They are wanting to auction off this lion so that rich men will hunt it down as a trophy
You saw the beautiful lion in the picture, right? His name is Mufasa, he is 3 years old and, as you may have noticed, he has the "whitest" coat - a rare feature that the feline shares with only about 300 other species in the world, only 13 of them being find in nature. For, according to news that has started to circulate in recent days, there is a serious risk that Mufasa will be auctioned and that the winner of the bid will “win” the right to hunt him down and convert him into a trophy. Can this?
Copy at gold price
According to information released to date, the lion was owned by someone - whose identity was not revealed - and was confiscated as a cub by the South African authorities in 2015. Since then, the lion has been kept in a sanctuary in the north. But because Mufasa is infertile and therefore cannot produce pups, the caretakers of the feline concluded that a good way to profit from the lion would be to auction it to hunters.
Reporting the situation was veterinarian Tjitske Schouwstra, who was dealing with Mufasa - and said she was informed of plans to sell the lion by South African government officials on 3 different occasions. Authorities have told her that it is customary to auction off confiscated animals and, in the specific case of the white lion, as it is a rare copy (and should attract the attention of well-heeled international hunters), the amount collected will not be small, and the The funds will go to the reserves of the Ministry of Environmental Affairs.
Conservation organizations have joined the fray, and Musafa and Suraya - another puppy that has been confiscated and kept with the lion - are being relocated to another sanctuary at no cost to the government. However, as we are talking about giving up the black money that the authorities can get with the auction, a deadlock is brewing between the two parties.
Musafa's supporters have set up an online petition - which already has over 270, 000 signatures - and are raising money to take the case to South African courts and try to earn the right to care for both lions. In addition, with the flood of criticism and demonstrations that the spread of the case has generated, conservationists hope the government will back down its decision, allow the felines to be taken to another sanctuary and let them live in peace.
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