Developer to scrap lion statues with bared anatomy
Associated Press

GLENDALE – Eight lion statues with bared anatomy will have to find a new kingdom.

The statues guard a children’s water fountain park and sit across from what will soon be Arizona’s largest cinema complex in Glendale, just north of the new University of Phoenix Stadium.

The concrete beasts are depicted raising their rear‑ends in the air, each hovering over a terror‑stricken ram in what some perceive as a sexually suggestive pose. The lions’ tails are swished to the side, leaving their, er, pride in plain view.

Developer Ellman Cos., which is building the Westgate shopping and entertainment plaza, said the statues will be gone before the center welcomes its first customers next month.

“We’re removing more than the anatomy,” company spokesman Jeffrey Hecht said. “We’re removing all the lions.”

Hecht said Ellman was not pressured to get rid of the beasts. “(The statues) represent too much of a gargoyle or medieval feel that was out of place from the Arizona Deco architecture of the center,” he said.

Construction workers have been making jokes about the lions for weeks, but at least one of them doesn’t think they should be scrapped.

Children wouldn’t give the lions a second thought, said Biff Bennett, who installs sprinkler systems at the site.

“If it’s killing a ram, I don’t see anything unnatural with that,” the Phoenix resident said. “It’s a male lion. Are you going to remove the gonads of a lion in the zoo?”

Glendale Councilwoman Joyce Clark says they aren’t appropriate for a family park.

“I can see children getting an instant lesson in the birds and the bees, which maybe their parents wouldn’t want them to have,” she said.

Hecht said the molded, mass‑produced statues were ordered by a landscape architect, and that the company is still deciding whether to replace the statues with public art pieces.

“We’re still in the design phase of what we’re doing,” he said. “We’re testing different items and features to see if they will work or not. The general consensus is the lions do not work.”