Born Free: BELLA RESCUE - BELLA'S CASE HISTORY

BORN FREE

KEEP WILDLIFE IN THE WILD

Bella’s diseased eye needed removing before she could be transported

Bella is a one-eyed lioness rescued from Buhusi Zoo, a run-down zoo in Romania, and now living at the Lilongwe Wildlife Centre in Malawi.  Her rescue in 2009 was a joint operation between the Born Free Foundation and a small NGO called Lions Roar.

Lion’s Roar were told  that Bella had been born in Buhusi zoo in 2002 and sold as a cub to gypsies who used her to attract tourists into having their photograph taken with the little lion.  When she became too dangerous for handling, she was returned to the zoo to be used for breeding.  As is often the case with cubs taken away from their mother for hand-rearing, it seems Bella was not given a proper diet while her skeleton was forming, and she has an arched, ‘roached’ spine, and unnaturally curved back legs. 

We are not sure what happened in Bella’s early years, but she was about four years old when Lion’s Roar discovered her, living in appallingly filthy, barren conditions in the zoo, with inexperienced, insensitive, uncaring keepers giving Bella and the other animals the minimum amount of care.  At that time Bella had a mate, a four year old lion named Fugi.  Lion’s Roar were told that Bella had given birth to a single cub the previous year which had died after two days.  Bella then gave birth to another cub. Lion’s Roar warned the zoo staff not to handle the cub, as Bella and Fugi were being diligent, gentle parents, but the keepers did take the cub out of the cage for short periods – perhaps hoping to sell it for use by gypsy photographers.  Sadly, the cub died in August 2006 and Fugi died shortly afterwards, seemingly from an un-treated kidney infection.  Bella was left alone. 

Not only was she alone, but she was almost blind: an un-treated glaucoma in her left eye had permanently damaged her vision, and it appeared she might have a cataract in her right eye. 

Filthy and run down, the zoo was closed to the public in 2007.

REHOMING BELLA?

In 2007, after the zoo’s closure, Born Free rehomed three lions from the zoo, Jools and her sons James and Jerry, to our sanctuary at Shamwari Game Reserve in South Africa.  

We wanted to rehome Bella to Africa too, but our veterinary consultant had strongly advised against transporting Bella with her glaucoma: the bulbous eye could be knocked and rupture on the long journey and the haemorrhage could be fatal if this happened in flight, while we were unable to get to her.  Unfortunately we could find no veterinary practice in Romania that had the facilities for such surgery, and nowhere Bella could receive the necessary follow-up care.  

Over 12 months went by then, and Lion’s Roar tried to improve Bella’s enclosure with sleeping platforms and environmental enrichment, paying for it to be kept clean and for a better diet.  Then we heard of a veterinary practice in Brasov, two hours from Buhusi, that had an anaesthetic machine.  In addition, nearby Brasov Zoo offered to care for Bella while she recovered.  Quite by co-incidence, an ophthalmic surgeon from the Animal Health Trust in Suffolk had offered his services just weeks before, not knowing of Bella’s case.  Suddenly it seemed Bella’s story had the chance of a happy ending after all.