Is this a worrying new trend?
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Wild animals for social media sites
For weeks now, associations that work to protect animals have been getting worried about a new phenomenon that is starting. More and more non-profit organizations have received calls about lion cubs (or other wild felines) that are being illegally kept by individuals in the Paris region.
Lion cub in Paris
But in the evening of Monday 12th November, this young cat wasn’t found in an apartment, but… in the back of a sports car!
During a regular police check, members of the law enforcement, who were on the Champs-Élysées avenue in Paris at the time, found the poor wild animal caged up in the back of a sports car that had been rented out by an individual.
The driver was immediately put into custody.
The poor lion cub was then taken into care by the association 30 Million Friends, who immediately took to social media to express their dismay and anger.
Not the first
Actually, and as the association rightly reported, this lion cub wasn’t the first to be found in the Paris area over the past few months. Almost everywhere in France, non-profit organizations have been rescuing lion cubs, tiger cubs and even young caracals that have been illegally kept by individuals.
Some are showing off with the animals on social media sites, others are renting them to appear in rap videos or for private parties.
But these animals are being exploited by their tormentors because they are young and easily manipulated. Once the felines grow up, we can only imagine what their ‘owners’ are doing with them…
