Lion Ivan-Asen arrived safely at the animal welfare organisation's Big Cat Centre FELIDA in the Netherlands on March 25. A FOUR PAWS team had rescued him at the end of 2017, together with four other lions, from an illegal zoo in Razgrad where inbreeding and serious welfare issues were occurring. The goal of the upcoming work with Ivan-Asen is to provide him with the intensive care he needs after the neglect he has had to endure in his young life.

The transfer of Ivan-Asen follows that of the lion siblings Masoud and Terez, whom FOUR PAWS already brought to FELIDA in early February 2018. With Ivan-Asen's arrival at the Dutch Big Cat Centre, the lions, who come from the same family, are reunited.

1,962 kilometres without anaesthesia

Ivan-Asen was in very bad shape when FOUR PAWS first arrived at Razgrad Zoo in November 2017. Fortunately, the lion responded well to the treatment he received after his rescue during his temporary stay at Sofia Zoo. During this time, a FOUR PAWS animal keeper crate-trained Ivan-Asen on-site, with the result that he voluntarily went into his transport box. In this way, risky anaesthesia for the already weakened lion was avoided. Dr Marc Gölkel from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) was present during the entire transfer to examine and observe the three-year-old lion and attest to his ability to travel.

Home to many big cats

Ivan-Asen will now be able to further recover at the FOUR PAWS Big Cat Centre FELIDA, located in the Dutch town of Nijeberkoop. The international animal welfare organisation took over the centre in 2014, so assuming responsibility for the 26 big cats who were already housed there at the time. As FELIDA was primarily intended to serve as a transit and rehabilitation centre, FOUR PAWS moved most of the wild animals to the FOUR PAWS Big Cat Sanctuary LIONSROCK in South Africa. Besides the three lions rescued from Bulgaria, five tigers currently live at the Dutch Big Cat Centre. In the future, FOUR PAWS plans to expand the facility so that even more big cats can be rescued from poor keeping conditions and placed in large, near-natural enclosures.

Zoo without a license

Razgrad Zoo opened in 1960 and is located in northeastern Bulgaria. Although its license expired in 2014, the zoo remains open to visitors for free, and was financed by the unprofessional (in)breeding and sale of lions. Animals of various species – including lions, deer, reindeer, llamas, foxes, hogs and birds – still live in the illegal zoo. Since the city owns the zoo, FOUR PAWS convinced the mayor of Razgrad to intervene. At the end of last year, an international team of veterinarians provided medical care to the lions and sterilised two adult males. With this step, FOUR PAWS successfully ended the illegal breeding of lions at Razgrad Zoo.

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