Frida’s Story

On 11 of June 2005 a lion cub was born in a zoo in Romania.

Bogdan Popescu of Radio Total, a broadcast radio station from Romania, bought the new born lion cub from the zoo, not for any commercial purpose, but out of kindness, in the hope of providing the baby lion with a life in the wild, free, instead of one in a cage not much bigger than her. They knew nothing about bringing up lions or the complexities of re-locating them back to Africa. To find Frida the right place, they got in touch with Ioana Tomescu, Executive Director of Vier Pfoten Romania (Four Paws), an animal welfare organisation, who assured them that they had relocated lions to South Africa before and that they could make all the arrangements to re-locate Frida back to Africa. The Popescu’s were elated. Their cub was going to set free. 

On Monday 5th December 2005 Frida was flown to South Africa, and here the story should end, but sadly not. Frida is now incarcerated on a commercial lion breeding farm. The owners of this farm have publicly admitted to being involved in the hunting of captive bred lions.

Unfortunately, factory farming lions in captivity and then making these human imprinted animals available for target practice is legal in South Africa. Every animal welfare organisation in the world knows this.

Subsequent investigations into the circumstances surrounding Frida’s relocation have uncovered a number of issues that indicate glaring incompetence on the part of Four Paws, or worse.

During the time that the Popescu’s were battling to rear Frida in a flat, Four Paws offered little support or expertise. The Popescu’s were left to deal with the complexities of rearing a lion cub and obtaining all the necessary permits on their own, the only contact they had with the animal welfare organisation was enquiries as to when they would have all the paperwork ready! The Popescu’s paid all cost relating to permits and all the airfreight costs.

On 20 May 2003, Andreas Sax (Campaign Director of Four Paws) made enquiries to an animal welfare activist in South Africa, in connection with the very same person who Four Paws sent Frida to in South Africa. Mr Sax says “news about his reputation are quite ambiguous to say the least”. The reply Mr Sax received states “We would not recommend that you deal with this person, who is regarded in animal welfare circles with suspicion owing to his links to people in the canned hunting industry”.

Despite this, Ms Tomescu used this same person to arrange a home for Frida in South Africa.

The Wildlife Action Group of South Africa contacted Ms Tomescu in July 2005 and offered to help with finding a suitable placement for Frida. Their offer was ignored.

The Born Free Foundation (UK) was in contact with Ms Tomescu in late November 2005, and appealed to her not to send Frida to her intended destination. Born Free supplied Ms Tomescu with ample evidence to dissuade her from sending Frida. Ms Tomescu ignored these pleas and evidence.

Ms Tomescu has remained adamant that she had no prior knowledge of the type of homes she has sent lions to and it would appear that she thinks this should absolve her of any responsibility, in recent correspondence she stated; “from the point of view of my access to information about the places where we've send the lions. I just saw these places, by myself in February 2006 and I honestly shared with you my concern and disagreement for the way animals are managed in those places. Unfortunately all the other information came to me too late”.  Four Paws received warnings as early as 2003, yet we are to believe the “information came too late”.

Born Free at this time also contacted Mr Paul Hart of Drakenstein Lion Park in South Africa, one of the very few safe havens for lions in this country, and asked him if he could accommodate Frida. Mr Hart indicated that he could and immediately informed Ms Tomescu.

Ms Tomescu shared very little of the information supplied to her with the Popescu’s. Shortly before Frida’s flight was due to take off; Ms Tomescu advised the Popescu’s that there “might be a small problem with Frida’s destination” but “that it could be sorted out once Frida got there”. At this time Ms Tomescu informed them of the alternate home at Drakenstein Lion Park.

The Popescu’s quickly investigated the facility Frida had been sent to and were horrified. They demanded that Four Paws relocate Frida to Drakenstein LionPark as soon as possible. 

Ms Tomescu subsequently flew to South Africa, accompanied by a photographer whose sole purpose seemed to be to take photographs for a calendar that Four Paws was planning on producing. After sitting in a lodge with its walls covered in the body parts and skins of dead animals (including lions) at the facility where Frida was being held, Ms Tomescu contacted the Popescu’s in Romania and told them that she considered this location to be the best place for Frida. The Popescu’s were unimpressed.

On her jaunt through South Africa (paid for with Four Paws donor funds?) Ms Tomescu also visited the sight where she had placed four lions in 2002. Here she was shown the mutilated carcass of what is alleged to be one of these lions, which had been killed shortly before her arrival. She was also shown the other three lions as well as their offspring! These lions are “enjoying their free life … in an area of about 100 hectares” according to the Four Paws website, sadly this is not accurate. Interestingly, this page has now been removed from their website and all literature relating to these four lions has disappeared from it.

