A male tiger from Ukraine arrived at the AAP Foundation on Friday. Ukrainian soldiers discovered the animal last year. The cheetah was left without food and water, and showed “signs of severe post-traumatic stress,” according to the foundation.
The AAP Foundation suspects that the cheetah was kept as a pet, which was not the intent. “A tiger should never be kept as a pet, let alone left to fend for itself in the midst of war, confined without food or water,” said Pablo Delgado, chief of the American Academy of Zoological Medicine’s Big Cat Section.
The cheetah had been at a wildlife rescue shelter near Kiev since December. The International Fund for Animal Welfare and Wildlife Rescue then arranged the transfer to the AAP’s Spanish shelter. Big cats, among other things, are taken care of there. Delgado hopes the tiger in Spain will get “the rest and care it deserves.”
The AAP Foundation has already received a special animal from Ukraine eleven times before. These were nine lions, an African wild dog, and a spelled monkey. These animals also came from private ownership, a trend that the AAP wants to combat by calling for better regulation at the European level.
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