avoid the last big cats being euthanised<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cWe\u2019re talking to all sorts of sanctuary people, animal welfare people, MPI. To date, we have not found a solution that would prevent this outcome.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re doing our very, very best,\u201d Margrain said.<\/p>\n
Vallance said they had been in contact with animal rescue charity Huha NZ.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe remain open to any constructive conversations that may help secure a future for the remaining lions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Huha NZ chief executive Carolyn Press-McKenzie said the charitable trust reached out to the wildlife sanctuary after hearing about the lions. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe said, we know this is a really tough time and there\u2019s big decisions being made, but did you want us to just see if we can sort of test our resources.\u201d<\/p>\n
Huha NZ has previously found places for circus monkeys and crocodiles from the Solomon Islands, so they wanted a chance to try save the lions.<\/p>\n
Press-McKenzie said they asked Bolton Equities and Vallance to put the euthanasia on hold.<\/p>\n
” … We were just really impressed at how open they were to give us a minute to just try and see if there\u2019s something we could do.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow we\u2019re kind of doing a little hustle to see if we can pull off a miracle,\u201d Press-McKenzie said.<\/p>\n
Huha NZ was working with potential buyers of the property as well as looking at offshore options. <\/p>\n
Press-McKenzie said the owners found that less favourable given the lions\u2019 ages and fragility. <\/p>\n
\u201cNew owners for the property would be obviously the best way forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, the time frame, believed to be days, was tight. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe just don\u2019t know if we\u2019re going to pull it off but we haven\u2019t run out of puff yet. We\u2019re going for it,\u201d Press-McKenzie said.<\/p>\n
International partners had got onboard as had Safe [Save Animals From Exploitation], who were working alongside Huha NZ to find a solution.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut if it doesn\u2019t work out, everyone needs to know, you know, every avenue was tried,\u201d Press-McKenzie said.<\/p>\n
![\"Kamo]()
Kamo Wildlife Sanctuary has closed to the public as its last big cats may be euthanised. <\/p>\n
News of the lions\u2019 fate earlier this week created both an uproar and a wave of sympathy. <\/p>\n
Vallance said that, while she had received many kind messages of condolence and support, there had also been the opposite.<\/p>\n
\u201cSadly, overnight, the tone of some messages directed at me personally has become threatening and abusive.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe understand that emotions are high, but we ask for kindness and respect as we navigate this heartbreaking situation.\u201d <\/p>\n
MPI said it had staff on-site on Tuesday to check the park\u2019s plan. They returned yesterday after the two lions were euthanised.<\/p>\n
The sanctuary has closed to the public.<\/p>\n
It was once home to 33 endangered cats, including lions, white tigers, leopards and cheetahs.<\/p>\n
That was in the early 2000s, when it was called Zion Wildlife Gardens and when controversial founder Craig Busch, dubbed \u201cThe Lion Man\u201d, and his mother Patricia were at the helm.<\/p>\n
New Zealand\u2019s only black leopard, Mandla, lived at the sanctuary until a rapid health decline meant he was euthanised<\/a> in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sibili, an 18-year-old male, was born at the Kamo sanctuary, along with his brother Sabie, who is not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120086,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[10791,806,1975,5195,1558,19699,803,1342,38890,305,2883,74025,2193,52169,7810,111,139,69,28243,8143,25995,1133,60895,147,84631,301,57767,406],"class_list":{"0":"post-120661","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ageing","9":"tag-as","10":"tag-at","11":"tag-be","12":"tag-been","13":"tag-cats","14":"tag-continue","15":"tag-five","16":"tag-glimmer","17":"tag-have","18":"tag-hope","19":"tag-kamo","20":"tag-lion","21":"tag-lions","22":"tag-may","23":"tag-new-zealand","24":"tag-newzealand","25":"tag-nz","26":"tag-offered","27":"tag-park","28":"tag-remaining","29":"tag-sale","30":"tag-sanctuary","31":"tag-science","32":"tag-spared","33":"tag-talks","34":"tag-whangreis","35":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}