WARSAW: Five lions including three cubs evacuated from Ukraine have found temporary refuge in Poznan in western Poland, the city’s zoo said Wednesday.
“The lions are safe and sound,” Remigiusz Kozinski of the zoo’s education department told AFP.
“They arrived here on Tuesday. We had to tranquilize them when they arrived. They came quietly into their new cages,” he added.
The lion in the group was separated from the lioness, who is with the three cubs, said Kozinksi. “They are adapting to their new conditions.”
The new arrivals are to stay at Poznan for the next few weeks before moving on to establishments in other countries, he added.
“The evacuation of these big cats was made possible thanks to the collaboration between the International Federation for Animal Welfare (IFAW), Wild Animal Rescue, UAnimals and Poznan Zoo,” said a statement Wednesday from IFAW.
The lioness, three-year-old Asya, had been rescued while heavily pregnant from the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, it added. She had her cubs, Teddi, Emi and Santa in October.
“They are fortunate to still be nursing from the mother, and have had little human interaction,” the IFAW said.
The two-year old lion, Viseris, while rescued from the same private facility, was not believed to be related to the others.
“These are the unexpected victims of this war,” said Natalia Gozak of IFAW.
“Lions that should be roaming the plains of Africa, have instead been found in backyard breeding facilities in my country ravaged by Russian invasion.
“As their owners were forced to flee, they were left to languish,” she added.
Since most big cats bred in captivity cannot be released back into the wild, Poznan Zoo and its partners have identified suitable homes in Europe and beyond.
The zoo has already taken in around 200 animals from Ukraine, which officials there have moved out of the country because of the war. They include lions, tigers, wolves and bears.
Five lions find refuge from Ukraine war in Poland
https://arab.news/g33bf
Five lions find refuge from Ukraine war in Poland
- "The lions are safe and sound," said Remigiusz Kozinski of the zoo's education department
- The lion in the group was separated from the lioness, who is with the three cubs, said Kozinksi
Arts festival’s decision to exclude Palestinian author spurs boycott
- A Macquarie University academic who researches Islamophobia and Palestine, Abdel-Fattah responded saying it was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship,” with her lawyers issuing a letter to the festival
SYDENY: A top Australian arts festival has seen the withdrawal of dozens of writers in a backlash against its decision to bar an Australian Palestinian author after the Bondi Beach mass shooting, as moves to curb antisemitism spur free speech concerns.
The shooting which killed 15 people at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Dec. 14 sparked nationwide calls to tackle antisemitism. Police say the alleged gunmen were inspired by Daesh.
The Adelaide Festival board said last Thursday it would disinvite Randa Abdel-Fattah from February’s Writers Week in the state of South Australia because “it would not be culturally sensitive to continue to program her at this unprecedented time so soon after Bondi.”
FASTFACTS
• Abdel-Fattah responded, saying it was ‘a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship.’
• Around 50 authors have since withdrawn from the festival in protest, leaving it in doubt, local media reported.
A Macquarie University academic who researches Islamophobia and Palestine, Abdel-Fattah responded saying it was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship,” with her lawyers issuing a letter to the festival.
Around 50 authors have since withdrawn from the festival in protest, leaving it in doubt, local media reported.
Among the boycotting authors, Kathy Lette wrote on social media the decision to bar Abdel-Fattah “sends a divisive and plainly discriminatory message that platforming Australian Palestinians is ‘culturally insensitive.'”
The Adelaide Festival said in a statement on Monday that three board members and the chairperson had resigned. The festival’s executive director, Julian Hobba, said the arts body was “navigating a complex moment.”
a complex and unprecedented moment” after the “significant community response” to the board decision.
In the days after the Bondi Beach attack, Jewish community groups and the Israeli government criticized Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for failing to act on a rise in antisemitic attacks and criticized protest marches against Israel’s war in Gaza held since 2023.
Albanese said last week a Royal Commission will consider the events of the shooting as well as antisemitism and social cohesion in Australia. Albanese said on Monday he would recall parliament next week to pass tougher hate speech laws.
On Monday, New South Wales state premier Chris Minns announced new rules that would allow local councils to cut off power and water to illegally operating prayer halls.
Minns said the new rules were prompted by the difficulty in closing a prayer hall in Sydney linked to a cleric found by a court to have made statements intimidating Jewish Australians.
The mayor of the western Sydney suburb of Fairfield said the rules were ill-considered and councils should not be responsible for determining hate speech.
“Freedom of speech is something that should always be allowed, as long as it is done in a peaceful way,” Mayor Frank Carbone told Reuters.
