Bold plan to fly abused lions to SA
Complex operation to bring pride of Africa home from Ukraine
● A motley pride of lions plucked from appalling conditions in zoos, breeding facilities and even a monastery in Ukraine may soon set paw on South African soil.
South African animal activist Lionel de Lange is planning the final chapter of a rescue mission to save the cats, racing against the clock to secure a spot for them on a cargo flight from the former Eastern Bloc state.
“We don’t have a lot of time. When we sedate them when it’s so cold there is a chance they won’t wake up, and I don’t want to lose any of them. Also, in the enclosures we have, they won’t survive another winter.”
The lions, five adults and seven cubs, will find new homes in sanctuaries in the Free State and the North West.
But getting them out of Ukraine is the biggest hurdle. The predators have to be shuttled nearly 700km overland from three separate facilities in Ukraine before they’re loaded aboard a plane. The trip is tentatively scheduled for October or November.
Once they touch down at OR Tambo International, they will be lightly sedated, hauled from their transport crates and heaved into a fleet of light aircraft.
“They’ll be lying at our feet in the small aircraft with vets making sure they stay under as we get them to their new homes,” said De Lange, who is executive director of the Lawrence Anthony Earth Organisation in Ukraine and who last year rehomed four adult lions from the country.
Lax legislation, he said, meant any Ukrainian could own wild animals.
“You just need to make sure they’re locked up and don’t kill anybody. Some of the adults we rescued had been kept in cramped transport crates their entire lives.
“One of the females was kept in a shed at a monastery and she was being forced to be vegetarian, with the monks giving her oats. We’re lucky we got to her when we did because she was going to die.
“I love animals and my father taught me to respect every creature. I can’t stand by and let this continue. It’s cruel.”
De Lange said his last rescue mission had endeared him to local animal rights activists, who tipped him off about abused lions.
“We negotiate with the owners to part ways with these animals and sometimes they are willing and other times we really have to fight,” he said.
“It’s terrible to see them like that. Animal dealers rip the cubs away from their mothers after two weeks and that forces the mother to go back into heat again, with some having three litters a year. The cubs don’t get the nutrition they need so they develop issues with their legs and spines. It makes me angry.”
The 54-year-old said he had developed a close bond with his rescued lions.
12 THE NUMBER of lions that will be flown to SA from Ukraine
R700,000 APPROXIMATE COST of the flights alone in the rescue mission
“I love them all, but the best-looking dude is Luke. He’s a handsome cat and when we found him he was on the verge of starvation. Now he looks really good. The cubs were part of a petting zoo, so they’ve been conditioned to crave human interaction. It’s not the way things are supposed to be, but I’ll give them a tug on the ear or tummy scratch, so they know they are loved.”
De Lange, who relies on donations and crowdfunding to carry out his rescues, said they are negotiating with airlines to try and bring down the R700,000 airfreight bill.
“It is a lot of stress, but saving just one of these lions will be enough reward for me.”