A man who kept 2 lionesses at a Safari lodge in South Africa has tragically been mauled to death whilst taking them on their daily walk.
This terrible story proves the recklessness of wild animals in captivity…
Over the years, there has been an endless debate over the humanity of zoos.
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Keeping animals locked up behind bars for their entire lives is, quite simply, inhumane and cruel.
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Animals in a zoo are bought, sold, traded, and bred, whilst animals in a sanctuary are contained purely because they cannot live alone in the wild.
Animal sanctuaries are known to adapt much more to the animals’ natural surroundings.
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But this has been repeatedly shot down by many animal welfare organizations.
“Despite their professed concern for animals, zoos can more accurately be described as ‘collections’ of interesting animals than as actual havens or homes,” PETA said in a bold statement about animal captivity.
Yet millions of people visit zoos every year all around the world.
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And this doesn’t just apply to animals living in zoos.
Animals kept in any form of captivity are bound to experience high levels of stress…
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The Lion Tree Top Lodge, which is located near the town of Hoedspruit, about 280 miles north west of Johannesburg, is run by the Mathewson family.
Sixty-eight-year-old West Mathewson helped run the park with his wife and daughter…
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West would regularly walk the lions on the park, in particular the endangered white lions.
He was walking 2 lionesses that had been on the park since they were rescued as cubs from a hunting farm…
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But out of nowhere, the lionesses suddenly turned on West – a man who they were usually very placid around.
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But the 400lb animals wouldn’t let go of him, according to The Telegraph.
He was tragically pronounced dead shortly after the attack.
West’s daughter-in-law Tehri Fergusson told the paper it was unclear why the lions had killed him…
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But she said they had not tried to eat him and suggested his death could have been the result of “rough play.”
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“We will only know why he died when we have the results of the autopsy,” she then said.
Even though West had been doing this job for years…
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His daughter-in-law explained, “We have to realize, West was not as young as he thought he was. We are still not sure what actually happened but there was very rough play.”
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In 2017, they both broke out of their enclosure by climbing up a tree and jumping over the fence and attacked a worker and his friend on a neighboring property.
At the time of the incident, West stressed that the lionesses were friendly…