We would like to share the Centre and the wonderful young people who are caring for the two Spanish cubs with you.  

Here you have a view of the Center Fauna y Accion, where the cubs are currently recovering. As you can see, everything is all about nature. The cubs are enjoying the sounds of all types of wildlife.

These are the pictures of four amazing people in the Center that we call “our angels”. They have been instrumental in helping us get these cubs on the road to recovery. Their names are: Tete Peralta, (one of the owners of the Center), and his lovely wife Pati. Both are extremely knowledgeable and experienced in the care and management of wildlife welfare. 

Also, Diego Perez, finishing his career in Biology and Rocío Peralta, the cousin, a last year student in veterinary medicine. More about them and the Center later.
From CJ & Luis
CACH Spain

Please continue with your donations to help us with the good food and veterinary costs involved in caring for the two little cubs.  Soon we will have freight and transport costs too.  We are so grateful to everyone who has donated, thank you.

The Saga of the two Spanish lion cubs.

Update as at 26th August 2014

HEALTH
Under the expert care of Dr. McCauley and the staff at the Centre, the health of the cubs continues to improve.  Their weight gain has been considerable.   At rescue they weighted a pitiful 3 and 5 kgs respectively.   But now, only two weeks later, they weigh  6.5 and 10.3 kgs.  We anticipate that by the time they fly out to SA which, depending on a formidable list of bureaucratic obstacles, will be in early October, they should have recovered to weigh about 15 to 20 kgs respectively.

See video of cubs getting care and attention: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ca7zj26ihvtp9hm/Cubs3%20249.MOV?n=81330501

COSTS
We’ve been humbled by the large number of animal lovers who have responded to our call for donations.   The total cost of this rescue, based on estimates and quotes, will be in the region of $15,000.

So far the finances look like this:

$2100 paid over out of CACH funds to CACHSpain to meet initial expenses, mostly veterinary and special diet.  CJ and Luis travel for an hour each way to attend the Centre daily from Madrid and have declined to draw on these funds to cover travelling expenses.

$2000 raised by Ange in Australia (Painted Dog Conservation Inc) www.painteddogconservation.iinet.net.au  
This means that she has won the right to name one of the cubs.
Please find below a link to the Painted Dog Conservation Inc Online Auction that is now LIVE, with all proceeds going to the rescue, in addition to direct donations made –this is open to the public so please feel free to share far and wide to anyone you think may be interested!
It is really easy to use-people simply follow the link below, and then place an appropriate bid on their item of choice. If they are outbid, then they also receive a notification, and when an item they have bid on is ending, they also receive notification-so a great time saving system……
http://www.myminiauction.com/painteddogconservationinc


$1,254 paid in through PayPal via Indiegogo crowdfunding. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/help-rescue-two-spanish-lion-cubs/x/3185256

$1600 raised by us independently via our own database of contacts.

Total: US$6,954.00

As you can see, we are nearly half way there!

And now our friend Margrit Harris of Nikela has offered to match any donations, made before the end of August, via the Donate Button on our website up to a limit of $500.  So the end of August is not too far away.
So keep those donations coming please.

CACHSpain representatives CJ and Luis Munoz report:

Ever since we picked up the cubs in Alicante, it has been full time with them and staying closely on top of their well being. Let me see if I can explain quickly a little about what has been going on.

When we miraculously found our cubs at the Raul Merida Sanctuary in Alicante, the first thing that we noticed was that the cubs were small for their age. They did not look like three month old lion cubs, especially little Spain, and we knew immediately it was because of their diet. The abusive owner had been denying the cubs everything that they needed to grow strong bones and get bigger. She was keeping them as small as she could to continue exploiting them for profit.

Their little eyes were hollow. They had had no love at all and they just clung to each other in desperation for a sense of safety and comfort. In Alicante, Raul, (who has been in the business of saving wildlife for years), had started them on a proper diet and they were getting, for the first time in their lives, concern and solutions for their physical needs and kindness and love for their emotional needs. Raul has his own veterinarian who examined the cubs, took blood, and basic tests. His vet did not however, get into any other extensive testing as he felt the two cubs would grow and improve on a proper diet.

When we got the cubs to Madrid, we were met by a very young, but very bright, recently graduated veterinarian that Raul had recommended and that he called to help us. Her name is Irene Manso and she is very eager and sweet. Even more fortunate for us was finding Dr. Debra McCauley - a very experienced wildlife veterinarian with an amazing education and background. 
 http://www.viewildlife.org/  
She now lives in Madrid and travels to different places around the world working with wildlife. Irene´s sister studied with Debra and that´s why they know each other. It was Irene who brought her to this new center and Debra was very interested to join us as this kind of case really attracted her.