(Photo – “Tommy”, one of the four lions sent to South Africa in 2002 by Four Paws)

It is ironic that Ms Tomescu’s organisation “rescued” these four lions from a photographer that used them as photographic props in Romania, only to send them to a facility in South Africa that habitually remove lion cubs from their mothers so that they can be used as photographic props! The place she sent these lions to openly advertise that people can “play” with lion cubs, something that should have alerted her to the fact that this home was probably unsuitable, that is, if she actually believes what is printed on Four Paws website. It is hard to understand why anybody in her position would send an animal into an environment where the habitual removal of lion cubs from their lactating mothers, for the express purpose of being used as human playthings, is commonplace. 

 

Ms Tomescu also visited Paul Hart at Drakenstein Lion Park, where she proceeded to offer him tigers, puma’s, cheetah’s, jaguar’s and a guaranteed five lion cubs a year (all expenses paid, plus contributions towards care costs) in what appeared to be an attempt to win his support.

 

One must question why Ms Tomescu has placed lions at facilities involved in the commercial breeding of wildlife.  Captive breeding is a practice that most animal welfare organisations oppose, Four Paws does not seem to share this sentiment, otherwise they would never place lions in captive breeding facilities!

 

Mr Helmut Dungler, Four Paws International Executive Director has been contacted by a number of parties with regards to Frida; the response from him has been less that satisfactory. 

 

Ms Tomescu is still the Executive Director of Four Paws Romania and seems to have faced no form of censure from Four Paws International

 

Ms Tomescu and Dr Khalil (International Project Manager for Four Paws) have recently met with Radio Total and brokered a deal. If Radio Total agrees to break all ties with Drakenstein Lion Park, the location that the Born Free Foundation and other welfare groups as well as the Popescu’s recommended as an alternate home for Frida, and no longer correspond with them or any of the other parties that have been trying to ensure Frida’s transfer, it appears that they can now, after four months of delay, suddenly secure Frida’s release. She will then supposedly be moved to an undisclosed “neutral” location in Egypt or Kenya. One must question what facilities exist in Egypt and whether Kenya will accept a lion cub that has been shipped around the world. How safe will Frida be in Kenya, a country that has recently had an outbreak of avian flu, a deadly virus that is transmittable to cats? How long will it take to arrange all the paperwork and permits required to move Frida to yet another country? To get permits to move Frida to another facility in South Africa is a relatively simple process, to move her to another country is not.

 

One has to wonder what Four Paws is trying to hide. Four Paws seem to have become uncomfortable that Drakenstein Lion Park and other parties have uncovered some very questionable animal transfers that Four Paws have been involved in. Four Paws have cut all communication with Drakenstein Lion Park, perhaps in the hope that this will mean no more questions can be asked with regard to their activities. This is ironic considering that they and Radio Total originally asked Paul Hart to help them. Will their next act be to try to discredit Drakenstein Lion Park? It is extremely likely, considering their rather juvenile and unprofessional response to valid questions that have been posed to them. Four Paws have been provided with ample opportunity to explain their actions and resolve these questions, yet they refuse to do so. Does this organisation, which is funded by the generosity of donor funds, think they are above accountability? 

 

You are urged to contact Four Paws and question their activities and to distribute this email as widely as possible, ask your local press to publish Frida’s story and ask local animal welfare groups in your area to get involved.

 

Four Paws should be able to answer the following:

• Why they did not investigate the homes they sent lions to?
• Why they ignored advice from reputable animal welfare organisations?  
• Why they now insist that Frida is not relocated to the perfectly good home waiting for her at Drakenstein Lion Park?
• They should also disclose what country and to what facility they plan to ship this poor lion to next.
• They should also readily disclose information about all animals they have sent to South Africa and the whereabouts of these animals.

amir.khalil@vier-pfoten.org, helmut.dungler@vier-pfoten.org, office@vier-pfoten.at, office@vier-pfoten.de, office@vier-pfoten.ch,  negymancs@invitel.hu, office@vier-voeters.nl

If you are a Romanian citizen and have donated money to Vier Pfoten, then you should follow up to see how your funds have been employed.   Seeking donor funds to rescue animals and then sending them to commercial breeding farms is undeniably a misappropriation of donor’s funds.  It is also irresponsible and unethical.