Cubs can look forward to new play pals

Dubai: Around 20 big cats — lions, leopards, cheetahs and tigers — call the Abu Dhabi Wildlife Centre home. Each of the animals has a grassy plot, a small pond, trees to climb and a temperature-controlled room to bide the hot summer months.

The centre has now offered to take in the badly malnourished cubs and give them the care and space they need. All the animals at the centre have been confiscated or rescued and in most cases received veterinary care after botched surgeries to file their teeth or rip out their claws.

Ronel Barcellos, manager of the centre, has worked for 15 years to set up the place under the patronage Shaikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs, with the express intent of rehabilitating endangered big cats.

"We would like to offer the two cubs a place at our centre. We have rescued a few lions in the past and we have enough space here to relocate the cubs, if need be," said Barcellos.

"There is even a few small cubs for them to play with. We don't trade in animals at all, we welcome donations if animals need to find a new home. We have a lot of confiscated and rescued animals," she said.

One such animal was a lion cub found tied up in a residential garage, which needed reconstructive teeth surgery. "He was totally disfigured. The teeth were removed and the nerves were exposed so he couldn't eat. The claws were pulled out and whoever it was ripped off the pads of his paws too. It's a cruel, inhumane thing to do," she said.

Animals that end up at the centre are given privacy to recover from whatever trauma they have survived. "The animals can see each other which is soothing and calming for them. Most of the animals are not fit for the wild, without claws or teeth they are left to live in captivity, but we try and recreate the wild as much as possible."