Yay for cheetah rescues!

[giza]

Cheetah cubs rescued in Ethiopia

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) -- Two cheetah cubs held captive and abused at a remote village restaurant in eastern Ethiopia are now in the custody of a government veterinarian and U.S. troops, a senior official said Monday.

Government vet Fekadu Shiferaw confiscated the 3-month-old cheetahs on Sunday from a restaurant owner in Gode, where they were being forced to fight each other for the amusement of children.

He gave them to U.S. troops for safekeeping until they can be flown to Addis Ababa, about 700 miles (1,127 kilometers) west of Gode, said Kifle Argaw, the government's senior wildlife vet.

"They are in the custody of the authorities and will receive medical treatment," Kifle said. "The U.S military has also agreed to divert a plane to Addis Ababa on Tuesday so we can bring the cheetahs and the vet to the capital."

(Read the rest of this story)

Comments

[cadpigjr.livejournal.com]

good, I am glad to hear that. poor cubs :(

I hope they recover well and can lead long lives.

[zorinlynx.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, the waste of flesh and oxygen the cheetahs were confiscated from will probably only get a slap on the wrist at most.

If it were up to me, people who abuse animals like this would go to jail for a very long time. Unfortunately, animals are seen as disposable by too many people...

-Z

[kellic.livejournal.com]

Where is that crusty old guy who ripped out that leopard's tongue when you need him?

I think there is a special place in hell for people who intentionally torment animals. Be they the human variant or not. Mofo is going to pay in the after life, the next life, or whatever. My guess is that furries are going to beat the living shit out of him once a "day" for the rest of eternity.

[brahma-minotaur.livejournal.com]

I'm glad it has a happy ending, but words don't describe how I feel about people treating cubs like that.

[cerisewolf.livejournal.com]

An air force colonel picked up the cage they are using to transport them from the base here in Djibouti.

[danruk.livejournal.com]

Aww. Excellent feel-good story of the day!

[coppercheetah.livejournal.com]

Sadly, I'm of mixed emotions on this one.

(And yes, you're hearing this from a cheetah furry.)

First off, I'm not saying I'm disappointed that they tooks the cubs away. The man who did this to them was a cruel bastard and I'm all for all the torments people are suggesting to visit upon them to do this to another living creature. The unwilling subjection of a sentient creature to fend for its life merely for amusement/sport is just hideous.

However, now consider these poor creatures:

• No mother raised them to hunt, so they will not know how to do so. They can never go back into the wild.


• From birth they have been taught to fight their own kind. When presented with another cheetah in captivity, their first instincts will be those of aggression, and they will either scare potential mates off or force them to defend themselves rather than court them. They probably will not be suitable for any breeding programs.


• For the same reasons above, they can't be kept with other cheetahs until they've had a chance to unlearn the only way of life they've known up until now. I'd be surprised to think they will even socialize with humans all that well, given the way they were treated. It will be expensive and difficult to keep them isolated in captivity, each with a single handler who's trained in behavior modification and management techniques and even if they have the trainer(s), there's no guarantee each cheetah will ever acclimate to the trainer and therefore be ready for such lessons.

I love and admire my fellow kin. I sincerely wish that everything goes well and they can learn, grow beyond this horrible beginning to their lives and have a better life. But, at the same time, I realize that their chances are dangerously slim for any sort of life that could be considered 'happy', and many would argue that some of the less-enjoyable options may be for the better good of the pair.

I can only hope for the best.

[khakiwolf.livejournal.com]

Aww, they look so sad. =(

So, who wants to fly over there and evicerate those assholes right before the bombs explode and destroy their shit-ass restaurant?

I Want To See Justice

[colugino.livejournal.com]

Well, I think that the only solution here is to make the children battle the adults until they all lay in a bloody mess and then dump gas on them all and burn em alive.