Peru banned circuses from using wild animals, but not all of them complied.
Animal Defenders International made it a priority to find confined and abused animals still kept by circuses. One they found was Mufasa,
a mountain lion that had been in the circus for at least 20 years. He was kept chained in the back of a pickup truck.
Mufasa’s
journey to freedom began in April, when ADI received a tip-off that
Circo Koreander was illegally operating with wild animals in an isolated
village in northern Peru. ADI, police and wildlife officers moved in
for a surprise raid but were met by hostile resistance. An eight hour
stand-off saw riot police and a Public Prosecutor called in before
Mufasa – Peru’s last wild animal in a circus – was handed over, along
with a condor.
The
cat was taken to the Spirit of Freedom rescue center near Lima to
recover. He got veterinary care and a pen to stretch out in. When he
recovered his health, Mufasa was taken on a three-day journey to the
Taricaya Ecological Reserve at the edge of the Tambopata rainforest
reserve. Now he has both support and the freedom to run through the
forest.
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