Lion cub in need of new home after concerns rise over safety
Donegal park removes animal after complaint
A 1-year-old lion cub was separated from his mother and father at the Living Treasures Wild Animal Park in Donegal after a customer complained that she heard the cub had been repeatedly attacked by his father.
Tom Guiher, owner of the Westmoreland County facility that houses 300 animals, said he removed Thor from the enclosure where he has lived his entire life with Thunder, his father, and Nevara, his mother, “so that people do not have to worry about him.”
He said he moved the cub to a separate cage Monday while he looks for a sanctuary that can give Thor a safe and happy home, ideally with lions that will accept him.
“Thunder has been an exemplary father. He loves his cubs and plays with them,” Mr. Guiher said, adding that the 6-yearold male had fathered three litters of cubs and had never injured any of them.
The complaint originated with Melissa Hoffman of Murrysville, who took her two children to Living Treasures on July 2. In a video she shot and sent to Big Cat Rescue in Tampa, Fla., the cub appears to be lethargic before walking with a slow, unsteady gait to play with his mother.
Big Cat Rescue posted the complaint and video on its Facebook page and sent out emails, saying, “The cub appears physically injured,” and urging people to “SPEAK UP for this lion cub before it’s too late”.
Mrs. Hoffman, in a telephone interview, said the male lion was sleeping when she was at the zoo but said an employee told her the male “repeatedly attacks” the cub.
“I didn’t know who to call” with her concerns, so she contacted Big Cat Rescue. “I just wanted to make sure the cub is OK. I have nothing bad to say about Living Treasures. I will go back.”
Thor “is a special-needs cat,” Mr. Guiher said, adding that, like all of the animals at Living Treasures, Thor is regularly seen and treated by a veterinarian.
Thunder weighs 450 pounds and Thor weighs 85 to 100 pounds. Mr. Guiher said, “The dad could kill the son in 10 seconds” if there was an attack. He said he generally separates male cubs from their fathers when the cubs are about 2 years old.
On the Living Treasures Facebook page, Mr. Guiher posted this: “Thor was born with a mental disability that hampers his ability to move correctly.”
Thor is “old enough to be weaned” and his mother no longer nurses him, “but she misses Thor” since the cub was moved, Mr. Guiher said.
Living Treasures is licensed by the Pennsylvania Game Commission to operate as a “wildlife menagerie,” said commission spokesman Tom Fazi. The agency conducts yearly inspections “and we have received no recent complaints.”
The facility has also passed yearly inspections by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Susan Bass, spokeswoman for Big Cat Rescue, said the organization backs proposed federal legislation that would “end the private possession of big cats.”
The Big Cats & Public Safety Act, expected to be introduced in Congress in two weeks, would not affect the Pittsburgh zoo and others accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, she said, nor would it affect accredited sanctuaries such as Big Cat Rescue, which currently has 85 large cats, including tigers.