Sarnia and Marina with GSPCA director Jayne Le Cras. The cubs will be sent to the Shamwari game reserve. (Picture by Peter Frankland, 0544942)
Two lion cubs may be the first of many to be quarantined in Guernsey before heading off to a new life in Africa.
Sarnia and Marina, five-week-old sisters who born in captivity and dumped on a vet’s doorstep in Romania, are in the specialist quarantine unit at the GSPCA until they are cleared to make the journey to the Shamwari game reserve in South Africa.
The Born Free Foundation is coordinating the move with the help of local vet John Knight. GSPCA director Jayne Le Cras said the society’s quarantine area had gone relatively unused for the past three or four years.
‘Before the Pets Passport scheme came in, our unit was always full,’ she said.
‘But since the scheme it has become financially unviable for us to provide long-term quarantine.’
Rules stipulate that the society can only keep all-quarantine animals, or all-border. It cannot mix the two.
That’s when it made the decision to make the space solely available for the quarantine of small exotic animals. It currently has a monkey on quarantine as well as the two cubs.
‘From a financial point of view we are delighted because after the unit being empty for years it is starting to pay its own way again, which is great,’ said Mrs Le Cras.
‘I’m quite hopeful that we will be able to help out organisations such as the Born Free Foundation by taking in other small exotic species.’
But Mrs Le Cras added that the society had the facilities to deal only with big cats when they were still cubs.
Sarnia and Marina’s lives have been fully sponsored by an anonymous benefactor, who flew them on his private jet to Guernsey from Romania.
‘He is paying for their lifetime care, all expenses, which is fantastic,’ said Mrs Le Cras.
She said a life of performing could have awaited the cubs if someone had not left them with the Romanian vet who contacted Born Free.
‘There are many lions who are bred for the circus or tourist attractions,’ she said.
‘That’s why we ask people not to have their photo taken with lions abroad.
‘These lions are often drugged to make them placid but in many cases the handler wouldn’t be able to deal with them any more, so would dispose of them.
‘There was a strong possibility that Sarnia and Marina were going to be put on show for the public, either in a circus or at the end of a photographer’s lens.’
Mrs Le Cras said the quarantine unit at the GSPCA was unlike any in the UK.
‘It’s unique because in England the only other facilities where exotic species can be quarantined is in zoos,’ she said.
‘It’s a great opportunity for us because organisations such as the Born Free Foundation don’t like using zoos.’
Article posted on 5th March, 2008 - 12.00pm
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