Wildlife department confiscates pet lions, tigers from Karachi resident

In this photograph taken on Feb. 28, 2018, lions are pictured in their cage at the Karachi Zoo in Karachi. (AFP/File)

• Media reported panic among Gulshan-e-Hadeed residents on Tuesday after they saw the animals roaming freely within a compound
• Owner Zuhaib Ali says he has raised the imported pets since they were two months old, “they cannot harm anyone”

KARACHI: The Sindh wildlife department on Thursday ordered to confiscate four lions and two tigers, kept as pets by a resident of Karachi and seen roaming freely in a compound, a senior official said on Wednesday.
Keeping wild cats as pets is not uncommon in Pakistan, where wealthy businessmen have been known to operate private zoos and sometimes parade the animals for the public.
Media reported panic and alarm among citizens of the port city’s Gulshan-e-Hadeed area on Tuesday night after they saw the animals uncaged and roaming freely within a compound.
“I have ordered to confiscate the animals and shift them to Karachi Zoo for 45 days. The owner of the animals may auction them during this period. If he doesn’t do it, however, they will become the property of the zoo,” Javed Ahmed Mahar, conservator of the Sindh Wildlife Department, told Arab News after passing the order in the capacity of a magistrate.
The order noted that the “act of possessing ‘Big Cats’ without the ‘Certificate of Lawful Possession’ was bad in the eyes of Law” and keeping dangerous animals in a residential area “could put lives of people at great risk.”
“As requested by the owner during the proceedings and keeping in view the financial aspect of this case and to save the owner from heavy financial losses, he has been provided with a chance during this period [of 45 days] to publish an advertisement in newspapers for the sale of lions through open auction,” the order read, adding that the owner would pay the feeding expenses to the Karachi Zoo, though the animal sanctuary would not take any rental or other charges.
Speaking to Arab News on Thursday, Mahar said the owner of the animals, Zuhaib Ali, had presented an expired license before the department this morning, adding that the license only gave permission to maintain a mini-zoo with birds and herbivores, not dangerous animals like lions and tigers. The license also did not apply to Ali’s area of residence, the conservator added. 
Ali told Arab News one lion had come out of its cage when a janitor went in to clean it but was immediately put back in.
“These are my pet animals which I have adopted since these were two-months old, they cannot harm anyone,” Ali said, adding that he believed he had all necessary documentation allowing him to keep the animals in any area with thirty-feet high boundary walls.
“These are like my children,” Ali said. “If these are freed in the wild, they will die.” 
In 2017, police in Pakistan arrested a man who took his pet lion for a night-time drive through the streets of the bustling city of Karachi after video of the incident went viral on social media.
In 2015, a pet lioness gave birth to five cubs in the central city of Multan, media said at the time.