{"id":275949,"date":"2025-11-06T21:38:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T21:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/275949\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T21:38:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T21:38:10","slug":"two-lions-euthanized-by-new-zealand-wildlife-sanctuary-fate-of-five-more-uncertain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/275949\/","title":{"rendered":"Two lions euthanized by New Zealand wildlife sanctuary, fate of five more uncertain"},"content":{"rendered":"

A New Zealand<\/a> wildlife sanctuary says it has euthanized two of its seven elderly lions after closing for financial reasons, with five more at risk of the same fate. <\/p>\n

The privately owned sanctuary, located in Whang\u0101rei, the northernmost city in the island nation, officially closed to the public last weekend. In a statement<\/a> earlier this week, it said the seven lions who lived there, ranging in age from 18 to 21, would be euthanized \u201cfollowing a difficult decision made by the property owners, Bolton Equities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were no real options left. The staff and I are devastated,\u201d Janette Vallance, director of the sanctuary, was quoted as saying.<\/p>\n

The property is for sale and could potentially continue to serve as a home for the lions, but that would require \u201csignificant capital investment,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the sanctuary said<\/a> it had euthanized Imvula and Sibili, two lions with \u201cserious health conditions that were not treatable and were deteriorating,\u201d adding that the decision was made \u201cwith deep care and consideration.\u201d <\/p>\n

Vallance said the sanctuary had “thoroughly investigated options” for the remaining lions \u2014 Shikira, Cleo, Abdullah, Timba and Thembah \u2014 and that their wellbeing was the priority.<\/p>\n

Relocation is not a \u201cviable or humane option,\u201d she said, because of their age, number and complex needs.<\/p>\n

There is, however, a \u201cglimmer of hope\u201d for the remaining lions, Vallance said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA few individuals have expressed interest in purchasing the facility and continuing to care for the lions,\u201d she said. \u201cWhile the timeframe is short and the situation remains uncertain, we are doing everything we can to explore this possibility and keep hope alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vallance said she had received threatening and abusive messages that were \u201cdeeply distressing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe understand that emotions are high, but we ask for kindness and respect as we navigate this heartbreaking situation,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Lions in captivity can live into their late teens or early 20s. In the wild, a female lion can live up to 16 years, while a male lion rarely lives past the age of 12. <\/p>\n

Bolton Equities, an Auckland-based private equity investment company, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Vallance said the company had spent millions of dollars on the sanctuary with no return.<\/p>\n

The sanctuary says on its website that the lions \u201ccome at enormous cost to maintain.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFeed, supplements, experienced staff, compound and grounds maintenance, vets, and more all exert pressure on our purse,\u201d it says. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A New Zealand wildlife sanctuary says it has euthanized two of its seven elderly lions after closing for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-275949","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}