Online Campaign Grows to Help Save Five Starving Lions in Sudan Park
There has been a growing online campaign to help save the five lions held in cages at Khartoum’s Al-Qureshi Park in an upscale district of the capital. For weeks, the animals have been suffering from a shortage of food and medicine. Online calls to help save these “malnourished and sick” African lions at a park in Sudan’s capital grew on Sunday.
Five African lions are starving in a park in Sudan / Image: NDTV
Osman Salih launched a Facebook campaign under the slogan #Sudananimalrescue, and wrote: “I was shaken when I saw these lions at the Park… their bones are protruding from the skin.”
Park officials and medics said the condition of the lions has deteriorated over the past few weeks, with some losing almost two-thirds of their body weight.
OMG!!! Those animals are near death. They need to be fed IMMEDIATELY and sent away to another zoo for safety reasons. This is awful! https://t.co/DScluolOL3
— Big Mouth (@BigMout04289536) January 20, 2020
The park is managed by Khartoum municipality but also funded in part by private donors. Essamelddine Hajjar, a manager at Al-Qureshi Park told AFP, “Food is not always available, so often we buy it from our money to feed them.”
On Sunday, crowds of citizens, volunteers and journalists visited the park to see the lions after their photographs went viral on social media networks. The online campaign to save starving lions in Sudan park demands that the lions should be moved to a better location with facilities of food and medicine.
From a Facebook called Humanphobia, translation: “Al Qurashi Park In Khartoum (Sudan)
Five Lions are skin and bone and someone died of hunger and neglect.
The remaining lions need care, enough food and treatment, otherwise they will die too
Please help asap” @BornFreeFDN pic.twitter.com/zSyq7qfnBF— Xpose Trophy Hunting (@XposeTrophyHunt) January 19, 2020
African lions are classified as a “vulnerable” species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Their population has dropped 43 percent between 1993 and 2014, with only about 20,000 alive today.
Sudan is in the midst of a worsening economic crisis, led by the soaring food prices and foreign currency shortage. The online campaign to save starving lions in Sudan park demands to move the majestic animals to a better place with facilities of food and medicine, as it is crucial for their survival.
Via: The Guardian
