How many more before it is enough?

Barely 24hrs after the arrival of the 4 lion cubs to the New Hope Centre, we received 4 cheetah cubs! These cubs were confiscated when trying to cross the border from Saudi Arabia through Jordan and on to Syria, the driver trying to disguise them as domestic cats. The customs at the border contacted the RSCN informing them of the situation and once they described the animals to the ranger, he knew without a doubt that they were exotic animals and immediately headed out to the border – again!


This is what he was met with…

There were two cheetah cubs in each of these baskets with no bedding, no water and no food.

On the completion of the paperwork, the cubs were immediately transported to the New Hope Centre for the care they need. Due to them being so young, they have been kept together in a warm and quiet area until they are less stressed and will be released into their new enclosure.

The Cheetahs were moved to their new enclosure 2 days after arriving at the centre and got busy chasing each other around and playing in the thick bedding.

We are watching them closely as cheetahs are very sensitive animals and these four are only between 1 and 1 and a half months old and are too young to be away from their mothers.

Cheetahs are highly endangered animals and are classed as Appendix I animals on CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora), which is an international agreement between governments. Its aim is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival. Animals listed on Appendix I are threatened with extinction and CITES prohibits the international trade of these animals. To read more about CITES visit www.cites.org.

Imagine a world where our children and grandchildren can only read about Cheetahs and look at them in pictures rather than know that they are still a part of this world. All because a few put money before ethics.

Enough…