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Meet the rescued families on the link:

https://lionsbacktoafrica.org/meet-the-families/


...10 mins ago.


LEO’S DAY AT THE DENTIST. Massive favourite with ADI supporters Leo is sedated by Dr Peter Caldwell ready for dental surgery. The first lion to be rescued during ADI’s Operation Spirit of Freedom in Peru, Leo seemed broken and fading fast, but in our care his lust for life was rekindled. At Emoya Big Cat Sanctuary in South Africa, Leo is being prepared for life in a large natural bush enclosure with his family - can you help complete his home?

...15 mins ago.


REPAIRING THE HIDDEN HORRORS OF CIRCUSES: Rescued during ADI’s Operation Spirit of Freedom that closed down ALL of Peru’s wild animal circuses, every one of Leo’s canine teeth had been smashed in the circus. Veterinary dentist Dr Gerhard Steenkamp is putting right the battering the brave old lion’s mouth took. This is part of the preparations to get Leo ready to be reunited with his family and released into his large natural bush enclosure.

Granny, you're breaking my heart.

Beethoven, I could post a whole lot more which could break Superman.

Until we have our hearts broken , we cannot share suffering.

The good news is that, hopefully, all these lions will now enjoy the remainder of their lives in sanctuary.

LEO


Legendary Leo ... we had just given him his antibiotics ... which he needs after his 1st session of dental rehab

If you read Smith's story, you will see that the circus were not going to release him. That was before he attacked a teacher in the ring, and dragged her around like a rag doll. His friends had been released to ADI and he was obviously unhappy that he had been left on his own. The teacher was ok , apart from shock, but his actions saved him and he was released to ADI.

Have a look at this video....it might make you feel better. In they go with their pitch forks.

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and now you can have another heart break..if you dare.

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and then there's this sort of thing. (if you can take anymore)He's safe now with friends.

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The end of a long day for LEO....



OLD LEO BATTLES HIS WAY TO DAUGHTER. After extensive dental surgery, Leo, one of the lions rescued from a circus in South America by ADI, was returned to his enclosure to recover. Daughter, Africa, came to the fence of her adjoining enclosure to watch over Leo, and as he stirred, she began rushing back and forth. Leo pushed himself up and saw her.

Half conscious, he hauled himself up but fell back. He kept going with Africa seeming to urge him on. He would get up and take a few steps before his wobbly legs gave way. Each time he stumbled or sank to the ground, she craned forward. Finally, he reached the fence, she nuzzled his back and reached her paws out to touch him, Leo turned and their noses met before he settled down next to her.

Zeus ... He is the largest of the 6 Colombian males rescued by ADI ... He also has (cranial) nerve damage (which may have been caused by repeated beatings) and his tongue is often simply hanging out of his mouth ... he receives treatment prescribed by our vet, Dr Peter Caldwell and we hope to improve his condition.

Although very big and initially he was upset (angry) ... Zeus is beautiful and takes his medication so gently ...

Muneca, Africa and Kiara waking up as the sun rises in South Africa. The three lionesses, who were saved from a circus that ADI pursued for eight months after it initially slipped through the net, must surely hardly believe their eyes as they wake up each day to see the African bush and not the bars of their circus cage in South America. Please help us build the huge new enclosure where the lionesses will soon rejoin Leo. Last week, Leo and Muneca had dental surgery to repair damaged teeth and Africa and Kiara were spayed ready for their new life as a pride.

WORLD LION DAY 10TH AUGUST



Post your favourite picture of a lion.




Emoya Big Cat Sanctuary . Savanah Heuser at the age of 16yrs in 2012 had a dream. This is her dream come true.
You can donate if wished.

http://33lions.org/about-emoya/


[youtube]0y2WGGiASyI[/youtube]

For those who are interested; The latest picture for OJ . Poor old boy. Enjoying his new life with no more tooth ache and no more fear.



