Cambodia – TikTok lion seized

Cambodian authorities confiscated a lion from a private home on Sunday. They started an investigation after observations of the lion in videos on TikTok, melder The Guardian.

The lion is said to have been kept illegally as a pet in a villa in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Pehn.

According to the BBC it was bathed and fed into the videos that have gone viral on TikTok.

Illegal

The 18-month-old male, who weighed 70 kg, was illegally imported from abroad by a Chinese citizen, to be raised in his home, a spokesman for the Ministry of the Environment, Neth Pheaktra, told The Guardian.

To the news agency AFP, Pheaktra says that the owner has shared photos showing the lion sitting in a driveway while a dog is playing nearby, and a video where the lion is sprayed down with a water hose.

– No one has the right to have wild animals as pets, he says.

In safety

The organization Wildlife Alliance writes in a press release that the owner has removed the lion’s canines and cut off the claws. According to them, such modifications can dramatically reduce the quality of life of feral cats.