Sambata, 6 Decembrie 2003

“There is no law to forbid it and selling the cubs was not illegal. Anyways, we would have killed these cubs, as we wouldn't have kept them. But, nevertheless, by now they are already dead!” – Aurora Marcu, manager of the Galati Natural Science Museum, also managing the local Zoo. (Adevarul – April 22, 2002 ).

… Romania , 2003!... The last Romanian to be sentenced to death was Nicolae Ceausescu, the communist dictator executed on the 1989's Christmas Day. The death penalty was abolished afterwards, because it was considered to be inhuman. The new administration was promising to give back to every one the right to the dignity of having a destiny by exercising the quality of being human. The statement opening the article belongs to the manager of a Zoo, who sold on 28.12.2001 two lion cubs to some ambulant photographers, for five million lei each (around 160 dollars), as it says in the fiscal invoice. The cubs were used for only one season on the Black Sea beach. Nobody heard of them since. They can be seen only in the tourists' holiday pictures. You can see on the colored paper, stuck still sunburn faces, happy smiles and the grimace of a lion cub that died before turning one.

On April 23 2002 , the day after Adevarul (one of the most prestigious daily newspapers in Romania ) publishes the article, the Law of the Public Zoos and Aquariums is issued in the Official Gazette (the official publication of the Romanian authorities) and it comes into force. The law considers being an offence “selling living animals or reproductive material to institutions or individuals unauthorized to own a Zoo and who are to use these animals for economic activities.” The same law stipulates, in the paragraph referring to duties and responsibilities, that zoo managers must “LOOK AFTER the animals in an adequate manner and FOR THE INTEREST OF THEIR WELL BEING AND REPRODUCTION”.

Nowhere in this world a law is enforced retrospectively, therefore can Mrs. Aurora Marcu, as a simple citizen, be at peace with her conscience. But as a human being, it is hard to believe that the manager of the Galati Natural Science Museum is an animal lover. The fiscal invoice certifying the legality of the sales is, in fact, a sentence to death for the animals. And in this case, death is not a penalty, but a business.

Neither the Border Police or the Customs General Direction have ever signalized any transport of big felines, legal or illicit, to enter Romania. And still, you can see ambulant photographers pulling along lion cubs every year on the beach, on the ski slopes, or in discos and night bars in Prahova Valley . Each year other cubs, because the ones used the previous year are already dead.

In the winter of 2002, Vier Pfoten discovered 4 lion cubs with some photographers in Brasov . The animals had been bought from Mircea Nicu, the manager of the Tecuci Zoo, for 12 million lei each (around 375 dollars). The cubs were only three weeks old! They were suffering from malnutrition; they were exploited non stop, during daytime on the ski slopes, and during nighttime in bars and discos, most of the time under sedation. After “working hours” they would be sleeping in tight cages in a car trunk. The Vier Pfoten team succeeded in confiscating and repatriating the four cubs. Thus, Shiba, Alex, Tommy and Jack arrive in South Africa , in the wild animals' park “Rhino & Lion Nature Reserve”. In spite of all this, next summer, another two cubs appeared in the area. In Sinaia, right now, an only two months old lion cub is forced “to pose” even out in the rain, shivering, to get used to the cold of the only winter he would ever live.

Therefore, trafficking big felines happens every year and it seems to have origins in some zoos. For the time being, in Romania , there is no census of lions and no official statistics either, so that we could have a clear picture of the tragedy. In the majority of cases, first hand sales equals the number of executions! The press signals approximate the yearly number of lion cubs to be exploited around 10-20. Few animals lucky enough not to be killed by photographers get to be sold for again.

Nina Buzduga is considered to be one of the most famous lion tamers in Romania . She is 74 and she retired. She heard of cases when circus keepers drowned lion cubs with the tamers' agreement. In 2000, she proposed herself to return to the maneje with a musical. She bought four lion cubs for one million lei each (around 30 dollars) from a photographer in Constanta , who concluded his season. After three months of rehearsal, she gives up the project and the animals end up in the zoo in Baia Mare. So far, everything sounds “fine”, unless the management of the Baia Mare zoo applied the same method for correcting their budget by selling the animals. The four lions might still be there, but another case raises questions about their destiny. Sorin Pop, also known as Little Mouse, lives in Baia Mare and makes business with alcohol. He owns a stud of pedigree horses and plenty of money. Money gave him power, and power needs a blazon. Dominating a powerful beast make some people think they are super heroes who can control other peoples' destinies. Most likely that all frustrations provoked by the diminutive nickname made him want to posses the biggest feline. In exchange of his sponsorship for the local zoo, he got a bear and a lion. The locals say that he used to walk the animals on the streets to be seen by everyone. To avoid all risks, he filled the animals' teeth and he stuffed them with alcohol. At a party, someone saw the still young lion being chased away with a whip, stones and clubs because he was trying to get to an unsupervised plate with food. The bear died because of unknown causes, most likely due to illness. The lion, an animal gifted by nature with force, beauty and vitality at superlative, was forced by a man's vanity to dwell in a waste storehouse and to die humiliated, trampled by the stud's horses.

Mavi and Jazz, a lion and a lioness, which would be already repatriated in South Africa by the time this article appears, are two years old, prove to be gentle, and they tempt you to pet them with gestures of spoiled cats. The look in their eyes is almost childish and they seem to have forgotten the entire nightmare they have been through.

