Photo: Courtesy Animal Defenders International
After spending years performing in circuses in Guatemala, and patiently waiting through an 18-month rescue mission, 12 tigers and 5 lions are finally free.
“These animals have experienced a lifetime of suffering and abuse in circuses in Guatemala but those days are over. At the ADI Wildlife Sanctuary, our place of loving kindness, the tigers and lions can run, play, and explore their wonderful, natural surroundings under the African sun. The beginning of the rest of their lives, we could not be happier for them,” Jan Creamer, President of ADI, said in a statement.
Courtesy Animal Defenders International
The last step of this long journey began on January 18 at the ADI Temporary Rescue Center in Guatemala, where the big cats had been living since being saved from circus life. Each of animal was carefully loaded into their own travel crates and trucked to an airport in Guatemala.
That evening and the following morning, ADI safely unloaded all of the animals into their new reality. Some of the animals, who had formed close bonds during their time together in the circus, rushed to meet each other in the wide, open space, and all of the lions and tigers quickly adjusted to their new abode, complete with several exciting amenities.
Unlike the small, bare cages that these big cats spent the majority of their time in at the circus, their new home has acres of grassland filled with trees, bushes, dens, pools and more.
With this addition, there are now 43 big cats living at the sanctuary, and all but one are former circus animals from Latin America.
Moving 17 lions and tigers from our continent to another takes a village. Along with the dedicated work of ADI, O. R. Tambo International Airport and Priority Worldwide, a freight and shipping service, stepped up to make sure these animals made it to their final destination without issue.
To learn more about this group of recently relocated big cats and how to help animals like them, visitADI’s website.
source: people.com
