In pictures: Malnourished African lions cause global outrage; online campaign launched

Tribune Web Desk
Chandigarh, January 23

Horrific pictures of five malnourished African lions have sparked an outrage on social media— prompting animal rights’ activists around the world to begin an extensive campaign for their survival.  

The lions are in the Al-Qureshi Park and did not have enough food or medicines for weeks, resulting in their dire state.

A Facebook user shared several updates and pictures of the malnourished lions, and requested people to help the animals.

The user, Osman Salih wrote: “The Jungle Lion suffers severe hunger.. Photos of the sudanese trending on social media of a group of lions in the al-Qurashi Zoo In Khartoum, showing the difficult situation in which these lions live, where they suffered hunger and neglect until their bones came out. The campaign was launched from civil society activists, which called for the donation of food and medicines to save it. The campaign received a response from civil society activists and doctors who were ready to treat it for free to start a happy process. First Giraffes for lions.”

Salih also started the trend with the hashtag #SudanAnimalRescue, in order to spread awareness about the lions and seek help from others. The campaign is to provide medical supplies and food to the lions.

In one of the posts, in fact, Salih also mentioned that donors brought fresh meat for the lions while medicinal equipment’s such as antibiotics and IV drips were also procured.

Salih said that he had contacted park administration and turns out the wildlife police had been in charge of the welfare of the animals. While they were responsible for feeding the lions, they had stopped some time ago.

Apparently, the park officials also blamed the economic crisis in the country and the poor revenue turnover of the park itself for not being able to feed the lions.

According to AFP, however, one of the lionesses passed away after a prolonged battle with sickness.

Officials at the park and veterinarians said that the medical condition of the lions deteriorated over the past few weeks while some animals lost weight severely as well.

“Food is not always available. So, often we buy it from our own money to feed them,” Essamelddine Hajjar, a manager at the park, said, AFP reports.

The park, it appears, has not been maintained well and that has also affected the animals’ condition.