Simba and Sima, two young lionesses from a wildlife rehabilitation center in the Khmelnytskyi region, escaped on November 15. The animals have already been returned, but law enforcement officials are investigating the reasons for the predators' dangerous outing.
This was reported by Suspilne Khmelnytskyi.
The media outlet cites the position of the director of the private center, Serhii Palokhin. The man insists that the locks on the enclosure doors were broken by unknown persons. After they are replaced, the lionesses will return to where they escaped from.
"In 2023, an Indian brought these lions to me for temporary custody for 3-4 months. And he himself "disappeared" abroad, without a trace. And I couldn't take them anywhere, they were my responsibility," Sergei Palokhin told reporters.
However, it later became known that the animals would still be transferred to the Kyiv Wildlife Rescue Center. After examination and recovery, they will be moved to one of the foreign rehabilitation centers.
The ethical side of the issue
Environmentalists consider the escape of lions to be another example of the imperfection of Ukrainian legislation. The founder of the NGO "Green Power," Andriana Baylo, calls for the launch of a mechanism for issuing permits for keeping wild animals. According to her, although it is prescribed by law, it does not work in practice. She assesses the work of the rehabilitation center even more harshly.
"This shop should have been closed down long ago, as there is no control over the breeding of wild animals, which then leads to the animals ending up in terrible conditions, becoming objects of smuggling, and so on," the eco-activist writes on her Facebook page.
Legal consequences
Emergency services, police, and trainers searched for the escaped predators. The State Emergency Service additionally used a drone with a thermal imager to track the lionesses.
Several animals in neighboring enclosures with predators fell victim to this incident.
Specialists from the Khmelnytsky Regional Prosecutor's Office are determining how the lionesses actually escaped, who helped them, and whether the center's employees acted correctly. The entire situation is being classified as cruelty to animals.
