Two lion cubs, removed from a home in Durban's plush Westville suburb earlier this week, were to be released at a game reserve this weekend, according to home owner.
Speaking to East Coast Radio, Sabeehah Paruk insisted everything was “above board”, explaining that her brother had taken in the cubs, named Simba and Nala, from a farmer in Botswana and they were meant to be handed over to a new owner. However, he was unable to keep them and her brother offered to take the four-month-old felines.
She said the cubs were fed milk and allowed to roam her one-acre property.
IOL reported that the cubs were spotted on Tuesday at the Grayleigh property by a domestic worker who initially mistook them for dogs.
Speaking to IOL, Charnel Hattingh, of the Fidelity Services Group, said they were alerted to the call from a resident just after 1.30pm.
“A domestic worker alerted her employer to two men that she had seen in the garden with what she thought were two dogs. When our officers arrived and entered the property, they discovered two lion cubs in the garden,” Hattingh said.
She added that the local Community Policing Forum (CPF), police and SPCA officials arrived at the scene.
Paruk said when she got home from fetching her daughter at school, she panicked when she saw the SPCA van at her property.
She said she woke her brother up and told them that the SPCA were there for the cubs.
She added that the cubs were to be released this weekend.
KwaZulu-Natal police, Colonel Robert Netshiunda, said police in Westville have opened a criminal case under the National Environmental Management Act-Undertaking a restricted activity involving a threatened/protected species without a permit.
"No arrests have been made at this stage,“ Netshiunda said.
IOL News