LAHORE: The Punjab wildlife authorities confiscated a lion duo from the back side of a pet shop at R-Block of Johar Town on Monday.

The wildlife authorities were tipped about the presence of lions [a male and a female]. The wildlife team arrested the owner of the pet shop named Sunny. According to the wildlife officials, he would be presented before a magistrate on Tuesday (today). The lion duo has been shifted to Lahore Zoo and would be kept in quarantine for some time.

Hassan Ali Sukhera, director of Lahore Zoo and head of special wildlife squad, told Dawn that the lioness was eight to 10 months old and lion some one and a half years of age. “The market price of the pair is Rs1.5 million.”

He said according to [big cat] guidelines, the cage of a lion should be 500 square metrea whereas the cage size at the pet shop was just 12 square metre.

Published in Dawn, June 18th, 2019