It's Ridiculous and Disgraceful: Outrage over Video of Malnourished Lions Left for Dead Inside OAU Zoo
Reactions in manifold have continued to trail disturbing video and photos of starved lions left for dead inside the zoological garden of one of Nigeria's leading university, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), located in Ile-Ife Osun state.
PAY ATTENTION: Legit.ng is on a mission to support vulnerable children of Calabar – join the initiative on Patreon, let’s change more lives together!
Many Nigerians have been calling for the "release and rescue" of the malnourished lions, with a teeming legion of social media users berating the management of the university and describing the development as "disgraceful and absurd."
Source: Twitter
Following the reactions to the photos, e had on Wednesday, April 14, called the attention of Nigerians, Nigeria Park Service (NPS) and National Geographic Wild (Nat Geo Wild), a TV channel about nature and animals, to the terrible state of the lionss.
The user, who expressed concern after visiting the OAU zoo, said he "saw starved animals" looking "helpless on the ground."
"I visited OAU's zoo today! I saw starved animals! I was moved as they laid helpless on the ground," he said.
"On behalf of these animals, I protest, please if you can't take care of them, do well to return them to the wild where they can fend for themselves.”
The tweet has since been generating outrage across social media platforms, with OAU zoo management dragged back and forth for being "always careless."
Legit's findings
Following the reactions to the photo, Legit.ng launched an investigation by contacting some of the students of the institution to confirm if the pictures making rounds on social media were true.
Those who spoke with this publication confirmed the heart-wrenching state of the lions, fearing that the animals may die if not rescued or properly attended to by the management.
One of the students, a medical science student who demanded that his identity be protected, told Legit.ng:
"Yes, it's OAU zoo. OAU is just careless with stuff. It's ridiculous, absurd and disgraceful for a school like OAU to keep an animal in her zoo and the animal isn't well fed.
"In saner climes, a university should be a centre for learning, research and tourism. As a matter of fact, there's nothing encouraging in what OAU calls zoo. They should rather probably eradicate the zoo completely or do better in the management of the zoo."
Nigerians react
Funmi Omosuyi said:
"Most of the animals there are starved especially the giraffe and yet they collect money for touring the zoo."
Another social media user, Divine Charles, also submitted:
"They should leave them let them go back to the wild so they can feed for themselves."
A tweep with the name That Person also submitted:
"This is horrible to see. Unbearable! If there's no money to run the zoo and feed the animals, please, please and please shut it down. Stop torturing animals under the guise of running a zoo."
Kemi Raji added:
"Lions are also feeling the heat like the poor citizens. Our leaders are wicked, they even refused to show love to the lions. Wicked people everywhere."
PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read the best news on Nigeria’s #1 news app
Meanwhile, Legit.ng reported in a related story that Garett Talcott, a kindergarten teacher from the US, became an overnight sensation after he was seen taking his pupils on a field trip virtually.
He only needed two things; his backpack and laptop. With that, Garett left for the zoo and made sure all his learners attended the lesson.
Then, the 31-year-old walked around the Woodland Park Zoo as he pointed at a couple of animals and gave few details about them.
Source: Legit.ng
