An international team of veterinarians of the Four Paws Foundation is looking at the lions at the zoo in Razgrad today. The Animal Action is part of an agreement between the organization and the mayor of the municipality, Dr. Valentin Vassilev, to improve the conditions for the animals in the zoo, explained Yavor Gechev of the Four Paws Foundation, quoted by bTV.

Five adult lions are grown in the Razgrad Zoo. Gechev specified that the medical examination of the animals has never been legal. He pointed out that the team of specialists will carry out a thorough examination of the animals to see if they suffer from illnesses that require treatment or other medical intervention.

The males will be vasectomized to prevent the possibility of proliferation. A complete ultrasound of the animals will be done, and the eyes of each animal will be examined as well.

Lion Asen tomorrow will be transported to Sofia, where he will be subjected to a full scan. According to Gechev, the animal has problems with bones, probably rickets. The lion will be temporarily placed in the zoo in Sofia, where he will remain under constant surveillance until his condition allows him to be transported to one of the foundation for big cats.

Aside from Lion Asen, two more lions from the zoo will be sent to shelters of the Four Paws Foundation or partner organizations. Only the younger couple of male and female lions will remain in Razgrad, Yavor Gechev commented. At the beginning of the new year, both small lions, who were born in September in the zoo in Razgrad, will be leaving at a rescue center for animals abroad. Currently they are under the care of specialists in a veterinary clinic in Sofia, they are in good health and soon will be vaccinated, added Gechev.

He commented that the conditions for raising lions in the Razgrad Zoo are not good.

"There is no enrichment of the environment, the animals you see are not active during the day, that is, they do not create conditions for them to be active, on the other hand the zoo itself, in order to meet the legal requirements, has to fulfill many more conditions," added Gechev.

However, according to a study by the Four Paws Foundation the situation in zoos in the country is bad, many of them do not meet the legal requirements. According to Gechev, the Ministry of Environment and Water, as a control body, must "press" those municipalities that do not want to bring their zoos into the relevant requirements or close them or find another solution.

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