In the autumn of 2002, Fellner Albin, an Austrian citizen, announced the Vier Pfoten Foundation that he had spotted two lions in Sacele, Brasov county. Liviu Baciu bought them “out of pity” for 1,100 dollars from some photographers in Brasov that had been exploited them and were considering the idea of killing them. They had been keeping the animals in a shed, where they had been starving and had been bitten by rats. Their hair started falling off as secondary effects of sedatives. Liviu Baciu took them to his ostrich farm in Sacele, but even there, the dwelling conditions were far from what they should have been – a sort of a shelter, where two lions shared a dog kennel. The Vier Pfoten Foundation took them to the zoo in Brasov , where they have been treated and fed until they left for the South African reservation. In the last two years, only six lions had this chance. At least 20 other lions have probably died. Domnica Danila, a hardworking and gentle hearted 53 years old woman, is looking after the hot houses in suburban Suceava. For a small wage, she grows vegetables, flowers, and she looks after a few animals: poultry, two cows, swine, and … two huge lions – Jim and Elza. “I told him, sir, bring some food along, I don't have where to get it from …” The owner of the hot houses and of the two large felines is Pastorel Macavenciuc, a manager with the local administration. He bought the lions on invoice from the Oradea zoo in 1995, when they were already two years old. He intended to buy one more llama and a jaguar to open an entertainment park in Suceava. Domnica Danila says the owner seldom feeds them and she is the only one to look after them, as well as she can. When she came here, two years ago, the lions hadn't been fed for two months and they looked deplorable. They're looking good now, they know her voice and they come near the fence to let her pet them. On one side of the huge cage, outside the bars, two satiated cows chew happily. Jim, the lion, watches them indifferently, as if he knew his instincts were of no use any longer.

“Anyone wanting to help me with the food is more then welcome!” says a paper the caretaker is hanging on the cage's bars. Another one says “Caution, keep the distance! I get anything I catch!” Both are signed “Leo”. Imposing, wearing his stage-cut mane, solemn and wise, Leo is forced to beg in the front of the bowling centre in Saturn. He is four years old, weights 300 kilos and he is (kept) imprisoned in a maximum six square meters cage, actually the closed trailer of a Dutch registered van. On the trailer's sides, a clumsily painted clown invites the crowd to the circus with a strident grin. A 17-18 year old kid looks after the lion since last summer. Now he is showing off in front of all curious passers – by putting his forearm in the lion's mouth. Speaking with him, I find out the owner is a lion tamer with a foreign company. His name is Mr. Doru and he seldom shows up in the area. A month ago, he bought a lion cub from a woman photographer on the beach. The boy is not allowed to say more.

Almost the end of the day and the charity box holds only some small change, enough for a pack of cigarettes and a beer. I hesitate whether to place a note in the box or not to. I wonder what I am contributing to, the lion's meals or Mr. Doru's budget? … I get scared / frightened at the thought of Leo becoming unprofitable and getting killed. I get the money, I throw it in the plastic box and I recall the words of Mrs. Aurora Marcu, the manager of the Natural Science Museum in Galati , “We would have killed them anyways!”

Aurora Marcu's attitude, considering her position, is an “ethic” guarantee for all situations of this kind.

The lack or the existence of legal provisions does not matter anymore. A year after the Law of the Zoos comes into force, Marian Cruceru from Mangalia sees on the beach a tourist with an only few days old lion cub. It could not yet open its eyes and had its belly wearing marks of its mother's biting. This seems to be the modality zoos use to get rid of unsolicited offspring. The cubs born in captivity, although they need to be separated from their mother, are left in the cage and end up killed by her. With the help of a friend breeder, the tourist managed to save the lion cub, after two of its brothers had already got killed. Marian Cruceru gets the cub from the tourist, he takes it to the vet, gets it vaccinated and on June 15 2003 he gets a health card on the name of Tesa. When he attempts to deliver the cub to the Aquarium in Constanta , he is told they had no money and no personnel to see to it. He hears of a certain Mr. Doru who has Leo posing in the front of the bowling center in Saturn. Getting there, he gets in touch with the caretaker, the 17-18 year old kid, who says Mr. Doru seldom shows up in the area and he is not allowed to say more. Cruceru shows him the one month old lion cub, telling him he wants to give it to someone knowing how to see to it. The kid calls his boss and the latter accepts to take the lion cub for free.

In September, when tourists' season is over, Jeaneta Mondan receives as a birthday present a lioness cub named Tesa, bought from a certain Mr. Doru for € 600. Even if at the beginning all family enjoyed the present, the animal's breeding makes its seeing to it more and more expensive. And, as every one knows, there is only one way to stop the growing! What once was a pleasant surprise now is a never ending drudgery: “If I can't get rid of her, I'll skin her!” says Janeta's mother about the still living present.

Exactly like Tesa, all lion cubs are wanted strictly for their functionality. A perverse concatenation turns the temporary saviors into future assassins. Tesa's brothers should be fours months old by now. Unless a zoo manager, an ambulant photographer, a tamer or a living trophies fan considered they shouldn't.

In the Bucharest Cyprus Consulate's front yard, Ahi, the best looked after lioness in Romania , is playing. The consul got her as a birthday present three years ago. For a few hours a day, she has the entire yard only for herself. She eats 5 kilos of meat everyday, she has a vet to see her regularly and a breeder to spoil her almost all the time. She looks happy. She is beautiful, well - nourished, neat and healthy, and she doesn't have to work for living - she is photographed only as a star! Just that sometimes, when Moon looks the same from everywhere, powerful roars can be heard in the neighborhood. At the same time scary and sad, this calls will never get an answer.