Animal Rescues
The story of Toto In September 2003, Toto, a circus chimpanzee, was rescued by ADI from a circus in Chile, and transported 7,000 miles to the world-renowned chimpanzee sanctuary, Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage in Northern Zambia.
27-year old Toto was taken from the wild in Africa aged just 2–3 years old. Toto is believed to have been purchased in the USA by Chile’s Circus Konig, along with three other baby chimpanzees. The other three died, leaving Toto alone with the circus for at least twenty years. Toto was chained by the neck, and his act involved dressing up in human clothes, smoking cigarettes and drinking tea. He lived in a tiny wooden packing crate little more than a metre wide, with bars on the front.
Entire circus seized in Mozambique
In an international rescue mission, ADI secured every animal from the Akef Egyptian Circus, stationed in Maputo, Mozambique. This was the first time such a broad-based rescue had ever taken place. The animals – 6 lions, 3 tigers, 1 African rock python, 3 horses (a mare and her very young foal, plus a stallion), and 7 dogs – had been abandoned.
The Mozambique government confiscated all of the animals and placed them in the care of ADI. The python, tigers and lions were confiscated for CITES and import permit contraventions, in addition to welfare reasons. The horses were rehomed in Mozambique and the lions, tigers, pythons and dogs were moved to South Africa where they spent some time in quarantine whilst waiting for a permanent home.
Murphy the python could not be released and went to a protected enclosure at Fitzsimons Snake Park in South Africa. Three of the lions, from the extinct-listed Barbary sub-species, lived at the Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre until they died of old age a decade later; the other three lions were placed with the Moholoholo Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre, by 2009, one remains to a fit and healthy old age, the others having succumbed to the passage of time. The tigers were rehomed with the Milimani Game Lodge, but after about 8 years, their home was lost in a land claim and ADI retrieved and relocated them to live at Hoesdpruit, where they spent the remainder of their lives. Tarzan, Sarah and Ceaser
In 2007 ADI rescued two lions, Sarah and Caesar, and a tiger, Tarzan, from Circo Universal in Portugal. Having been spotted by an ADI Field Officer in 2006, the animals appeared to be abandoned but were in fact off the road due to lack of funds. The Portuguese authorities seized the animals, who were held at Lisbon Zoo before they were handed over to ADI, who then arranged for them to be moved to their rescue centre in South Africa, where they remain.
Read more about this topic: Animal Defenders International
Famous quotes containing the word animal:
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