The creatures are being nursed back to health after years of abuse
SIMEON TEGEL
Lima
The traffic cones last a day, the giant bags of catnip a few
minutes, the footballs just seconds. In a temporary compound in a dusty,
down-at-heel suburb of Lima, the toys, and the stimulation they
provide, are among the first treats that 24 lions rescued from Peruvian
circuses have ever experienced.
The big cats were seized, with the aid of local authorities, by
Animal Defenders International (ADI), a British charity that first
campaigned for Peru’s ground-breaking 2011 national ban – which the UK
and US have yet to match. After years of abuse, often being fed a meagre
diet of chicken feet, and only ever briefly escaping tiny cages to
provide a spectacle for circus-goers, the creatures are being nursed
back to health.
In November, with nine more lions from Colombia, they embark on the
final stage of their journey, on a chartered plane, to a new life of
relative freedom in a South African sanctuary. The airlift is thought to
be the largest ever of big cats. All were born into captivity, says ADI
President Jan Creamer, with many having been declawed. Others have
wasted muscles and broken teeth, the result of being “disciplined” with
crowbars. A couple are nearly blind due to a lack of veterinary
treatment.
That means none have the hunting skills needed to be released into
the wild. Instead, their new lives at the private Emoya Big Cat
Sanctuary, in Limpopo province, will be the perfect finale to a story
that might have seen them otherwise being put down.
Several of them who arrived badly underweight are piling on the
pounds. The lions, which are social animals, are also being carefully
introduced to each other to allow them to form prides. They are also
being microchipped to allow easy tracking of them at Emoya.
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