Ojiclaro ... or OJ (as we call him) ... rescued by Animal Defenders International in Colombia.

Last week OJ had extensive dental surgery

Poor thing!!! Hope he has the life he deserves now.

I'm sure he will. Some nice news to be released soon about OJ and his friend ,Iron.

What Happens To The Animals After The Circus Leaves Town

SMITH



Smith was destined for execution. The lion had already been castrated, declawed, separated from his mate, Amazonas, and caged with another male’s offspring. He was agitated. Then one day in August 2014, during a circus performance in Peru, as he sat perched on a pedestal above a spectator’s head, which was lowered, exposing the back of her neck, the trainer commanded Smith to jump, and his natural instinct prevailed. He pounced on the audience member, grabbing her in his jaws and dragging her around the ring until a handler beat Smith into submission and forced him back into a cage.
The spectator survived, but the incident triggered an outcry for the lion to be euthanized, says Tim Phillips, vice president of Animal Defenders International. His group countered by pointing out how it was people, not Smith, who had acted recklessly and violated a law banning wild animals in circuses. ADI successfully pleaded with Peruvian authorities for Smith’s life to be spared and, with law enforcement’s help, the group returned a few days later to seize the lion from Circo de Monaco. “The world would be appalled if a lion is effectively murdered for what comes naturally when it was human beings and the circus being completely irresponsible and stupid,” Phillips says.
Husband-and-wife team Phillips and Jan Creamer founded ADI in 1990. Creamer’s passion for animal rights began in the 1970s when she saw a leaflet about researchers forcing beagles to smoke cigarettes in lab experiments. She later became chief executive of the National Anti-Vivisection Society, which combats the use of animals in product testing and scientific research. Creamer has filmed the mistreatment of animals in entertainment, circuses, labs and slaughterhouses. As for Phillips, after seeing the 1981 documentary The Animals Film, he promptly quit his banking job, became a vegetarian, bought a camera and started documenting abuse.

About a decade ago, they arranged an undercover team to infiltrate circuses throughout South America. Their clandestine footage revealed appalling instances of animals beaten and shocked with stun guns, chained up, malnourished, living in deplorable conditions and with missing eyes or smashed-in teeth. The work eventually led to Bolivia banning wild and domestic animals in circuses in 2009. But not all complied, and Operation Lion Ark commenced. ADI teams tracked down illegal traveling circuses across Bolivia, rescued 29 lions (as well as other animals) and airlifted 25 of them to the Wild Animal Sanctuary near Denver.
The animals at the 720-acre sanctuary—the largest in the United States—are representative of the animals in such refuges across the world. Most of the roughly 400 large animals here came from people keeping them illegally as pets or in abusive situations. Two black bears were raised by a taxidermist to be killed, mounted and sold. One female mountain lion was confiscated after the person holding her as a pet beat her unconscious with a baseball bat when the lion played too rough. Two wolves were raised in the mountains by a husband and wife who later divorced. The husband, to spite his ex-wife, hired someone to kill the wolves. But the shooter called the sanctuary instead.
Captive-born carnivores have a “very warped view of life,” says Wild Animal Sanctuary Executive Director Pat Craig. “Most don’t even know how to function in a family setting, or have the muscles or coordination to run or play in a large space.” So once an animal is rescued, it will likely need to undergo significant rehabilitation—which can happen only in sanctuaries with enough money to build enclosures where animals have space to roam, and the trained personnel to work on muscle and motor skill development, address medical problems like poor diets and missing teeth, and teach the animals to use their natural instinct.

Once Operation Lion Ark animals were placed, it was time to move on to the next country: Peru, which passed its ban in 2011. Operation Spirit of Freedom began in early 2014, when ADI and Peruvian authorities went about finding circuses and roadside zoos. “When you consider Peru is the size of Texas and California combined and is split by the Andes, you kind of get an impression of the sheer scale of tracking down a small circus that has two lions and might be in the jungle somewhere,” Phillips says. And once they did find them, they’d often face hostile opposition from circus workers. For example, some would bang on cages to rile up the animals, making raids chaotic. In another confrontation, a family who owned a traveling circus barricaded a puma in a truck bed behind equipment and tools, refusing to comply. They argued that turning over the animal would destroy their livelihood.

