A 50-year-old man, Aqil Fakhr al-Din, and a resident of Kufa, Iraq, was mauled to death by his pet lion only days after purchasing it.
The attack happened last Thursday, with the lion devouring most of his body in the garden of his home.
He had for years kept lions and other wild animals in his garden, and earlier this month, he purchased another lion to tame.
“The wildcat pounced on al-Din and bit his neck and chest while he approached its cage,” a source told Al-Ghad newspaper.
Al-Din’s neighbour heard the man’s screams and attempted to save him by shooting the lion with a Kalashnikov rifle, otherwise called an AK-47. He killed the lion after firing at it seven times, according to the Shafaq News Agency.
Footage on social media, seen by Metro, shows the lion lying in a pool of blood on the grass. Cages can be seen in the back of the garden.
Al-Din’s body was taken to Al-Sadr Medical City Hospital in Najaf. A police investigation has been launched.
“The lion was put down by the authorities because it refused to leave the remains,” the force told the Rudaw news network.
Iraq has long struggled with illegal wildlife trafficking, an issue exacerbated by war, a lack of regulation and the high price tags such animals have.
Poachers and smugglers capture endangered and vulnerable animals, from Egyptian vultures and marbled ducks to lion cubs and otters, to sell in animal markets.
Many of the animals have been imported from places such as Africa or Thailand, drugged and wrapped in cling film or crammed into crates to get through customs.
Zoos act as bazaars for the wild species trade, a report by Nature Iraq found. Easily able to obtain permits to legally receive and maintain exotic species, zookeepers then resell the animals to other zoos or individuals.
The animals are kept in filthy conditions, with a high mortality rate present in many zoos across Iraq, the environmental conservation group said.
Iraq signed the Convention on the Protection of Animals in 2014, a Council of Europe treaty that promotes animal welfare.
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