The lion cub that a man is trying to subdue, in a video circulating on TikTok. (Screenshot)
A video posted on the TikTok social network shows a man opening a wooden crate and ruthlessly pulling out a chained lion cub. The young animal is clearly panicked: It rebels against the man, who struggles to control it, and ends up carrying it by the scruff of its neck, petting it and posing proudly with it. The lion cub, visibly tired, gives in.
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So far, it is a case of illegal big cat trafficking, prohibited by the Ministry of Agriculture in a decree dating back to 2016 as well as a classic case of mistreatment, since the conditions in which the animal was kept and transported are clearly shown on the images. But that is not what made a buzz. On Tuesday evening, the small feline's "owner," H.H., whose farm is located in a rural area above Tripoli's Abi Samra neighborhood, was forced to report the animal's disappearance to the police and the city's municipality.
"The case caused panic in the city because the information leaked on social networks was about a lion, not a cub," Riyad Yamak, president of Tripoli's municipal council, told L'Orient-Le Jour. The cub was found a few hours later in Abi Samra and returned to the farm.
The association Animals Lebanon, which is closely following this issue, notes that the man claimed on social networks that he had been "robbed of the cub," then declared a few hours later that he had recovered it. But according to several corroborating sources, the animal had escaped. In any case, the episode will have had an impact on the person who is holding him on his farm, and with whom we have tried to make contact without success.
Lion cub seized soon?
"I've had my eye on this man for some time, who illegally locks up several wild animals on his farm and struts around fearlessly on social networks," says Ghina Nahfawi Baltaji, an animal rights activist. According to her, by escaping, the cub has drawn attention to himself and to whoever is locking him up, in defiance of Lebanon's animal protection law adopted in 2017, and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, ratified by Lebanon in 2013.
Environment Minister Nasser Yassine, alerted by the activists, transferred the case to Ghassan Bassil, the attorney general in charge of environmental cases in North Lebanon. Baltaji and Animals Lebanon hope that justice will allow the lion cub to be seized as quickly as possible, as has been the case in other similar situations while taking the measures provided for by law against the culprit.
Animals Lebanon, as its Executive Director Jason Mier assured, is ready to take in the cub and place it in a sanctuary for big cats. The NGO has sent a message to the Minister of Agriculture, Abbas Hajj Hassan, who promised to have the animal seized as soon as possible, according to Mier. L'Orient-Le Jour was unable to contact Hajj Hassan for comment.
This case is far from isolated. Animal smuggling in Lebanon has raged for many years, and endangered species, including big cats, especially lions, often bear the brunt. "This lion cub must have been separated from its mother who knows when, and was probably smuggled into Lebanon," says Baltaji.
Over the years, the NGO Animals Lebanon alone has taken in more than twenty lions and tigers that were kept in private zoos or as exotic pets. Last September, it took in Kelly and Issam, two lion cubs who were also illegally trafficked as pets, and who have been in a sanctuary in Africa for several months.
This article originally appeared in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.