘rough’ and to pet him under his chin or deep in his mane but not on his face. 

Most important, they were warned to take care the lion didn’t become possessive about anything, even a chair, which is when they are at their most dangerous ...

Indeed, after she, Melanie and the rest of their family suffered a string of serious injuries inflicted by the big cats they went on to adopt after Neil, Hedren has turned full circle in her attitude to such exotic pets.

Now 84, she runs a sanctuary, California’s Shambala Preserve, for some 32 big cats, and is an outspoken critic of the practice - still legal in much of the U.S. - of keeping them as domestic pets