Lions at Kamo Wildlife Sanctuary. File picture. Photo: RNZ / Nick Monro
An animal welfare group says it is confident it can save five big cats due to be put down at a Whangārei lion park this week, despite having little more than another 24 hours to pull off a rescue.
HUHA founder Carolyn Press-McKenzie said her team had contacted the owners of the embattled Kamo Wildlife Sanctuary offering to find a new home for the remaining lions.
Efforts had now switched to finding a buyer for the 32ha Te Kamo property who would allow the ageing animals to live out what was left of their years at the park.
Despite the tight timeline - the group had only until Saturday to find the right person - Press-McKenzie said she was "quietly confident" of success.
Wellington-based HUHA (short for 'Helping You Help Animals') heard about the lions' possible fate at the same time as the rest of the country, she said.
Kamo Wildlife Sanctuary closed to the public on 2 November and on Monday its owners announced the seven remaining lions would be euthanised this week.
Two lions, Sabili, 18, and Imvula, 21, were put down on Wednesday due to declining health.
Press-McKenzie said HUHA contacted the owners to see if they could help save the big cats.
"We've got a bit of a track record of pulling off wee miracles when it comes to animal welfare," she said.
"You always assume people have done everything they can already, but because we've been doing this for 40 years, sometimes it's who you know, not what you know."
There are five lions remaining at Kamo Wildlife Sanctuary. Photo: RNZ / Nick Monro
The park's owners, Bolton Equities, accepted the offer immediately.
"They obviously genuinely care about the animals because they rescued them in the first place [after the park was placed in receivership in 2012]. I don't know the reason it needs to wrap up in such a hurry, but they're very grateful for our input and an opportunity to try and come up with a with a plan."
Press-McKenzie said the first thing her team did was to contact sanctuaries overseas, as well as the people who managed to get the former circus elephant Mila to a new home at San Diego Zoo.
However, given the lions' advanced age - they lived typically just 10 to 16 years in the wild - the owners believed relocating the cats would be neither viable nor humane.
"So we've changed tack, and now we're trying to find a buyer for the property so that the animals can remain in situ. We've got some good interest and we're working with some people who hopefully will be the saving grace of it all."
If the lions were able to stay, the park would not reopen to the public, and there would be no breeding or new animals brought in.
"It would be just to give them sanctuary and a lovely retirement. Bolton Equities have put a lot of work into the property and apparently they're happy there, they're healthy there."
In the meantime the owners had agreed to delay putting down the remaining lions.
"They did say that two of them were very elderly and had health issues and needed to be euthanised, but the other five, they were happy to hold on to for a short time while we did our due diligence and hustled around," she said.
"They're in good health and the facility is their home, so our strategy at the moment is to find a way they can stay. Maybe they only have another couple of years. It's just to give these animals that sort of lovely retirement they deserve."
Time was, however, limited, with HUHA needing to find "very real leads" by Saturday.
"And we do have some. But, obviously, things can change. We've got our fingers and toes crossed that the relationships we're working on are going to come to fruition. There's a chance that we can't pull this off, and if that's the case, I would hope New Zealand understands that everyone has tried everything they can. But I'm actually feeling quietly confident."
Press-McKenzie said HUHA had a history of pulling off rescues that others deemed too hard, including saving two crocodiles from concrete pits in the Solomon Islands earlier this year.
"We've been doing this for 40 years, and the unusual doesn't scare us. It's just a matter of sitting down and working out a plan."
HUHA had already shoulder-tapped other organisations, such as Safe and World Animal Protection, to make sure the lions, if saved, would receive the ongoing care they needed.
She also urged anyone in a position to buy the property to make contact, so there was a back-up plan in case current options did not work out.
The lion's predicament has sparked an outpouring of sympathy, offers of help, and in some cases outrage and abuse, from around the world.
Press-McKenzie said the world had changed, and most people realised the way animals had been treated in the past - such as keeping monkeys for circus entertainment - was "pretty incredibly awful".
"I think we all realise that these lions being in this situation is a man-made problem. They're in that situation because society put them there, and I think it's up to us to honour our commitment to them and put it right and give them the retirement they deserve. And I think we all need to be mindful that this sort of stuff can't happen again."
Bolton Equities director Laurie Margrain said the company was doing everything it could to preserve the cats' lives.
Given their age, however, they were only expected to live another six to 12 months at most.
"We have spent 10 to 12 million dollars in the past 12 years simply keeping the cats alive, for absolutely no financial return," he said.
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