Many years after Argentina’s famous zoo was closed, a group of animals are finally being saved

Lujan, Argentina (AP) – Lions, tigers and bears managed to survive substandard conditions in puustos aires on Thursday, waiting for a chance to receive emergency veterinary care for the first time in years.

62 big cats and two brown bears were examined and treated before their safe transfer to the largest wild areas of the world – one of thousands of the largest and most challenging after the recent arrangement of Argentina with the international animal welfare organization.

Argentine authorities in 2020 closed the Lujan Zoo – famous for allowing visitors to pet and pose with tigers and lions – over safety concerns.

But the plight of captive cats was only there. Five years ago, these animals were supported by little more than a few faithful bookeepers, even though they lost their jobs in Lujan, they took it upon themselves to feed and take care of the lions and tigers left behind.

Most did not.

When four paws, an international animal organization, visited the zoo in 2023, the keepers counted 112 lions – of course down from the more than 200 big cats believed to have been kept at the zoo during its closure.

In two years, almost half of the animals have succumbed to illness from unhealthy food, wounds from fighting with animals they have never encountered in the wild and lack of medical organs from severe conditions.

“It was really shocking,” said the association’s chief executive officer, Luciana D’Abramo, pointing to a 3m by 3m stand filled with seven lions. “The fullness of heaven is an understatement.”

Ideally, two Asian tigers share a small cage with two African lions — “a social structure that would never be found in nature,” D’Abramo said. “There’s a lot of hostility, fighting.”

A single lion often gets 10,000 square meters to itself with four paw sanctuaries around the world.

After striking an agreement with the Argentine government earlier this year, the four paws took responsibility for the wild animals that survived in Lujan last month.

The memorandum of understanding involved Argentina will be able to end the sale and private ownership of exotic felines in the South American continent, where enforcement efforts tend to overwhelm the states and their laws.

Although the Vienna-based organization has previously released starving tigers from the Syrian civil war, abandoned bears and hyenas, lions in Mosul in Iraq and the banned tub in Gaza, it has never saved a large number of big cats before.

“Here, the number of animals and the conditions in which they are kept have made this a very big challenge,” said Dr. Amir Khalil, the veterinarian who led the team’s emergency deployment. “This is one of our biggest missions … not in Argentina or Latin America, but around the world.”

On Thursday, zookeepers and experts from the organization went around the derelict zoo to examine the animals one by one. Most were not blocked, sterile or microchlip

The team flashed resuscitated lions and tigers onto operating tables, administering nutrients, antibiotics and doses of pain medication through IV drips.

A quick check-up is often turned into an emergency surgery. One tiger was treated for bleeding from its tail last week, another for another female tumor on Thursday. A number of tigers and lions need root canals to repair broken horns from metal lecure bars.

Some get treatment for ingrown toenails from excessive movement on an unnatural, less than spartan plank.

After analyzing each animal in the coming weeks, the four paws will plan their transfer to more homes, natural homes around the world.

Some Argentine zookeepers who spent decades feeding and caring for big cats said they were happy to see four paws improving conditions. But there was also a sense of nostalgia for how things used to be.

“It used to be a very popular place … I’ve seen people cry because they could touch a lion or feed a lion with a bottle,” said Alberto Díez, who spent 27 years working with wild cats at the Zoo, who used the hands that many visitors were given.

“Times change, rules change, and you have to adapt or be left behind.”