Dr McCauley took one look at the cubs and immediately went into action. She ordered a number of tests, including x-rays. These tests, with the exception of some that need to be done yet, (like TB), have all come back and we have talked extensively about the results. Both cubs have metabolic bone disease. DON´T PANIC because Debra feels that with the even BETTER diet that she has them on, that they will recover. Cach has a few other problems to sort out but Debra is monitoring his intake of minerals and vitamins to balance bodily functions properly and she feels confident that we will get that sorted out too.

Little Spain is almost half the size of his brother due to severe stress and depression and, of course, a terrible diet. He most likely stopped eating at some period and could have been exploited more than his brother because of his smallness. Debra feels she can get him up to par as well. Spain had a hole in his left back foot above the paw which was very infected from walking on poor surfaces. This infection is being treated with an antibiotic and is bandaged to keep bacteria out and he has a collar around his head to keep him away from the wound. HE IS NOT AT ALL happy about that and his brother is worried about him. He really keeps close to his brother at all times.

We will take more blood tomorrow to see if Spain´s white cell count is better now that he has been on antibiotics

The cubs will get all the love they need at this time of stress and recovery at the Centre as they wait to relocate to South Africa.  The Centre's employees stay up late at night feeding the cubs and giving them their medicine and at other times as well when Luis and I cannot be there. They clean their installations and fuss over them constantly. They all treat these stressed little cubs with such love and concern.

As we get more news on the cubs’ health and treatment we will let you know.


Thank you to all who have donated towards helping us bring the cubs home to South Africa.   We have along way to go and need your help.  Please use our donate button on our website to donate funds which will be used for the cubs medical needs and to relocate them to South Africa.

CJ and Luis have posted some terrific pictures of CACH and SPAIN.  
https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=12F14E2914899843!120&authkey=!AAhJquqgpc_QWyI&ithint=folder%2cJPG
They certainly look so much better than the pictures we saw of them taken a week ago.   Well done to the Vets and the carers who are looking after these two little orphans.  
Thank you CJ and Luis for these wonderful visions of our Spanish cubs.
Thanks to all of you who have donated towards the cost of bringing them out to Kevin Richardson's sanctuary in SA.  Please keep the donations coming.
Bev

CJ  updates  us on the cubs.
Just checking in to say that we left Alicante this morning around 8:00 with our two darlings and began our journey to Madrid. The first half hour had us a little concerned as we thought the two of them were going to chew the transport apart and then come after us. The back seat was literally rocking and rolling. After a while, they settled down and slept the rest of the way to Madrid bellies up and arms and legs pointed to the sky.

We have just arrived home from leaving the cubs at their new center. There, waiting for us, was a famous wildlife American Veterinarian named Deborah McCauley who is currently building a Field Laboratory in Nepal. She lives here with her husband and sometimes visits this reserve. She has trained a very young vet named Irene who we talked with several times before we left Alicante. The Director of the center in Alicante, Raul Merida, recommended her to us. She works at this new center as well. So, she was waiting for us as well. I will give you more detail about the place and what goes on there when I can catch my breath. Its been such a long day!  We would like to thank Dr McCauley for all her dedicated h

Both Vets, like me, are concerned about little Spain. He is way under weight and has been very poorly taken care of. They are going to run a number of tests tomorrow, including an xray on his back left right leg as they think he may have a poorly healed over fracture. Oh dear me. There is something wrong, but I am praying that these two amazing young women will make him right again. Please say your prayers. Most of the results will be back tomorrow as well.

CACH is doing well and is the sweetest thing ever. Looks after his little brother most attentively.

Veterinary expenses are already in excess of US$550.   So please can we ask you to be generous with your donations and help us give the best care to these little cubs.  


We would like to thank Dr McCauley and her staff for all their dedicated help with the cubs.  Please take a look at http://www.viewildlife.org/ to see how much good work these wonderful people do.  

Bev.

‘OVER TO YOU’…
 A TALE OF TWO LION CUBS in Spain.

This is the photo that began the rescue – four smiling young men petting a lion cub somewhere in Spain. The photo was published on the well-known Facebook page Volunteers in Africa Beware. From there it was picked up by Linda Park, the CACH representative in Johannesburg. She in turn referred the picture to CJ and Luis Munoz, the CACH representatives in Spain, with a brief comment … OVER TO YOU.