To obtain Smith, Creamer entered the circus—a traveling affair, at the time it was located in Cuzco, the gateway to the Sacred Valley of the Incas and the ancient city of Machu Picchu—with police officers, and a face-off ensued for several hours. According to Phillips, the circus handlers threatened to release the wild animals into the streets if rescuers didn’t back down. After more negotiating, rescuers left with three lions, leaving two cubs, Smith and a spider monkey named Pepe behind. A few days later—after Smith attacked the spectator—accompanied by police in riot gear, rescuers seized the remaining animals. Then it was a 35-hour drive back to the temporary holding facility in Lima, Peru. “We go through hell on earth to get these animals,” Phillips says.

In the end, about 90 animals—including lions, monkeys, kinkajous, a tiger and a tortoise—were recovered from Peru and Colombia, and placed in the Lima holding facility until they could be relocated to permanent homes. Colorado resident Brenda Lee volunteered at the facility for two weeks, helping with feeding, cleaning and vaccinating the lions and monkeys. “You could tell which ones had been really traumatized,” she says; they were easily spooked.

A big chunk of change next went to the construction of habitats and the relocation of 39 monkeys and other animals to sites near Iquitos, Peru—the biggest city in the world inaccessible by road—an effort that required numerous trips through the unrelenting heat and torrential rain of the Amazon rainforest, which Phillips describes as working in an “absolute quagmire.” In April 2015, a large group of animals flew 600 miles on a Peruvian Air Force aircraft and then traveled by road to a naval base to board boats headed upriver to their final destination—semi-captive, ADI-constructed jungle habitats, far away from people.

In late October, Smith and the 32 other lions will travel on a chartered Boeing 747 from the holding facility in Lima to Johannesburg, South Africa, and onto the Emoya Big Cat Sanctuary, a 12,000-acre facility where the goal is to reintroduce Smith to his former mate, Amazonas. This will be the biggest airlift of its kind, according to organizers. The sanctuary is on a private estate in Limpopo, the northernmost province in the country, and is closed to the public. It also has a no-breeding policy. Still to come: constructing large, natural habitats and enclosures for these lions—another major expense. Phillips says all the challenges in rescuing and placing these animals have been worth it: “When you see Smith being so playful, you think if you had just taken the easy option, he would have just lived and died in that circus cage.”

Introducing you to IRON..

Iron is OJ's friend. The two were kept together in the cage, the picture of which I posted of how they were found when they were rescued.

Iron by name, Iron by nature.

He was the first lion to be released from their travel cages into Emoya Sanctuary and immediately went over to a tree and rubbed his head. Something he had never had before. This picture seems to tell a story of liberation. There are some special updates to come through about Iron. Stay tuned.

These are the disadvantaged pair. Joseph with cataracts and although not completely blind, his other senses are affected also. Ricardo has only one eye.


Much loved Ricardo (sleeping in front) and Joseph ... we have not met a single person who "met" Ricardo and Joseph and did not feel love and compassion ... These two old gentlemen have a way to touch hearts ... often we just sit and watch them ...

Many people ask about how they live ... this should give you an idea of the 3 Bonnox Pty Ltd rooms they share ... they truly live next to each other and can see, hear and even "touch" if they wish ...

They have 3 "rooms" ... each room has a "tent" ... several large trees for shade (but we did remove the vast majority of shrubs and smaller trees to prevent Joseph from walking into them and injuring himself ... each room has a concrete water bowl which fills up automatically ... Ricardo has a hay bale ... which he adores ... they live across from two sweethearts, Liso & Jose ...