Almere, 2 December, 2019 – One month after nine severely weakened tigers and one deceased animal were found in horrific circumstances in a horse truck at the Polish border, their suffering is now over. After four weeks of loving care and first aid at Poznan Zoo, five of the big cats were strong enough to be transported to AAP Primadomus. On Monday afternoon the tigers arrived in this Spanish branch of AAP Animal Advocacy and Protection. This specialized animal rescue facility is able to offer them all the rest, space and care that they desperately need.
AAP-director David van Gennep supervised the transport from Poznan to Primadomus in Villena, Spain: “If you know what these animals have had to endure, in those far too small cages and crates, without good food and water, you would prefer to never transport them again. But we had to. Our partner Poznan Zoo did an amazing job, but the tigers couldn’t stay there. Fortunately we have space in Primadomus for exactly this type of emergency. Merida, Aqua, Toph, Softi and Sanson have come to a beautiful place and we have done everything to make the transport as fast, comfortable and smooth as possible. Extra heating has even been built in the specialized truck for this transport.”
Not only is AAP Primadomus, with the support of donors, willing to take care of the animals for as long as necessary, but we have also initiated the procedure to become the owner of the tigers. In this way, AAP hopes to ensure that they will never end up in a circus or a bad zoo. The organization also made an urgent call to the EU authorities to introduce an EU-ban on the use and transport of wild animals in circuses in order to prevent this kind of grueling transports which is now neither illegal nor extraordinary.
The four remaining animals will stay in Polish zoos. Poznan Zoo has decided to keep tigers Gogh and Kan, who seem to know each other from the past, because the health of Gogh does not allow him to travel. Like the deceased animal, Gogh had serious intestinal problems due to incorrect food during transport. The animal is still recovering after surgery. Zoo Canpol, a park near Czluchow in Poland, took tigers Maximus and Fenix in early November.
