Escaping Abuse and War in Lebanon: Sara the Lion Cub Relocated to Safety
After spending two months in a small Beirut apartment with an animal rights group, the 4-and-a-half-month-old lion cub finally reached a wildlife sanctuary in South Africa. Her journey involved traveling by yacht and planes, escaping both war and her abusive owner.
Animals Lebanon first discovered Sara on social media in July. Her owner, a Lebanese man from Baalbek, posted videos of himself parading with the cub on TikTok and Instagram. Lebanese law prohibits the private ownership of wild and exotic animals.
Sara the lion cub plays in an apartment where she was sheltered by the rescue group Animals Lebanon in Beirut, Lebanon, Nov. 11, 2024.
"Sara was really just being used as a show-off prop," said Jason Mier, executive director of Animals Lebanon.
In mid-September, the group managed to retrieve her after filing a case with the police and judiciary, who interrogated her owner and forced him to surrender the cub.
Soon after Baalbek came under heavy bombardment. Mier and his team were able to extract Sara from Baalbek weeks before the aerial bombardment campaign began and moved her to an apartment in Beirut's busy Hamra district. When Sara first arrived at her rescuers' home, she was in poor health, exhausted, and covered in ringworms and signs of abuse.
However, the activists faced a major challenge: how to get her out of Lebanon. Sara was supposed to fly to South Africa in October, but international airlines suspended flights to Lebanon as Israeli jets and drones targeted areas near the country's only airport.
Animals Lebanon collected donations from supporters and rights groups worldwide to fund Sara's journey. On Thursday at dawn, she arrived at the port of Dbayeh, just north of Beirut. Mier and his team were relieved but also emotional at her departure. She traveled by yacht to Cyprus, then flew to the United Arab Emirates, and finally arrived in Cape Town.
Mier expects Sara will be monitored for health and disease control but will soon join a community of other lions.
"She'll be integrated with two other lions we've previously sent from Lebanon, forming a group of three. That's where she will live out the rest of her life. It's the best option for her," he said.