Circus lions start new life at South African sanctuary after being freed

More than 30 lions taken to enclosure in Johannesburg after being rescued from circuses in Peru and Colombia

Caroline Mortimer

Sunday 01 May 2016 17:58 BST

A crate carrying one of 33 lions rescued from circuses in Peru and Colombia (Getty Images)

Lions rescued from circuses in Colombia and Peru have been released into a sanctuary in South Africa.

The 33 lions were given their first chance to explore their new home at the Emoya Big Cat Sanctuary just north of Johannesburg on Sunday after a two-day journey from South America.

One of the lions, a male known as Zeus, let out a roar before stepping out of his cage into the enclosure where the animals will spend the next few months being monitored by a vet.

But the animals will never be able to be released in the wild as they have been bred in captivity and do not know how to hunt.

Several of them were also mutilated by circus owners who broke their teeth and removed their claws.

The lions were freed after the use of wild animals in circuses was outlawed in the countries.

Tim Phillips, the co-founder of Animal Defenders International (ADI) which led the rescue of the lions, said they were "remarkably calm after such a long journey.

 A lion awaiting freedom en route to South Africa  (Getty Images)

"It was a dream come true watching them step of those cages into their new homes in the African bush."

ADI spokeswoman Han Creamer told the BBC: "This is a hugely important rescue mission because it does make a statement around the world about the way people treat animals.

"These lions have suffered tremendously."

Where not to visit if you love animals

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1/9Where not to visit if you love animals

Where not to visit if you love animals

Monkey shows

Chimpanzees are forced to perform demeaning tricks on leashes and are often subject to cruel training techniques. Animals who are confined to small, barren enclosures and forced to perform unsurprisingly show symptoms of stress and depression. Chimpanzees have been documented rocking back and forth, sucking their lips, salivating and swaying against enclosure perimeters in distress.

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Where not to visit if you love animals

Marine parks

Some parks confine orcas to concrete tanks and force them to perform meaningless tricks for food - many die in captivity. Orcas are highly intelligent and social mammals who may suffer immensely, both physically and mentally, when they're held in captivity.

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Where not to visit if you love animals

Tiger shows

Tigers are forced to live in an unnatural and barren environment and have to endure interactions with a constant stream of tourists. Since tigers never lose their wild instincts, across the world they are reportedly drugged, mutilated and restrained in order to make them “safe” for the public. However, every year, incidents of tiger maulings are reported at this type of tourist attraction.

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Where not to visit if you love animals

Donkey rides

Sunning on the beach is great for humans – we can take a quick dip or catch a bite to eat when we get too hot or hungry. But it's pure hell for donkeys who are confined to the beach and forced to cart children around on the hot sand. Some donkey-ride operators at beach resorts in the UK even keep the animals chained together at all times.

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Where not to visit if you love animals

Swimming with dolphins

Some marine parks use bottlenose dolphins in performances and offer visitors the opportunity to swim with dolphins. Unfortunately, people are often unaware that these animals are captured in the wild and torn from their families or traded between different parks around the world.

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Where not to visit if you love animals

Canned hunting

Lions are confined to fenced areas so that they can easily be cornered, with no chance of escape. Most of them will have been bred in captivity and then taken from their mothers to be hand-reared by the cub-petting industry. When they get too big, they may be drugged before they are released into a "hunting" enclosure. Because these animals are usually kept in fenced enclosures (ranging in size from just a few square yards to thousands of acres), they never stand a chance of surviving.

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Where not to visit if you love animals

Running of the Bulls

Every year, tourists travel to Pamplona for the Running of the Bulls. The bulls who are forced to slip and slide down the town's narrow cobblestone streets are chased straight into the bullring. They are then taunted, stabbed repeatedly and finally killed by the matador in front of a jeering crowd. The majority of Spaniards reject bullfighting, but tourists are keeping the cruel industry on its last legs.

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Where not to visit if you love animals

Horse-drawn carriages

City streets are no place for horses. The animals toil in all weather extremes, suffering from respiratory distress from breathing in exhaust fumes as well as numerous hoof, leg and back problems from walking on pavement all day long. As easily spooked prey animals, horses subjected to the loud noises and unexpected sounds of city streets are likely to be involved in accidents, even deadly ones.

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Where not to visit if you love animals

Zoos

The zoo community regards the animals it keeps as commodities, and animals are regularly bought, sold, borrowed and traded without any regard for established relationships. Zoos breed animals because the presence of babies draws visitors and boosts revenue, yet often, there's nowhere to put the offspring as they grow, and they are killed, as we saw with Marius the giraffe in Denmark. Some zoos have introduced evening events with loud music and alcohol which disrupt the incarcerated animals even further.

EPA

Peru banned the use of animals in circuses in 2011 and Colombia followed in 2013.

They are among a handful of countries which have totally banned the use of any animal in circuses which is not normally domesticated.

There has been an ongoing battle to get the practice outlawed in England - it is under the jurisdiction of the regional parliaments in the rest of the UK - as 12 private member's bills previously failed to get through their first reading in the House of Commons after being blocked by backbenchers.

A lion in his cage in Peru waiting to be taken to South Africa (Getty Images)

A fresh attempt was launched by a cross-party group of MPs in February but Conservative backbencher Christopher Chope - who was one of those who previously blocked the ban - said in the House of Commons that “good Conservatives should argue for less regulation and prohibition.

He said: “I think we have reached a compromise here where we’ve got a proper, tight welfare licensing regime without the need for a total ban or prohibition.”

Despite this 94 per cent of people in England and Wales support the ban, according to animal rights charity Peta.

Additional reporting by AP

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