Recent photos taken in the Al-Qureshi Park in Khartoum, Sudan, have made their way online and people are outraged.
The photos taken show lions that are starving and malnourished so much that they resemble ghosts of their former selves.
The issue was shared on Social Media by animal rights advocate Osman Salih who discovered the malnourished lions while visiting the park by chance.
He had taken the photos of the animals and shared them on Social Media. The photos show the animals so malnourished that their ribs were visible and they were no more than one-third of what they should weigh.
The animals could be seen lying down, not capable of even standing up.
When he contacted the authorities in charge of caring for the animals they responded that they were feeding the animals regularly but had to stop because of funding. According to them, the monthly profit from the whole park is not enough to feed one lion for even one week, so they had no more money to feed the lions.
The photos shocked the Sudanese animal activists and went viral quickly, grabbing the attention of other activists around the globe. The hashtag #Sudananimalrescue quickly became trending.
People did indeed come together to rescue the lions and donations started flooding in, and the lions were given meds and food, but unfortunately, help didn’t come soon enough.
One of the two sick lionesses passed away, while the other was recovering slowly.
Osama has since then urged supporters to bring food directly to the animals instead of donating to the park. This will save much time in avoiding the logistics that come with donations.
Thankfully, things seem to be looking brighter.
Update: The lions are getting fed much better now and are very slowly gaining weight. Here is an update Osman shared on his Facebook page on the 23rd of January, 2020:
