- Four abandoned tigers are due to make their way to South Africa from Argentina soon.
- As part of a rescue mission by Four Paws, the tigers will be transported to Bethlehem.
- A travelling circus left the tigers with a farmer, then never returned.
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Two tigers abandoned by a travelling circus, along with their two grown offspring, are due to soon get a new home in Bethlehem, South Africa.
A rescue mission coordinated by Four Paws, a global animal welfare organisation, is preparing to rescue the family of four tigers from Argentina to relocate them to Lionsrock Big Cat Sanctuary, in Bethlehem in the eastern Free State.
Their team will travel to Argentina in the coming weeks at the invitation of the Argentinean Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development. The tigers will be flown from the northwest province of San Luis where they have been kept in a train carriage for 15 years, to OR Tambo in Johannesburg.
The big cats have been cooped up and limited to a 75 square metre carriage for over a decade. “All those years in such a small space have affected their mental and physical wellbeing for sure. We have a window of opportunity now to rescue them, and we will,” says lead of the rescue mission and Four Paws veterinarian Dr Amir Khalil.
It was during an inspection by a representative wildlife authority, Fauna San Luis, in 2021 that they ruled the tigers living conditions to be unfit for the animals. “The train carriage was filthy with excrement and leftover meat and bones for a long time, but fortunately this [will be rectified]. Tigers need to move, run, play, and bathe,” says Khalil.
(Nicolas Cabona)
In 2007, a travelling circus entrusted the then two tigers, a now 18-year-old male and 15-year-old female, to a local farmer, never to return. The farmer took care of the big cats as best he could but did not notify authorities immediately at the time due to the Argentinian law that forbids the private ownership of wild animals.
“By rescuing these four tigers in Argentina, we provide a better life for them individually and create awareness for all animals globally to be treated with respect, empathy and understanding,” says Four Paws CEO Josef Pfabigan.
(Nicolas Cabona)
The extraction of the tigers will be the organisation’s first rescue in South America. Lionsrock, one of the many sanctuaries founded by the organisation, is home to over 100 big cats rescued from “war-ravaged zoos, circuses, private ownership, and the canned hunting industry”.
There are only some 3,900 tigers left in the world. With insufficient global regulations there has been an increase of commercial tiger trade. Tigers are subjected to harsh cruelties with other big cats killed for their fur, skin, bones, and teeth.
“Every single programme and project we run to reveal suffering and to protect animals is special, just as every one of our rescue missions is. All our efforts matter for animal welfare worldwide,” said Luciana D’Abramo, Chief Development Officer at Four Paws.
