Video: A Lioness Has Had Its Claws Amputated So That Visitors To The Zoo Can Play With It

The feline is only 14 months old and, in the absence of veterinary hospitals, they mutilated her with a garden scissor.

The animalists do not leave the horror, after they spread strong images of a zoo in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Palestine. The authorities decided to amputate the claws of a lioness, so that visitors can play with her and not be in danger.

The animal, called Falestine, has 14 months and, in the absence of veterinary hospitals in the area, performed the operation in the zoo itself. They placed her on a table with a net bag on her head and there they proceeded with the mutilation.

"What we did was reduce the lioness's aggression so that it could be friendly with visitors," Mohammed Jumaa (53) owner of the site told the Daily Mail. Fayez al-Haddad, the veterinarian who operated on Falestine, added: "The claws were cut so they would not grow fast and visitors and children could play with it."

Upon hearing the news, Four Paws, an organization that defends the ethical treatment of animals based in Boston, Massachusetts, denounced the situation, claiming that the procedure was agonizing for the lioness.

"Sadly, the suffering at the Rafah Zoo is not limited to malnutrition and severe conditions: a young lioness was mutilated by her claws with a garden scissor, which is equivalent to cutting the finger of humans to the knuckle", He wrote the space on his website, next to the video.

In this sense, they explained that the natural behavior of the animal, such as grabbing food or climbing, is now almost impossible because it needs the claws. Since the amputation was not performed in a suitable veterinary clinic, the probability of infection is high.

On the other hand, they also told that cruelty is not only with this feline, since there are 50 animals in deplorable conditions: "Last month, four lion cubs froze to death due to lack of adequate shelter and unusually climate cold in the region. "

The small Rafah zoo was opened in 1999 and is located in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, near the border with Egypt. Four Paws explained that wild animals are smuggled through underground tunnels and that since the opening of the zoo, many died due to rocket attacks and war battles.

Now, from the entity ask for donations to be able to move all animals to a sanctuary and thus give them a better quality of life: "With your help, we want to save the remaining animals and end their suffering."