Two lions and two tigers from Ukraine safe in the Netherlands

After a long journey through Ukraine, Poland, Germany and the Netherlands, two lions and two tigers arrived safely at the end of the morning at the shelter of the Lion Foundation in Anna Pavlovna in North Holland.

It concerns two lion males (father and son) of 3.5 and 1.5 years old, a tiger male of 6 months and a tigress of 5 years.

The tigress in particular is traumatized. “She is skinny, sick and very afraid of people,” says Robert Kruijff of the Leeuw foundation NH News† “Rest, cleanliness and regularity are now the most important for the animals. We hope they will recover.”

The four animals come from a zoo near Kharkov, in eastern Ukraine. Remarkably enough, there were already plans three-quarters of years ago to take them in outside Ukraine, because there was already no money left to take care of them properly. The war accelerated those plans.

Chaos at the border

“There is always bombing, so the keepers didn’t dare to feed the animals anymore, but that has to happen, of course. There is no power anymore and so the heating goes out. Not only are the animals hypothermic and hungry, but so are the caretakers.” says Kruijff earlier.

The transport of the animals was initially dramatic. While being transported from Kharkov to the Ukrainian-Polish border, right through the war zone, two caretakers were shot dead. It was chaos at the border itself, says Piet Pieters. He helped transfer the animals into a Dutch delivery van. “There were all emergency services driving there, a lot of ambulances.”

Pieters saw not only people, but also cars full of cats and dogs that were brought from Ukraine. “It’s all unbelievable. You can feel the tension at the border.”

Relocation in South Africa

Now that the animals are in the Netherlands, Kruijff is mainly concerned about the tigress. “She will soon be fed very small pieces of chicken to get her stomach going again.” But will she make it? “From what I’ve heard and seen so far, I don’t know if she’ll make it to the end of the week.”

Like the three other animals, the tigress will first be quarantined in Anna Pavlovna for a month. The tigers and lions are then prepared with a hunting simulator for ‘relocation’ in a reserve in South Africa.

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