Big cats pet crackdown begins in Pakistan following attacks
After animal attacks in Pakistan, the government is beginning to crackdown on big cats as pets, a booming but mostly unregulated trend. Compounds around the outskirts of Lahore housed lions, tigers, and other exotic pets, either kept in cages or roaming semi-free. For the owners, these were seen as status symbols, showing off wealth and power.
But a recent increase in attacks on people, including on children, has led authorities to crackdown.
38-year-old Fayyaz, a lion breeder and one of the most popular dealers of big cats in Pakistan is among those affected by the crackdown. His farm on the edge of Lahore houses more than two dozen lions, tigers, and cubs. It is reportedly the country’s largest privately owned facility of its kind.
“The animals are happy here,” he told the BBC in an exclusive interview. “When they see us, they come over, they eat… they’re not aggressive.” As he spoke, one of the lions roared. “That one is aggressive, it’s his nature,” he told reporters. He has spent the last decade selling cubs and breeding pairs to those who want to own these exotic pets. But following a lion escaping a private residence and attacking a woman and her two children, he and others like him will have to make a change.
A police report quoted the father of the children who claimed that the owners stood by as the lion mauled his family. The woman suffered bruises while the five- and seven-year-old were taken to hospital with minor injuries. Video footage of the incident, which went viral online, showed the animal leaping over a wall in a residential area before the attack.
The lion was being kept illegally without a license and was later confiscated and taken to a safari park. The owner was arrested.
The new rules will require, among other things, owners to pay a registration fee per animal of 50,000 Pakistani rupees (£129). Farms will be allowed to keep a maximum of 10 big cats and no more than two species and the site must be open to visits from the public.
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