What happened next? Here is the story from CJ and Luis:

¨We are now in the possession of two male lion cubs approximately 3 ½ months old. We picked up on a lead from a CACH group member that found a posting of cub petting in Spain. The place was Terra Mitica Park in Benidorm. 
Apparently, a woman was using lion cubs for picture taking all hours of the day, day after day, charging 10 euros per picture. She was keeping the cubs on a diet of only milk in order to keep them small.
We contacted Guardia Civil Seprona, (the Spanish Special Police Service for the protection of Nature), and they quickly responded. The woman had some papers indicating that she had purchased the cubs from a circus in France, but as she had no birth certificates for the cubs proving they were born in captivity, Seprona impounded the cubs. Seprona filed complaints against the woman with the Spanish Customs Authorities and other institutions on a number of charges.
She was told the cubs would be returned to her if she could produce the rest of the papers required within 15 days of being called for a hearing. However, she gave up her rights of ownership before her case came up and Seprona placed the cubs in the care of an animal sanctuary.
After several weeks of phone calls to CITES, Customs, and Seprona offering to provide a permanent good home for the cubs, we finally found them by a stroke of good luck. 
We have been awarded custody and are now on our way to Madrid where the cubs will be very well taken care of until we can send them home to South Africa to live out their lives in the best sanctuary in the world¨

CACH initially tried to find a suitable and forever home for the cubs in Europe and approached various organisations such as Four Paws who had experience of animal rescue in Europe. This is the answer we received to our enquiry.

It is true that there are generally speaking more lions and tigers waiting to be rescued than places to take them.

In South-Africa our big cat sanctuary LIONSROCK is currently filled at maximum capacity and we plan to build new enclosures to be able to help more animals.

The big cat rescue centre FELIDA that we recently took over in The Netherlands is waiting to be rebuilt before we can take in new animals.

Finally, Stichting AAP has indeed a rescue centre for apes and monkeys in Spain, and they are currently building enclosures there for big cats as well.

However, I don’t think these enclosures will be ready this year.

So to South Africa. CACH approached Kevin Richardson, the respected ‘Lion Whisperer’, who runs a unique lion sanctuary in Dinokeng. Kevin kindly agreed to give the cubs a forever home on his 1300 hectare sanctuary.

Now the really hard work begins. CJ and Luis have transferred the cubs from Alicante to Madrid where they will remain pending the completion of the export process to South Africa.

The re-location of the cubs from Madrid to SA is a bureaucratic minefield. Adding to the expense and time are the formalities. There are vaccinations to be given, clearances to be obtained from various authorities in both countries, CITES permits needed both for export and import, import and transport permits for SA, veterinary certificates, and the list goes on. Meanwhile the cubs must be weaned off their inadequate milk diet to make them strong and healthy.

CACH is employing a specialist wildlife freight brokerage company to handle the process to ensure that the relocation of the cubs takes place as smoothly and as stress - free as possible.

You may ask why we are spending so much time, money and effort on two cubs in Spain when there are thousands of captive bred lions in SA.

We can think of three reasons.

1. Because if CACH had not intervened those cubs would have been used as human playthings for as long as possible on a poor arthritic diet that would affect them for the rest of their lives, before suffering a miserable existence in a cage in a travelling zoo.

2. We may not be able to save all the lions in the world but CACH will make a world of difference to the lives of these two lion cubs. Kevin Richardson’s sanctuary must be just about the best place in the world for a lion that cannot live its life out in the wild.

3. Finally, should we not rescue them just because we can? And would you not like to be part of this, dear reader? With your help we can make a difference to the lives of these two little cubs.

We ask you all to help us in funding the re-location of the cubs from Madrid to South Africa to live a happy and natural life with other lions at Kevin’s sanctuary. No amount is too small so please help us to give these two cubs the life they deserve.

We end as we began with the plea……

OVER TO YOU, please donate to help bring the cubs home.

We will be updating this page with pictures and the on-going rescue as it happens. Thank you for helping us make a difference.

Who could forget the huge elephant puppets who stole the show in the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa? Well, with the Global March for Eles and Rhinos and Lions on 4th October now nearing 120 cities world wide – and the British Royal family’s endorsement via United for Wildlife, a conservation project of the Prince’s Trust – the massive life size puppets are back. In George! 

If you live near don’t miss it – email us at info@cannedlion.org or check out the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/events/741443222561635/

George is about to put the rest of the world to shame when it comes to bragging rights for the 4th October. In conjunction with the Garden Route SPCA, conservationists and animal lovers will join the Woof-a –thons (dog walks) being held at both Wilderness Common and Botanical Gardens. Waving our placards and banners we’ll be supporting the dog walks. And so will some of the puppets, who will join the start of the procession on Wilderness Common. 

What a sight that will be for the media! Here is a photo of the Rhino puppet, but visit this page to see the full range at Creatures. How fortunate we are to have world leading puppeteers right on our doorstep at Beyond the Moon, Hoekwil. And thanks to Roger and Vanessa at Creatures for supporting this conservation initiative to draw attention to the plight of these iconic animals.
http://creatures.co.za/assets/content-page.php?id=prodDet&A_ID=188