Airlift is sending 33 lions across Atlantic
Cats from circuses in S. America taken to South African refuge
In what is being called the largest lion airlift, 33 circus lions — together weighing more than 10,000 pounds — will begin the long trip from South America to South Africa on Friday.
The journey is being coordinated by Animal Defenders International, an animal rights organization, which negotiated their release and is raising money to pay for their flight. They will be taken to Johannesburg from Lima, Peru, before reaching their final destination: the Emoya Big Cat Sanctuary in Limpopo, South Africa.
“These lions have endured hell on earth, and now they are heading home to paradise,” Jan Creamer, the president of the rights group, said in a statement. “This is the world for which nature intended these animals for.”
Twenty-four of the lions are from Peru. They were rescued in raids on local circuses mostly over the past two years by the animal rights organization. The other nine, from Colombia, were surrendered by a circus there in 2014.
One of the lions in Peru — Smith — gained a measure of notoriety while in captivity for attacking a teacher in 2014. He was handed over to the organization soon afterward.
Colombia’s Congress passed a bill prohibiting circuses from using wild animals in 2013 but allowed a two-year reprieve before enforcing the law. Peru banned circuses from including wild animals in performances in 2011.
The lions — 22 males and 11 females — will be taken on pallets, and most will be kept in a single cage in a cargo jet, according to Christina Scaringe, Animal Defenders International’s general counsel. They will be organized by family groups and will be placed so they face others with whom they get along to ensure that they stay calm for the duration of the trip.
The lions will be taken care of during the trip by a team from Animal Defenders International, which will provide them water and meat.
Scaringe said the flight would take 14 to 15 hours, with a brief stop in Brazil to refuel the plane and change flight crews.
As of Wednesday afternoon, a significant portion of the $362,500 flight costs remained to be raised, but the organization planned to carry out the operation “no matter what,” Scaringe said. That amount includes the loading and transport costs, and fees.
Colleen Kinzley, the director of animal care, conservation and research at the Oakland Zoo, which donated over $10,000 to the effort, described the plight of lions that are used for entertainment.
“Often, what it takes to manage these animals in a way that allows people to share space with them is that they’re physically abused, disciplined with whips, bars and prods,” she said. “And I know that, in the case of these animals, many of them have had their claws and teeth removed in order for people to be able to work around them without being killed or maimed.”
The lions will not be released into the wild once they land because many have suffered injuries that would prevent them from hunting.
Animal Defenders International flew 25 lions to sanctuary in the United States in 2011. Scaringe said that she knew of no other rescue that had flown 33 lions in one plane.