Rescued Circus Lions Taste Freedom for the First Time!

Lion brothers Rey and Simba were rescued from a circus in Ayacucho, a rural town high in the Andes Mountains of Peru. After Peru passed a ban on using wild animals in circuses in 2011, Animal Defenders International (ADI) worked with authorities to help enforce the law and rescue animals from illegal circuses. As documented in this YouTube video, the brothers’ journey to freedom was incredibly challenging, but giving the lions a second chance at a better life made it all worth it.

The Harsh Realities of Circus Life

Rey and Simba were likely bred in captivity or obtained through illegal wildlife trafficking. To suppress their natural instincts and ensure their obedience, lions are separated from their families at a young age. They are placed in tiny cages and endure cruel treatment designed to instill fear and submission. Because they cannot move around properly, many lions develop joint deformities and abnormal growth.

Unlike lions in zoos, circus lions have extensive direct contact with people and lack the protection of secure enclosures or climate-controlled habitats. To make them less dangerous to work with, many circus owners resort to horrific practices like pulling out teeth, breaking fangs, and removing their claws. In rural areas like Ayacucho, untrained individuals often perform these procedures. Without anesthesia, the animals must endure extreme pain, infection, and severe long-term health problems.

Even after their rescue, lions like Rey and Simba can never truly return to the wild. Growing up in captivity, they missed out on vital lessons from their mother and pride and never learned how to hunt or survive independently. Their time in captivity left them with severe physical and psychological scars. They suffered from malnutrition, cramped living conditions, lack of exercise, and insufficient mental stimulation. These conditions can result in impaired eyesight, untreated sores, and internal health issues. Much like humans, animals subjected to such trauma can develop conditions like depression, anxiety, and PTSD.

Suppressing Natural Instincts in Wild Animals

In the wild, lions are highly social animals, living in prides and relying on each other for survival. Circus life, however, condemns them to isolation in small cages. While Rey and Simba at least had each other, they were separated from their wider family. They were denied the fundamental urges to run, climb, and interact with other lions. Wild lions are constantly on the move, but a circus confines them to cramped spaces, social isolation, and an inability to express their natural behaviors.

Circus lions continually perform unnatural, frightening, and sometimes even painful tricks for an audience. Trainers commonly use bullhooks — sharp, steel rods — to force the animals to perform. This brutal method aims to break the animal’s spirit and control them through fear and pain, leaving the animals in a constant state of anxiety.

Many animals in traveling circuses spend up to eleven months a year on the road. During this time, they are kept in chains or small cages when not performing. They often endure long journeys in cramped holding cells, where they are exposed to extreme temperatures and sometimes forced to lie in their own excrement.

In addition, circus lions rarely receive the proper care they need. Lions are large animals that need a lot of nutritious food to remain healthy and strong. However, such provisions are expensive for circuses. As a result, the lions’ basic needs and even minimal standards of care are frequently neglected. This often leads to injuries for the animals, and sometimes, for the humans working with them.

The Challenges of Rescuing Circus Lions

Rescuing lions, even with the best intentions, is a monumental undertaking. It demands significant financial resources, time, and effort. However, for Animal Defenders International (ADI), rescuing Rey and Simba from high in the Peruvian Andes presented even greater challenges.

The local community offered no assistance, leaving ADI members to manage the rescue operation entirely on their own. This meant a grueling 20-hour drive through sleet and snow-covered mountains to transport the lions back to their temporary rescue unit in Lima.

Moving lions is not a simple matter; it involves navigating countless laws, securing permits, adhering to regulations, and obtaining medical clearances, all of which can take years to finalize. All of this must be completed even before arranging their eventual flight to their natural habitat in Africa.

Moving Lions Across Continents

Flying lions to South Africa isn’t like booking a regular passenger ticket. It requires months, and sometimes years, of meticulous planning to ensure the safety of both the lions and the human crew onboard. Each lion travels in a specialized, securely fastened crate. During the long flight to South Africa with Rey and Simba, ADI rescuers constantly monitored and cared for the lions, noting how they would roar together, seemingly reassuring each other of their presence.

Ultimately, ADI successfully flew 33 rescued lions from Peru and Colombia to South Africa, giving them a second chance at a better life. However, simply releasing circus lions into the wild is not an option. Existing wild lion populations view newcomers as threats and may hunt or kill them, especially those without the protection of a pride. Because of this, ADI had to secure protected land where the lions could live freely, safe from both poachers and other wild lion prides.

Rey and Simba instantly took to their new open-air home in the wild, as seen in the YouTube video. However, Rey became ill and stayed at the hospital for an entire month without Simba. Their joyful reunion was a perfect testament to the unbreakable bond they share. Even after everything they’ve been through, they still have each other.